Santa Ana residents’ objections could lead to smaller 2525 N. Main St. project

It took several hundred speakers and nearly nine hours of discussion over two meetings, but residents who rallied to object to a 476-unit apartment complex proposed on Main Street in Santa Ana have won at least a partial victory.

Ryan Ogulnick, developer of the project at 2525 N. Main St., offered late Tuesday, Feb. 19, during a City Council meeting to cut down the number of units and the height of the apartment building and parking garage, hoping to address some of the biggest objections to his plans.

Exactly what changes will be made and how neighbors will receive them remain to be hashed out in coming months. What’s certain is 2525 Main won’t be built as densely or as tall as previously planned. Ogulnick is expected to work with city planning staff and residents before bringing a revised project back to the Planning Commission.

City Council members heard comments from nearly 200 people, many of them residents of Park Santiago, a single-family home community that abuts the project site.

A vacant office building and parking lot now occupy the 5.93-acre lot across from the Discovery Cube. Ogulnick would need a zoning change to build luxury apartments with amenities such as a dog park and fitness center.

Residents’ main concerns were the height and density of the project. A city report had described the apartments as five stories and a mezzanine level at the tallest point, but city staff conceded Tuesday the tallest part of the residential portion would be 78 feet – which is closer to a typical seven stories – and the parking structure topped by a rooftop pool deck would clear 95 feet.

Residents said the complex would tower over their neighborhood, clog surrounding streets with traffic and its new residents would cause parking headaches. One person called the project a “monstrosity.”

“We’re not against progress,” Patty Maize told the council. “We just oppose this project because of what it does to our neighborhood.”

People representing business groups and construction trade unions were among those who urged support for the project, saying the jobs and homes are both needed in the region. Some who spoke even said they’d like the opportunity to live in the complex someday.

“The people that you’re hearing from (opposing the project) already have housing,” said Elizabeth Hansburg of People for Housing Orange County, an advocacy group. “But what about the people that are going to come after them?”

The council appeared to take the arguments of both sides to heart, giving the developer a chance to scale down the project to something residents might accept. Near the end of the meeting, Ogulnick proposed “significant changes” such as reducing the project from 476 apartments to about 385 to 395 units and lowering the tallest part of the project by up to 40 feet.

“The difficult job for all of us is to make sure that we are balancing everybody’s interests,” Councilman Vicente Sarmiento said, adding that to ensure the property isn’t a neighborhood blight, “something has to go there. It can’t be a dormant site.”