Santa Ana City Council
April 1, 2025

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
On April 16, 2024, the City Council adopted a 45-day moratorium on the approval, commencement, establishment, relocation, or expansion of industrial uses within the Transit Zoning Code/Specific Development (SD) No. 84 Zoning District through adoption of Urgency Interim Ordinance No. NS-3063. The purpose of the moratorium was to immediately offer protection of public health, safety, and welfare from industrial uses significantly causing pollution burden to adjacent residential neighborhoods within the SD84 Zoning District. On May 7, 2024, the City Council issued a report to the public, pursuant to Section 65858(d) of the California Government Code, describing the City’s measures to alleviate conditions that led to the adoption of the moratorium. On May 21, 2024, the City Council adopted Ordinance No. NS-3064 to extend the moratorium for an additional ten (10) months and fifteen (15) days pursuant to the Government Code as necessary to provide sufficient time for staff to continue with data tracking and reporting, research appropriate regulations, and coordinate with outside regulatory agencies and City departments to determine whether further, permanent action is necessary and to generate recommendations to the Planning Commission and City Council.

Based upon this City Council direction, and the research and analysis of the issues herein, staff has prepared Ordinances amending certain sections of Chapter 41 (Zoning) of the Santa Ana Municipal Code (SAMC), Article XIX. The Transit Zoning Code/Specific Development (SD) No. 84 Zoning District. The first Ordinance proposes amendments that would modify the list of land uses and permit types, including the deletion of industrial land uses; amend nonconforming regulations, including the addition of an amortization process/termination of use process; amend and add operational standards for allowed uses and nonconforming uses; and delete the Industrial Overlay (I-OZ) zone from text and maps. The second Ordinance deletes the M1 (Light Industrial) and M2 (Heavy Industrial) suffixes from certain properties within the SD-84 Zoning District boundary as designated on the City of Santa Ana Zoning Map.

DISCUSSION
The Transit Zoning Code/Specific Development No. 84
The Specific Development (SD) No. 84 Zoning District, also known as the Transit Zoning Code (TZC), is located in the central urban core of the City and comprises over 100 blocks and 450 acres. The TZC includes the Civic Center, Downtown, and the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods, which are among the City’s most historic in age and as established residential communities. The TZC is generally bounded by First Street, Flower Street, Civic Center Drive, Grand Avenue, and the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway. Prior to the implementation of the TZC, the area consisted of a wide range of civic, commercial, industrial, and residential land uses regulated by varying zoning districts.

In June 2010, the City Council adopted Ordinance No. NS-2804, creating the TZC, which purpose was to establish a transit-supportive, pedestrian-oriented development framework to support the addition of new transit infrastructure; preserve and reinforce the Planning Commission 1 – 132 3/6/2025
City Council 22 – 534 4/1/2025
ZOA No. 2024-02 & AA No. 2024-03 (Transit Zoning Code Amendments) February 24, 2025

existing character and pedestrian nature of the City by strengthening urban form through improved development and design standards; encourage alternative modes of transportation; provide for a range of housing options; and allow for the reuse of existing structures. In July 2019, the City Council adopted Ordinance No. NS-2970, amending the TZC to modify certain design criteria regulating height, massing, open space location, driveway standards, lot dimensions, and parking alternatives. The amendment did not include changes to land uses or permit types within the TZC.

When originally adopted, the TZC provided new zoning for all properties contained within its boundary. However, some properties with existing M1 and M2 zoning and/or exiting industrial businesses, also received an overlay district designation which allowed for the continuation of industrial land uses on those properties. The development of mixed-use on these properties consistent with the new zoning they received as part of the TZC adoption is at the discretion of the property owner. In support of the TZC, the City Council also approved a General Plan amendment, establishing numerous mixed-use General Plan land use designations for the entirety of the TZC. However, due to the continued application of the industrial overlay zones within the TZC, the implementation of the new General Plan land use designations immediately resulted in zoning inconsistencies and land use conflicts with the new General Plan.

Since establishment of the TZC, and specifically in the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods, industrial uses have remained, changed ownership, undergone expansions or intensifications, and have continued to create numerous land use conflicts and disturbances that affect surrounding residential communities. Specifically, in the Logan neighborhood alone, these land uses create quality of life, health and safety, and other trespass issues for residential properties that often directly abut these industrial land uses. These issues include odors, dust, traffic, noise, vibrations, and other documented impacts that have taken place for nearly a decade and a half despite the change to the new General Plan land use designations.

Historically Disadvantaged Communities and Senate Bill (SB) 1000 Prior to the adoption of the TZC, the City permitted industrial uses within the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods in close proximity to sensitive land uses such as residences and schools. The Logan neighborhood represents one of Orange County’s oldest barrios, established as early as 1886, and was one of the few areas where Mexicans and those of Mexican descent could purchase land due to racially restrictive covenants during the first half of the 20th century. Further, as a neighborhood, the area was established before the modern practice of separating or regulating impactful land uses, also known as zoning. The Logan neighborhood itself was largely settled by 1900, before the practice of zoning was enshrined by Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co. in 1926. By that time, the neighborhood contained a mix of residential, industrial, commercial, and related land uses, in some cases side-by-side, with issues further exacerbated by rail lines, fuel storage depots, and the construction of the Santa Ana Freeway (I-5) between 1947 and 1956.

Planning Commission 1 – 133 3/6/2025
City Council 22 – 535 4/1/2025
ZOA No. 2024-02 & AA No. 2024-03 (Transit Zoning Code Amendments) February 24, 2025

Comprehensive data analysis and mapping tools generated by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) and California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA), the Center for Diseases Control/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (CDC/ATSDR), the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and California Healthy Places Index (HPI) reveal concerning information regarding environmental conditions impacting residents in the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods. Recent CalEnviroScreen 4.0 data confirms that these neighborhoods rank at 90 percent or above among California’s most pollution-burdened communities, with Environmental Justice (EJ) maps showing higher exposure to Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5, Air Toxics Cancer Risk, Hazardous Waste Proximity, Diesel Particulate Matter, and Toxic Releases to Air. This information is included as Exhibit 4 to this staff report. These multiple sources of environmental exposure and pollution burden communities of color, including the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods, present an alarming set of challenges that affect residents’ quality of life and life expectancy with continued heavy industrial uses nearby.

Senate Bill (SB) 1000 went into effect in 2016, requiring local governments to address pollution and other hazards that disproportionately impact low-income and communities of color within their jurisdiction to proactively plan for and address environmental concerns when developing and updating components of the General Plan. The City and community worked to ensure that the new General Plan included SB 1000 requirements of addressing EJ through facilitating transparency and public engagement in the planning and decision-making processes, reducing harmful pollutants and the associated health risks in disadvantaged communities, and promoting equitable access to health-inducing benefits such as healthy housing options. Of note, the City’s new General Plan mixeduse land use designations in the TZC area were largely left intact, including those in the Lacy and Logan neighborhoods, when the General Plan Update was adopted in 2022.

Environmental Justice/Disadvantaged Communities (DACs) Profile: Logan and Lacy Neighborhood Impacts
For the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods, incompatible land uses allowed from past zoning decisions, including the industrial overlay zones, have perpetuated the practices of locating industrial uses or other noxious and unwanted uses near communities of color.

The Logan and Lacy neighborhoods have a population of 5,907 within 1,564 households, a median household income of $56,864, average household size of nearly four persons, median age 27 years, and per-capita income of $23,495. Seventy-four percent are renteroccupied units based on demographic forecasts for 2023. Nearly 25 percent of the population is under 14 years of age and 14 percent are 55 years of age and older. Nearly three percent of the population attended up to 12th grade with no diploma, over 31 percent Planning Commission 1 – 134 3/6/2025
City Council 22 – 536 4/1/2025
ZOA No. 2024-02 & AA No. 2024-03 (Transit Zoning Code Amendments) February 24, 2025

are high school graduates, and nearly 97 percent of the working population over 16 years of age are employed.1
These data illustrate that the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods are within the second and third highest scored census tracts in Santa Ana, each with a composite score of 90 percent or greater, ranking in the 90th percentile or greater of census tracts in the State, and identified as “disadvantaged communities” by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) in its CalEnviroScreen model. Failure to address ongoing irreconcilable land use conflicts that are the target of this moratorium will further exacerbate the ongoing demographic and environmental justice challenges that these two neighborhoods within the TZC have grappled with since their founding.

Code Enforcement and Immediate Ongoing Issues
In the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods within the TZC, the Code Enforcement Division has investigated over 35 commercial and industrial properties in the past 12 months and currently has 16 active open cases that have been issued Notice of Violations and administrative citations for the following types of violations: illegal storage, land use, zoning, property and landscape maintenance, unpermitted work, business license, and certificate of occupancy. These violations include issues of odors, dust, traffic, noise, vibrations, and other documented impacts. The proximity of active open industrial cases during a short period is creating a public nuisance that is harming public health, safety, and general welfare of the two residential neighborhoods from the concentration of open code enforcement cases nearby.

Since June 2023, the TZC communities have experienced a marked increase in impacts stemming from the irreconcilable industrial and residential land use conflicts in the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods. Residents in the TZC have voiced and emailed complaints and public health concerns to City staff regarding emitted contaminants and zoning violations from industrial businesses in the neighborhoods. Concerns that range from air pollution and smoke, toxic release exposures, idling trucks on residential streets, lead exposure, illegal storage, unpermitted uses, loud noise at night, and other property maintenance pose an immediate public health threat that is straining public resources to continuously investigate and address these matters. Specifically, a fire incident at a crematory located in the neighborhood alarmed neighbors at 9:18 p.m. on August 29, 2023. Residents shared with City officials’ video of high flames escaping the stack on the rooftop, screeching noise that continued nonstop for ten minutes, and what was described as a foul odor attributed to the fire. As City staff followed up with external regulatory agencies issuing permits to operate this facility, and quickly, staff observed the limitations from regulatory agencies and their compartmentalized processes to investigate and act on enforcement measures. On August 9, 2024, the City received a complaint with photos of 1 ESRI Community Analyst summary data, which utilizes U.S. Census Bureau sources (2017-2021 American Community Survey & 2020 Decennial Census Data), enhanced by ESRI’s forecasts and aggregations, covering demographics like population, income, age, and employment.

Planning Commission 1 – 135 3/6/2025
City Council 22 – 537 4/1/2025
ZOA No. 2024-02 & AA No. 2024-03 (Transit Zoning Code Amendments) February 24, 2025

the the same crematory in which the complainant observed bodies stored in a container outside the facility. A City code enforcement inspector issued an abatement notice that same day; the bodies and container were removed and the case was closed on August 13, 2024 by code enforcement staff.

Since 2022, the City has enhanced community services by restructuring its Planning Division to contain a Neighborhood Initiatives and Environmental Services (NIES) section, which oversees, among other functions, environmental justice efforts in Santa Ana and regional coordination to address such issues. Staff encountered difficulty in achieving desired enforcement outcomes with external regulatory agencies such as South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), California Department of Consumer Affairs Cemetery and Funeral Bureau (CFB), and Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA) with several heavy industrial business operators in the TZC. This is supported through internal correspondence and phone conversations with staff from these agencies to understand their investigation and compliance processes. To address issues of industrial operators, including recycling and waste processing facilities near schools and residential areas, the City adopted new regulations such as a Noxious Uses Ordinance (Ordinance No. NS3044, adopted June 20, 2023) to include a notification requirement to the City by the property owner to obtain a permit from a regulatory public agency; a requirement of a 1,000 linear foot distance buffer measured from the outermost boundary of the subject property; and a conditional use permit requirement from a regulatory public agency to handle, store, emit, or discharge particulate materials, exhaust emissions, or regulated compounds, or chemicals near a public park, school (K-12), or property zoned for residential purposes.

City staff have also researched commercial real estate acquisition data and current forsale properties to identify any trends that could potentially generate an increase in the application of the City’s Noxious Uses Ordinance for proposed or expanded industrial uses. From September 2022 to date, 15 properties (six commercial, three office, and six industrial businesses) sold. Three of those businesses (800-808 E. Washington Avenue, 1045 N. Fuller Street, and 923 N. Logan Street) are located in the Logan neighborhood.

Currently, multi-tenant industrial and manufacturing warehouse spaces on the market for lease located in the TZC.

Recent City Council Actions and Direction to Address TZC Land Use Conflicts On April 16, 2024, the City Council adopted a 45-day moratorium on the approval, commencement, establishment, relocation, or expansion of industrial uses within the TZC through adoption of Urgency Interim Ordinance No. NS-3063. The purpose of the moratorium was to immediately offer protection of public health, safety, and welfare from industrial uses significantly causing pollution burden to adjacent residential neighborhoods within the TZC.

On May 7, 2024, the City Council issued a report to the public, pursuant to Section 65858(d) of the California Government Code, describing the City’s measures to alleviate conditions that led to the adoption of the moratorium.

Planning Commission 1 – 136 3/6/2025
City Council 22 – 538 4/1/2025
ZOA No. 2024-02 & AA No. 2024-03 (Transit Zoning Code Amendments) February 24, 2025

On May 21, 2024, the City Council adopted Ordinance No. NS-3064 to extend the moratorium for an additional ten (10) months and fifteen (15) days pursuant to the Government Code as necessary to provide sufficient time for staff to continue with data tracking and reporting, research appropriate regulations, and coordinate with outside regulatory agencies and City departments to determine whether further, permanent action is necessary and to generate recommendations to the Planning Commission and City Council. As part of its approval, the City Council expressed a desire for City staff to begin evaluating permanent solutions to the irreconcilable land use conflicts in the TZC area in as timely a manner as possible, which resulted in immediate evaluation of the zoning code text and map amendments consistent with direction provided for City Council consideration as part of this request.

Review of City Department Activities
Immediately following the adoption of the Moratorium, City staff conducted an interagency meeting that included representatives from multiple City departments: the Planning Division, Building Safety Division, Code Enforcement Division, Business License, and Information Technology. Additionally, engagement with additional agencies such as the Santa Ana Police Department (SAPD), Public Works Agency, and the Community Development Agency’s Economic Development Division has produced critical information illustrating the extent to which industrial activities interface with residential land uses in the TZC area, specifically and most concentrated in the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods.

Data based on Business License and Economic Development records indicate that application of the moratorium affects approximately 127 industrial businesses in the TZC.

All businesses must obtain appropriate permits before operating: commercial locations require a Certificate of Occupancy from the Planning Department, while residential-based operations need a Home Occupation Permit. Of the affected businesses, approximately three have active applications for permits, primarily seeking to legalize unpermitted work on industrial properties.

City staff reviewed public safety data from SAPD and OCFA to assess community concerns regarding emergency responses in the TZC. SAPD records show a total of 18,736 calls for service between March 2023 and July 2024, with 226 of those occurring between April and July 2024 within the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods. These calls encompassed a wide range of incidents, including patrol checks, disturbances, and trafficrelated issues. Notably, 1,909 calls involved collisions, vehicle impoundments, domestic violence, and SAMC violations. OCFA data from 2022 to August 2024 indicates 238 calls for advanced life support emergencies. In 2022, 29 calls were related to respiratory issues, chest pain, and cardiac arrest, with a subsequent 7-percent increase in healthrelated calls in 2023. While the data reflects a broad spectrum of emergency responses, the concentration of industrial businesses in the TZC raises the possibility that some of these calls, particularly those related to respiratory issues and traffic incidents, may be influenced by industrial operations. Further analysis is needed to determine the specific correlation between industrial activity and public safety concerns in the area.

Planning Commission 1 – 137 3/6/2025
City Council 22 – 539 4/1/2025
ZOA No. 2024-02 & AA No. 2024-03 (Transit Zoning Code Amendments) February 24, 2025

OCFA data for 2024 reported 312 service calls in the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods. A substantial majority, exceeding 250, were EMS-related, indicating a high demand for emergency medical services. Other incidents included traffic and pedestrian accidents, fire responses (including unauthorized burning and a brush fire), and alarm activations.

Some calls were cancelled or resulted in 'no incident found,' suggesting potential areas for improved dispatch accuracy. The volume and variety of these calls highlight the impact of the area's mixed land use, where dense residential areas, commercial activity, and industrial operations contribute to a wide range of emergency response needs.

Currently, City staff have an internal process established which tracks and monitors incoming notice of compliance and notice of violations given to a particular business/operator. City Code Enforcement activities and implementation of the City’s Noxious Uses Ordinance continue being monitored at these facilities. Code Enforcement staff data reports show enforcement activity beyond the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods within the TZC, where at the time of adoption of the moratorium, 16 active open cases were issued Notice of Violations and administrative citations for the following types of violations:
illegal storage, land use, zoning, property and landscape maintenance, unpermitted work, business license, and certificate of occupancy. Such violations include issues of odors, dust, traffic, noise, vibrations, and other documented impacts. Recent code enforcement complaints on properties in the Logan neighborhood involve complaints for recurring unpermitted work and land use violations that involve large commercial vehicles blocking street access and impacting nearby residents. Code Enforcement Division follow-up has resulted in larger administrative citations, continued enforcement, and onsite meetings with business owners.

Currently, 21 open code enforcement violations or compliance reviews from industrial businesses are recorded with the City of Santa Ana, underscoring the need for close monitoring within the TZC area. The profile highlights the critical role of regulatory agencies in overseeing these businesses to mitigate potential environmental and public health risks.

Review of Records and Activities of External Agencies
Data from outside regulatory agencies assist City staff in further understanding activities between external regulatory agencies and industrial businesses that may place additional impacts on public health, safety, and welfare in affected neighborhoods adjacent to industrial businesses in the TZC. This information would enable City staff to understand the correlation and environmental burdens that may be attributed to permitted activities for industrial businesses in historically environmentally disadvantaged communities, specifically the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods.

On April 25, 2024, City staff initiated public records requests from outside regulatory agencies, such as the South Coast Air Quality Monitoring District (SCAQMD), Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board (SARWQCB), the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), and others responsible for issuing specific types of permits for industrial uses in the TZC. Such agencies are responsible for permit issuance, compliance activities, Planning Commission 1 – 138 3/6/2025
City Council 22 – 540 4/1/2025
ZOA No. 2024-02 & AA No. 2024-03 (Transit Zoning Code Amendments) February 24, 2025

and/or monitoring hazardous clean-up sites, or other industrial facility-related activities for sites located within the TZC.

The City has responses to its Public Records Act request from SCAQMD, the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board (SARWQB), and the Orange County Environmental Health Division Certified Unified Program Agency (CUPA). Records show SCAQMD issued two notices to comply with one industrial business on August 2023 and April 2024 for failure to maintain records, such as temperature graphs, poundage logs, and source test data. SCAQMD issued several permits to construct and to operate to the new operator of this same facility, which is currently in compliance with SCAQMD. Two notices of violation to one industrial business for operating a paint spray booth without a valid permit to operate from SCAQMD.

The report from the SARWQCB from 2023 shows five (5) active industrial businesses in the TZC that were in violation of their permit for providing a late report or incomplete and/or insufficient information for their Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SPPP).

Public records from the Certified Unified Program Agency (CUPA) for Orange County, spanning 2022-2024, reveal a pattern of non-compliance with environmental and hazardous materials regulations among industrial businesses within the TZC. While some 2023 violations related to Hazardous Material Business Plan staff training and reporting were later corrected, current records indicate four businesses still have multiple open violations. These ongoing issues include non-compliance with documentation for hazardous waste transportation and disposal, as well as deficiencies in industrial stormwater reporting requirements. Notably, records from 2022-2024 show repeated failures to submit required stormwater reports and deficiencies in hazardous waste management and emergency response planning, including missing documentation and training. These violations highlight potential risks to public health and the environment.

The proposed amendments for the TZC aim to strengthen the City's land use regulatory oversight, providing a necessary tool to address these deficiencies and safeguard the health, safety, and welfare of the TZC community.

Air emission complaints continue to be reported to SCAQMD. These complaints included one involving black smoke and another regarding unpermitted soil vapor extraction equipment onsite. SCAQMD staff has clarified that for air quality complaints they receive, their inspector is required to be physically present to observe the activity from the facility described in the complaint to determine if the complaint warrants further investigation or enforcement action in accordance with SCAQMD Rules 401 (Visible Emissions), 402 (Public Nuisance), and 403 (Fugitive Dust). Therefore, although community members continue to share concerns with City and SCAQMD staff, the turnaround time for an SCAQMD inspector to be physically present at an SCAQMD-permitted facility to investigate an air quality complaint, especially if a complaint is reported after working hours or on weekends, is ineffective in addressing the immediate needs of the community.

Planning Commission 1 – 139 3/6/2025
City Council 22 – 541 4/1/2025
ZOA No. 2024-02 & AA No. 2024-03 (Transit Zoning Code Amendments) February 24, 2025

Public Outreach
Following City Council's extension of the SD-84 TZC Moratorium on May 21, 2024, the Planning and Building Agency has been developing proposed regulations for the TZC district, encompassing the Downtown, Lacy, and Logan neighborhoods. This effort includes updates to permitted uses (including the removal of industrial uses), operational standards, non-conforming use regulations (including a new amortization process), and reflects ongoing input from affected business owners, residents, community stakeholders, and industrial/commercial brokers gathered since July 2024, including a Community Information Meeting on October 22, 2024, and culminating in a series of meetings through February 20, 2025.

The draft amendments to the TZC were released to the public on January 15, 2025, and were made available on the City’s Moratorium webpage. These amendments address the permitted uses table, nonconforming regulations, amortization, and operational standards, and are designed to prepare for the TZC Moratorium's expiration on April 15, 2025. Staff met with business owners and brokers on January 30, 2025, to discuss the draft regulations and met with the Lacy and Logan neighborhoods meeting on February 19, 2025, and again with a focus group of industrial businesses on February 20, 2025. Staff have continued to update the TZC (SD-84) Moratorium project webpage with additional updates, including the Study Session and Public Hearing Notice and recent Planning Commission’s Study Session PowerPoint presentation.

City staff have also prepared two Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) documents to clarify information regarding the Moratorium, affected businesses, the proposed zoning amendments, legal concerns, community engagement, and opportunities to participate in the public hearing process. The first FAQ became available prior to the City’s project informational meeting on October 22, 2024, and the second FAQ is included with this staff report (Exhibit 5).

Current Code and Proposed Amendments to Text, Figures and Maps Based upon the City Council’s actions and direction enacting the moratorium combined with the research and analysis of the issues herein, staff has prepared the proposed zoning ordinance (ZOA No. 2024-02) and zoning map (AA No. 2024-03) amendments. The proposed amendments would modify the list of land uses and permit types including the deletion of industrial land uses; amend nonconforming regulations including the addition of an amortization/termination of use process; amend and add operational standards for allowed uses and nonconforming uses; delete the Industrial Overlay (I-OZ) zone from text and maps; and delete the M1 (Light Industrial) and M2 (Heavy Industrial) suffixes from certain properties within the TZC boundary as designated on the City of Santa Ana Zoning Map.

Planning Commission 1 – 140 3/6/2025
City Council 22 – 542 4/1/2025
ZOA No. 2024-02 & AA No. 2024-03 (Transit Zoning Code Amendments) February 24, 2025

Table 1: ZOA No. 2024-02 Current and Proposed Text Regulations Code Section Title Existing Zoning Code Regulations Proposed Zoning Code Regulations Application of Article SAMC Section 41-2001 establishes the land uses and standards applicable to
the TZC - primarily for new uses.

The update to text of this Section
clarifies that the regulations apply to
existing uses, whether conforming or
nonconforming, change in land use or
tenancy requiring issuance of Certificate
of Occupancy.

Organization SAMC Section 41-2001.5 establishes
the contents and organization of the
TZC regulations
The update to the text is necessary to
encompass the new Section 41-2009
(Operational Standards for
Nonconforming Industrial Uses).

Nonconforming
Buildings, Structures
and Uses
SAMC Section 41-2002 establishes the
regulations for nonconforming
buildings, structures or uses within the
TZC boundary. The provisions contain
minimal limits for rehabilitation of
buildings and structures and their
expansion for both residential and nonresidential uses.

The update to text of this Section will
further limit some rehabilitation of
buildings and structures, with specific
emphasis on nonconforming industrial
uses. These updated provisions include:
• Requiring rehabilitation or expansion
of buildings and structures, occupied
by any nonconforming use to comply
with the new operational standards
contained in Section 41-2009.
• Prohibits expansion of a building or
structure occupied by a
nonconforming industrial use.
• Discontinuation of nonconforming
noxious uses through amortization.
• Elimination of certain nonconforming
uses and structures
• Establishes a process for enacting
amortization periods for eliminating
certain nonconforming uses.
• References to SAMC and State law
for abatement of public nuisances.
• Establishes authority for voluntary
compliance agreements between the
City and nonconforming uses.

The Industrial
Overlay (I-OZ) Zone
SAMC Section 41-2004 establishes an
overlay zone applied to M1 and M2
zoned properties located within the
TZC boundary.

Section 41-2004 is deleted in its entirety,
removing the I-OZ Zone from the TZC to
eliminate industrial land use type zoning
altogether.

Application for
Discretionary
Approvals
SAMC Section 41-2005 establishes the
process and timing of vesting for
certain uses approved with a
discretionary permit.

Section 41-2005 is renumbered as 41-
2004, and the update to the text of this
Section adds clarification for effects of
the amendments to the TZC dependent
upon status of an application in the City
process of review, approval, and/or
building permit issuance, if required.

Planning Commission 1 – 141 3/6/2025
City Council 22 – 543 4/1/2025
ZOA No. 2024-02 & AA No. 2024-03 (Transit Zoning Code Amendments) February 24, 2025

Code Section Title Existing Zoning Code Regulations Proposed Zoning Code Regulations Zones Established SAMC Section 41-2006 contains the
regulations for zoning districts, land
uses, and permit types within the TZC.

The update to the text of this Section
deletes the I-OZ Zone, including
replacing Figure 2.1, the Regulating Plan
(map) with a new Figure 2.1 removing
the I-OZ Zone designation from all
parcels within the TZC boundary.

Uses Permitted SAMC Section 41-2007 provides the
allowable land uses and permit types
required to establish a land use by
each zoning district within the TZC.

The update to the text of this Section
clarifies application of the use standards
by zoning district as follows:
• Modifies Table 2A containing the Use
Standards by adding and reclassifying
certain land use types appropriate to
the TZC land use subcategories
• Deletes certain land use types that are
inconsistent with the intent and
purpose of the TZC, including the
deletion of the Small-Scale Industry
land use subcategory in its entirety.

Operational
Standards
SAMC Section 41-2008 primarily
regulates new uses within the TZC.

The update to the text of this Section
further limits certain operations to ensure
greater compatibility between residential
and non-residential land uses.

Operational
Standards for
Nonconforming
Industrial Uses
SAMC Section 41-2009 is an entirely
new set of regulations specific to
existing nonconforming industrial uses
within the TZC.

The new Section establishes regulations
for operation of any existing, legally
established, nonconforming industrial
use. The regulations cover general
standards, enclosed operations, air
emissions and dust, light, glare, and
heat, ground vibration, outdoor storage
and screening, hazardous materials,
liquid and solid waste, site maintenance,
truck parking and loading, and hours of
operation.

Definitions SAMC Section 41-2080 contains the
definitions applicable to terms and land
uses of the TZC.

The update to the text of this Section
provides clarification for certain land use
types (artisan/craft product with limited
on-site production, commercial
recreation facility – indoor, and research
and development), adds definitions for
land use types (automobile repair,
automobile service, business support
services, craft and specialized
automotive restoration service, pet day
care facility and trade school), and
deletes corresponding definitions for land
use types that were deleted as part of
the amendments to SAMC Section 41-
2006.

Planning Commission 1 – 142 3/6/2025
City Council 22 – 544 4/1/2025
ZOA No. 2024-02 & AA No. 2024-03 (Transit Zoning Code Amendments) February 24, 2025

Analysis of the Issues
The proposed amendments to the Sections of the TZC under the topic headings of Application of Article, Organization, Application for Discretionary Approvals, and Definitions are largely to ensure internal consistency related to the more substantive changes being proposed for the TZC to address irreconcilable land use conflicts, described as follows:
• Nonconforming Structures and Uses - Section 41-2002 regulates the nonconforming building, structure or use specifically within the TZC. The regulations are unique to the TZC and do not apply citywide. The regulations determine under certain circumstances when a nonconforming structure or use can rehabilitate both structural or nonstructural; or expand conditions that would allow expansion. Due to the concerns enumerated within this report related to nonconforming industrial uses within the TZC, the amendments to this section increasingly limit rehabilitation of structures to those types of improvements that address compliance with the new Section 41-2009 operational standards for nonconforming industrial uses; and disallow the expansion of any nonconforming industrial use. This Section also includes new provisions to establish a process for the discontinuance of nonconforming uses, specifically noxious uses, and the elimination of those uses or structures through an amortization hearing process. The tools that these new regulations provide are necessary to address the environmental impacts that lead to the adoption of the Moratorium, provide the framework to initiate the process to eliminate noxious industrial land uses from the TZC, and align with the adopted EJ policies of the General Plan.
• The Industrial Overlay (I-OZ) Zone – Section 41-2004 created an “exception” zone for properties within the TZC that had already contained M1 or M2 industrial zoning, uses and structures, when the TZC was adopted in 2010. In order to be both consistent and to promulgate the new General Plan land use designations within the TZC, the removal of this overlay zone is necessary. The zone currently gives deference to the property owner of these parcels with an industrial overlay to decide when and whether to redevelop their properties in a manner that would remove the industrial structure and use, replacing it with an allowable use and conforming to the design standards of the TZC. Eliminating the I-OZ Zone will cause these properties to become nonconforming as to use and structure, subjecting them to the regulations as amended and added to Section 41-2002, including discontinuance of nonconforming use or structure though amortization. With the deletion of the entirety of the text of Section 41-2004, Section 41-2005 Application for Discretionary Approvals is renumbered as Section 41-2004.
• Zones Established and Uses Permitted – Amendments to Sections 41-2006 and 41- 2007, respectively, include parallel deletion of the I-OZ Zone affecting the Regulating Plan (TZC zoning map) and the corresponding Use Standards tables regulating the land use and permit types for each of the remaining zones of the TZC. Table 2A categorizes land uses into broad subheadings for both residential and nonresidential land uses. The nonresidential land uses are further categorized into commercialPlanning Commission 1 – 143 3/6/2025 City Council 22 – 545 4/1/2025
ZOA No. 2024-02 & AA No. 2024-03 (Transit Zoning Code Amendments) February 24, 2025

oriented versus industrial-oriented types of uses. The amendments will eliminate the Small-Scale Industry sub-category altogether, since the majority of these uses are industrial uses incompatible with residential uses. The purpose of the TZC is to promote transit-oriented mixed-use development, which pairs residential and nonresidential land uses either horizontally or vertically on a site or within a building.

Compatibility of allowable land use types is critical, particularly given the history of the negative impacts from industrial uses remaining in the area and in close proximity to existing and new residential areas. Amending this Section also replaces the TZC zoning map figure to ensure consistency with the City’s Official Zoning Map and General Plan Land Use Map in accordance with requirements of State law, Government Code Section 65860.
• Operational Standards and Operational Standards for Nonconforming Industrial Uses – Section 41-2008 contains operational standards applicable to all uses within the TZC boundary. This Section is largely unchanged, with clarification and strengthening of certain regulations to address any possible industrial type function of an allowable land use type as listed in the tables of Section 41-2007. These amendments affected any possible manufacturing related activities, sound, screening walls and eliminated any vehicular service on Sundays. Section 41-2009 establishes new regulations governing existing industrial uses made nonconforming with the removal of the I-OZ Zone within the TZC, and include general standards, enclosed operations, air emissions and dust, light, glare, and heat, ground vibration, outdoor storage and screening, hazardous materials, liquid and solid waste, site maintenance, truck parking and loading, and hours of operation. The amendments to Section 41-2008 and creation of new regulations under Section 41-2009 ensure that existing nonconforming uses comply with very specific operational standards and/or face amortization that leads ultimately to discontinuance of use, effectively reestablishing the TZC area with residential uses and allowing certain nonresidential uses compatible to such residential and/or mixed-use development.

Profile of Industrial Businesses Affected with Proposed Regulations The SD-84 Transit Zoning Code (TZC) area is characterized by a diverse mix of approximately 127 industrial businesses. These businesses range from automotive services (the most common industry type) and manufacturing to warehousing and recycling centers.

Data compiled from city and external regulatory agencies, including CalEPA, SCAQMD, and CERS, reveal that these businesses operate under various permits related to hazardous materials, air quality, and water quality.

Key business characteristics include the storage and use of hazardous materials such as motor oil, solvents, and various chemicals, as well as the operation of equipment like emergency generators and internal combustion engines. Notably, several businesses, particularly those engaged in manufacturing (spray booths, metal processing) and chemical storage, handle substances like xylene, resins, mineral oils, and acids, posing potential risks related to air and water contamination, as well as fire and health hazards. Heavier industrial operators, such as open air recycling and sorting facilities in the TZC have been creating a Planning Commission 1 – 144 3/6/2025
City Council 22 – 546 4/1/2025
ZOA No. 2024-02 & AA No. 2024-03 (Transit Zoning Code Amendments) February 24, 2025

range of issues in the neighborhood. Issues range from: 1) air pollution – dust and participate matter from the sorting process that can become airborne, leading to respiratory problems and reduced air quality, VOCs released from decomposing materials, and odors; 2) water pollution from stormwater runoff that can carry contaminants, including debris, chemicals, or bacteria, from a facility to nearby waterways; 3) noise pollution from heavy machinery, trucks, and sorting equipment generating noise; 4) visual blight from the constant movement of trucks and equipment and from the piles of trash, debris, and recycling materials that detract from the aesthetic appeal of the community. The secondary effects affect residents’ quality of life with increased traffic hazards and living next to these heavier industrial uses and the risks being exposed to these issues on a daily basis.

General Plan Consistency
The proposed zoning ordinance amendments are consistent with various goals and policies of the Santa Ana General Plan, as required by Government Code Section 65860, by timely addressing current inconsistencies within an area of the City prioritized for addressing EJ.

In effect, the amendments are necessary to address numerous policies of the General Plan that the current TZC is found to be inconsistent with, that without such amendments, will continue the path of irreconcilable land use patterns within the TZC. Specifically, these policies include Policy LU-1.1 (Compatible Uses), Policy LU-2.4 (Cost and Benefit of Development), Policy LU-3.8 (Sensitive Receptors), Policy LU-3.9 (Noxious, Hazardous, Dangerous, and Polluting Uses), Policy LU-3.11 (Air Pollution Buffers), Policy LU-4.3 (Sustainable Land Use Strategies), Policy LU-4.6 (Healthy Living Conditions), Policy CM3.2 (Healthy Neighborhoods), Policy EP-1.9 (Avoid Conflict of Uses), Policy EP-3.3 (Mitigate Impacts), Policy CN-1.5 (Sensitive Receptor Decisions), Policy CM-3.2 (Healthy Neighborhoods), and Policy HE-5.5 (Community Development), which are targeted at correcting past land use planning practices that have placed an unequitable environmental and health burden on certain neighborhoods now termed disadvantaged communities. The proposed amendments support these goals and policies by:
• Fostering the compatibility between residential and nonresidential land uses within the TZC to enhance livability and promote healthier lifestyles, and improve public health and quality of life;
• Resolving the development of industrial land uses and sensitive receptors being in close proximity to each other that pose health hazards by eliminating an overlay zone that promulgated continuation of industrial uses without recourse; • Improving the health of the existing and future residents of the TZC by regulating the operations of noxious, hazardous, dangerous, and polluting uses by giving priority to the discontinuance of those uses;
• Responding to overarching EJ policies to develop and implement land use and zoning strategies to separate existing sensitive uses from heavy industrial facilities and emission sources;
• Continuing to support the creation of healthy neighborhoods by addressing land use conflicts and incompatible uses through the elimination of the I-OZ zone and associated industrial land use types from the list of allowable land uses within the TZC;
Planning Commission 1 – 145 3/6/2025
City Council 22 – 547 4/1/2025
ZOA No. 2024-02 & AA No. 2024-03 (Transit Zoning Code Amendments) February 24, 2025

• Developing and adopting new regulations to address facilities that emit increased pollution new sensitive receptors within EJ area boundaries, which includes areas of the TZC;
• Avoiding potential land use conflicts in the future by prohibiting the location of noxious land uses in proximity to sensitive receptors; and
• Creating a sustainable land use plan for the area that phases out land uses that are causing a substantial drain on City and other public agency resources in addressing the impacts from irreconcilable land use conflicts in the TZC area.

Additionally, the proposed amendments implement and/or contribute to achieving the following specific action programs of the General Plan, most particularly directly addressing LU3.3 through the creation of a discontinuance of nonconforming industrial uses through amortization:

LU1.1 - Development Code Update. Prepare a comprehensive update to the zoning code to ensure that the City’s zoning regulations align with the General Plan’s goals and policies.

Update the Metro East Mixed-Use Overlay District to remove the portion within the 17th Street and Grand Avenue Focus Area. Update the Midtown Specific Plan.

LU3.3 - Healthy lifestyles. Collaborate with residents and industry stakeholders to create a program to incentivize and amortize the removal of existing heavy industrial uses adjacent to sensitive uses.

CN1.4 - Health risk criteria. Establish criteria for requiring health risk assessments for existing and new industries, including the type of business, thresholds, and scope of assessment. Review existing and establish new regulation to reduce and avoid increased pollution near sensitive receptors within environmental justice area boundaries.

CN1.7 - Truck idling. Evaluate strategies to reduce truck idling found or reported in areas with sensitive receptors, with a priority placed on environmental justice areas.

CN1.11 - Public education. Augment existing outreach programs to improve public awareness of State, regional and local agencies’ roles and resources to identify, monitor, and address air quality and other environmental hazards in the community.

HE5.C – Healthy Neighborhoods Initiatives. Update the City’s zoning code development and operational standards for industrial zones to address incompatibility with adjacent uses, including minimum distance requirements to buffer heavy industrial uses from sensitive receptors. Conduct a study to evaluate and establish appropriate minimum distances and landscape buffers between polluting industrial uses from sensitive receptors such as residences.

HE44.A – Fair Housing. Ensure all City programs and activities relating to housing and community development are administered in a manner that affirmatively furthers fair housing.

Planning Commission 1 – 146 3/6/2025
City Council 22 – 548 4/1/2025
ZOA No. 2024-02 & AA No. 2024-03 (Transit Zoning Code Amendments) February 24, 2025

Santa Ana’s current General Plan champions implementation policies, including 77 EJ actions that address air quality, noxious uses, water safety, residential lead exposure in the soil, and other environmental public health conditions. The proposed Transit Zoning Code amendments align with both the General Plan's EJ policies and the original land use designations applicable to the area since the adoption of the Transit Zoning Code in 2010.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires public agencies and local governments to measure the environmental impacts of development projects or other major land use decisions, and to limit or avoid those impacts if possible. CEQA Guidelines Section 15164 states the following with respect to an Addendum to an EIR:
a) The lead agency or responsible agency shall prepare an addendum to a previously certified EIR if some changes or additions are necessary but none of the conditions described in Section 15162 calling for preparation of a subsequent EIR have occurred. b) An addendum to an adopted negative declaration may be prepared if only minor technical changes or additions are necessary or none of the conditions described in Section 15162 calling for the preparation of a subsequent EIR or negative declaration have occurred.
c) An addendum need not be circulated for public review but can be included in or attached to the final EIR or adopted negative declaration. d) The decision-making body shall consider the addendum with the final EIR or adopted negative declaration prior to making a decision on the project. e) A brief explanation of the decision not to prepare a subsequent EIR pursuant to Section 15162 should be included in an addendum to an EIR, the lead agency’s findings on the project, or elsewhere in the record. The explanation must be supported by substantial evidence.

Additionally, CEQA Guidelines Section 15162, Subsequent EIRs and Negative Declarations, states the following with respect to a Subsequent EIRs:
(a) When an EIR has been certified or a negative declaration adopted for a project, no subsequent EIR shall be prepared for that project unless the lead agency determines, on the basis of substantial evidence in the light of the whole record, one or more of the following:
(1) Substantial changes are proposed in the project which will require major revisions of the previous EIR or negative declaration due to the involvement of new significant environmental effects or a substantial increase in the severity of previously identified significant effects;
(2) Substantial changes occur with respect to the circumstances under which the project is undertaken which will require major revisions of the previous EIR or Negative Declaration due to the involvement of new significant environmental effects or a substantial increase in the severity of previously identified significant effects; or
Planning Commission 1 – 147 3/6/2025
City Council 22 – 549 4/1/2025
ZOA No. 2024-02 & AA No. 2024-03 (Transit Zoning Code Amendments) February 24, 2025

(3) New information of substantial importance, which was not known and could not have been known with the exercise of reasonable diligence at the time the previous EIR was certified as complete or the Negative Declaration was adopted, shows any of the following:
(A) The project will have one or more significant effects not discussed in the previous EIR or negative declaration;
(B) Significant effects previously examined will be substantially more severe than shown in the previous EIR;
(C)Mitigation measures or alternatives previously found not to be feasible would in fact be feasible, and would substantially reduce one or more significant effects of the project, but the project proponents decline to adopt the mitigation measure or alternative; or
(D)Mitigation measures or alternatives which are considerably different from those analyzed in the previous EIR would substantially reduce one or more significant effects on the environment, but the project proponents decline to adopt the mitigation measure or alternative. (b) If changes to a project or its circumstances occur or new information becomes available after adoption of a negative declaration, the lead agency shall prepare a subsequent EIR if required under subdivision (a). Otherwise, the lead agency shall determine whether to prepare a subsequent negative declaration, an addendum, or no further documentation.

ZOA No. 2024-02 and AA No. 2024-03 are considered a project as defined by the CEQA.

The City, as the Lead Agency, has determined that it is subject to CEQA guidelines and regulations (Public Resources Code (PRC) Sections 21000-21177). An Addendum to the Transit Zoning Code Environmental Impact Report (EIR) (State Clearing House (SCH) No. 2006071100) has been prepared by the City. Based on its independent review and analysis, and the administrative record as a whole, and, in the exercising its independent judgement, hereby finds that pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15162, no subsequent EIR would be required for the proposed project; and pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15164, an addendum to the Transit Zoning Code EIR is required for the adoption of the Ordinances.

Specifically, pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15162, the City finds on the basis of substantial evidence in light of the whole record, that: (1) no substantial changes are proposed in the project which will require major revisions of the EIR due to the involvement of new significant environmental effects or a substantial increase in the severity of previously identified significant effects; (2) no substantial changes have occurred with respect to the circumstances under which the project is undertaken which will require major revisions of the EIR due to the involvement of new significant environmental effects or a substantial increase in the severity of previously identified significant effects; and (3) there is no new information of substantial importance, which was not known and could not have been known with the exercise of reasonable diligence at the time the EIR was certified as complete, that shows any of the following: (A) the project will have one or more significant effects not discussed in the EIR; (B) significant effect previously examined will be substantially more severe than shown in the EIR; (C) Planning Commission 1 – 148 3/6/2025
City Council 22 – 550 4/1/2025
ZOA No. 2024-02 & AA No. 2024-03 (Transit Zoning Code Amendments) February 24, 2025

mitigation measures or alternatives previously found not to be feasible would in fact be feasible and would substantially reduce one or more significant effects of the project, but the project proponents decline to adopt the mitigation measure or alternative; or (D) mitigation measures or alternative which are considerably different from those analyzed in the EIR would substantially reduce one or more significant effects on the environment, but the project proponents decline to adopt the mitigation measure or alternative.

Additionally, as detailed in the General Plan Consistency subsection of this report, the proposed Ordinances are consistent with numerous General Plan goals and policies that were evaluated as part of the General Plan Update Program EIR. The proposed Ordinances also satisfy and further implementation actions of the General Plan Update.

FISCAL IMPACT
There is no fiscal impact associated with this action.

EXHIBITS

1. Resolution of the City Council and Addendum to the TZC EIR

2. Ordinance for Zoning Ordinance Amendment (ZOA) No. 2024-02

3. Ordinance for Amendment Application (AA) No. 2024-03

4. Environmental Health Data and Reports

5. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

6. City Council Staff Report and Exhibits for the Adopted TZC Moratorium

7. Copy of Public Hearing Notice
Submitted By: Margarita Macedonio, Principal Planner
Approved By: Ali Pezeshkpour, AICP, Acting Executive Director, Planning and Building Agency
Planning Commission 1 – 149 3/6/2025
City Council 22 – 551 4/1/2025

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NOTICE OF STUDY SESSION
&

PUBLIC HEARING

BEFORE THE SANTA ANA

PLANNING COMMISSION
The City of Santa Ana encourages
the public to participate in the
decision-making process. This
notice is provided consistent with
applicable State and local law, in
addition to being provided to those
persons who have expressed an
interest in the proposed action. We
encourage those with questions or
comments to contact us prior to
either or both the Study Session
and/or Public Hearing.

Please be advised that the City will
hold a Study Session concerning
the following, more fully described
below: Zoning Ordinance
Amendment (ZOA) No. 2024-02 and
Amendment Application (AA) No.
2024-03 to amend the Transit Zoning
Code (Specific Development (SD)
No. 84) zoning district of Chapter 41
(Zoning) during the regular
meeting of the Planning
Commission on the following date
and time:

Study Session Date: Monday,
February 10, 2025 Time: 5:30 PM
Further, NOTICE IS HEREBY
GIVEN that the Planning
Commission of the City of Santa Ana
will hold a public hearing to receive
public testimony and take action on
Zoning Ordinance Amendment
(ZOA) No. 2024-02 and Amendment
Application (AA) No. 2024-03 to
amend the Transit Zoning Code
(Specific Development (SD) No. 84)
zoning district of Chapter 41
(Zoning).

Public Hearing Date: Monday,
February 24, 2025 Time: 5:30 PM
Project Location : The area within
the Transit Zoning Code/Specific
Development (SD) No. 84 Zoning
District, as depicted in the attached
map.

Project Applicant: City of Santa
Ana
Proposed Project: Planning
Commission recommendation that
the City Council adopt Zoning
Ordinance Amendment (ZOA) No.
2024-02 and Amendment Application
(AA) No. 2024-03 to amend the
Transit Zoning Code (Specific
Development (SD) No. 84) zoning
district of Chapter 41 (Zoning) of the
Santa Ana Municipal Code and to
amend the City's Zoning Map. The
proposed amendments include
removal of industrial uses from the
permitted uses table, updates to the
nonconforming regulations, a new
amortization process, and new
operational standards applicable to
businesses within the zoning district.

The proposal also includes removing Planning Commission 1 – 150 3/6/2025 City Council 22 – 552 4/1/2025
the Light Industrial (M1) and Heavy
Industrial (M2) suffixes from
certain properties within the SD-84 zoning district, as shown on the City's Zoning Map.

Environmental Impact: In
accordance with CEQA and the
CEQA Guidelines, an addendum has
been prepared to the City of Santa
Ana's Transit Zoning Code (SD-84)
Environmental Impact Report
(EIR) to demonstrate that, pursuant
to the standards contained in CEQA
Guidelines Section 15162, this project
is within the scope of the Transit
Zoning Code (SD-84) EIR No. 2006-
02, State Clearinghouse (SCH) No.
2006071100, certified by the City of
Santa Ana on June 7, 2010. The
Transit Zoning Code (SD-84) EIR
fully analyzed the potential impacts
associated with the proposed code
amendments. This is consistent with
Section 8.06 of the City's Local
Guidelines for Implementing CEQA.

Meeting Details: This matter will
be heard in the City Council
Chambers, 22 Civic Center Plaza,
Santa Ana, CA 92701. Members of
the public may attend this meeting
in person or join via Zoom. For the most up-to-date information on how to participate virtually in this meeting, please visit
https://www.santaana.org/planning-and-buildingmeeting-participation/.

Written Comments: If you are
unable to participate in the meeting,
you may send written comments by e-mail to PBAeComments@santaana.org (reference the Agenda Item # in the subject line) or by mail to Nuvia Ocampo, Recording
Secretary, City of Santa Ana, 20
Civic Center Plaza -- M20, Santa Ana, CA 92701. Deadline to submit written comments is 3:30 p.m. on the day of the meeting. Comments received after the deadline may not
be distributed to the Commission but
will be made part of the record.

Where To Get More Information :

Additional details regarding the
proposed action(s), including the
full text of the discretionary item,
may be found on the City website 72
hours prior to the public hearing at
https://santaana.primegov.com/public/portal. Who To Contact For Questions:

Should you have any project
questions, please contact Principal
Community Planner Margarita Macedonio with the Planning Division by phone at (714) 667-2288 or
by email at MMacedonio@santaana.org.

Note: If you challenge the decision
on the above matter, you may be
limited to raising only those issues
you or someone else raised at the
public hearing described in this notice, or in written correspondence delivered to the Planning
Commission or City Council of the
City of Santa Ana at, or prior to, the
public hearing.

N u c n liên l c b ng ti ng Vi t, xin
i n tho i cho Kristie Ha (714) 667-
2206.
1/31/25
CNS-3891625#

ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Planning Commission 1 – 151 3/6/2025
City Council 22 – 553 4/1/2025

CITY OF SANTA ANA
Planning and Building Agency
20 Civic Center Plaza ● P.O. Box 1988
Santa Ana, California 92702
www.santa-ana.org/pba

NOTICE OF STUDY SESSION
&

PUBLIC HEARING

BEFORE THE SANTA ANA PLANNING COMMISSION
The City of Santa Ana encourages the public to participate in the decision-making process. This notice is provided consistent with applicable State and local law, in addition to being provided to those persons who have expressed an interest in the proposed action. We encourage those with questions or comments to contact us prior to either or both the Study Session and/or Public Hearing.

Please be advised that the City will hold a Study Session concerning the following, more fully described below: Zoning Ordinance Amendment (ZOA) No. 2024-02 and Amendment Application (AA) No. 2024-03 to amend the Transit Zoning Code (Specific Development (SD) No. 84) zoning district of Chapter 41 (Zoning) during the regular meeting of the Planning Commission on the following date and time:

Study Session Date: Monday, February 10, 2025 Time: 5:30 PM Further, NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Planning Commission of the City of Santa Ana will hold a public hearing to receive public testimony and take action on Zoning Ordinance Amendment (ZOA) No. 2024-02 and Amendment Application (AA) No. 2024-03 to amend the Transit Zoning Code (Specific Development (SD) No. 84) zoning district of Chapter 41 (Zoning).

Public Hearing Date: Monday, February 24, 2025 Time: 5:30 PM Project Location: The area within the Transit Zoning Code/Specific Development (SD) No. 84 Zoning District, as depicted in the attached map.

Project Applicant: City of Santa Ana
Proposed Project: Planning Commission recommendation that the City Council adopt Zoning Ordinance Amendment (ZOA) No. 2024-02 and Amendment Application (AA) No. 2024-03 to amend the Transit Zoning Code (Specific Development (SD) No. 84) zoning district of Chapter 41 (Zoning) of the Santa Ana Municipal Code and to amend the City’s Zoning Map. The proposed amendments include removal of industrial uses from the permitted uses table, updates to the nonconforming regulations, a new amortization process, and new operational standards applicable to businesses within the zoning district. The proposal also includes removing the Light Industrial (M1) and Heavy Industrial (M2) suffixes from certain properties within the SD-84 zoning district, as shown on the City’s Zoning Map.

Environmental Impact: In accordance with CEQA and the CEQA Guidelines, an addendum has been prepared to the City of Santa Ana’s Transit Zoning Code (SD-84) Environmental Impact Report (EIR) to demonstrate that, pursuant to the standards contained in CEQA Guidelines Section 15162, this project is within the scope of the Transit Zoning Code (SD Planning Commission 1 – -152 84) EIR No. 2006-02, State Clearinghouse 3/6/2025 City Council 22 – 554 4/1/2025
(SCH) No. 2006071100, certified by the City of Santa Ana on June 7, 2010. The Transit Zoning Code (SD-84) EIR fully analyzed the potential impacts associated with the proposed code amendments. This is consistent with Section 8.06 of the City’s Local Guidelines for Implementing CEQA.

Meeting Details: This matter will be heard in the City Council Chambers, 22 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana, CA 92701. Members of the public may attend this meeting in person or join via Zoom. For the most up-to-date information on how to participate virtually in this meeting, please visit https://www.santa-ana.org/planning-and-building-meeting-participation/.

Written Comments: If you are unable to participate in the meeting, you may send written comments by e-mail to [email protected] (reference the Agenda Item # in the subject line) or by mail to Nuvia Ocampo, Recording Secretary, City of Santa Ana, 20 Civic Center Plaza – M20, Santa Ana, CA 92701. Deadline to submit written comments is 3:30 p.m. on the day of the meeting.

Comments received after the deadline may not be distributed to the Commission but will be made part of the record.

Where To Get More Information: Additional details regarding the proposed action(s), including the full text of the discretionary item, may be found on the City website 72 hours prior to the public hearing at https://santa-ana.primegov.com/public/portal.

Who To Contact For Questions: Should you have any project questions, please contact Principal Community Planner Margarita Macedonio with the Planning Division by phone at (714) 667-2288 or by email at [email protected].

Note: If you challenge the decision on the above matter, you may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised at the public hearing described in this notice, or in written correspondence delivered to the Planning Commission or City Council of the City of Santa Ana at, or prior to, the public hearing.

Nếu cần liên lạc bằng tiếng Việt, xin điện thoại cho Kristie Ha (714) 667-2206.

City of Santa Ana
Transit Zoning Code Area
Planning Commission 1 – 153 3/6/2025
City Council 22 – 555 4/1/2025

28. Extension of Moratorium on the Approval, Commencement, Establishment, Relocation, or Expansion of Industrial Uses within Specific Development No. 84 (“SD-84”), Also Known as the Transit Zoning Code (“TZC”) for Ten (10) Months and Fifteen (15) Days Pursuant to Government Code Section 65858(a) Legal notice published in the Orange County Reporter on May 6, 2024.

Department(s):

Recommended Action: 1. Adopt an urgency ordinance extending a moratorium on the approval, commencement, establishment, relocation, or expansion of industrial uses within SD-84, by four-fifths (4/5) vote, pursuant to California Government Code Section 65858(a), for an additional 10 months and 15 days.

UNCODIFIED URGENCY ORDINANCE NO. NS-XXXX entitled AN UNCODIFIED

URGENCY ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA ANA

EXTENDING A MORATORIUM ON THE APPROVAL, COMMENCEMENT,

ESTABLISHMENT, RELOCATION OR EXPANSION OF INDUSTRIAL USES WITHIN SPECIFIC DEVELOPMENT NO. 84 ZONING DISTRICT FOR AN ADDITIONAL TEN (10) MONTHS AND FIFTEEN (15) DAYS PURSUANT TO GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 65858

2. Find that, in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the proposed action is not subject to the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act, pursuant to (Guidelines) Section 15060(c)(2) because the activity will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment and 15060(c)(3) because the activity is not a project as defined in Section 15378 of the CEQA Guidelines, California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Chapter 3, because it has no potential for resulting in physical change to the environment, directly or indirectly and so is not a project.

Exhibit 8 - City Council Staff Report and Exhibits for the Adopted TZC Moratorium City Council 22 – 556 4/1/2025
Planning and Building Agency
www.santa-ana.org/planning-and-building
Item # 28
City of Santa Ana
20 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana, CA 92701
Staff Report
May 21, 2024
TOPIC: Extension of Moratorium on the Approval, Commencement, Establishment, Relocation, or Expansion of Industrial Uses in Specific Development No. 84

AGENDA TITLE
Extension of Moratorium on the Approval, Commencement, Establishment, Relocation, or Expansion of Industrial Uses within Specific Development No. 84 (“SD-84”), Also Known as the Transit Zoning Code (“TZC”) for Ten (10) Months and Fifteen (15) Days Pursuant to Government Code Section 65858(a)
Legal notice published in the Orange County Reporter on May 6, 2024.

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS

1. Adopt an urgency ordinance extending a moratorium on the approval, commencement, establishment, relocation, or expansion of industrial uses within SD-84, by four-fifths (4/5) vote, pursuant to California Government Code Section 65858(a), for an additional 10 months and 15 days.

UNCODIFIED URGENCY ORDINANCE NO. NS-XXXX entitled AN UNCODIFIED

URGENCY ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA ANA

EXTENDING A MORATORIUM ON THE APPROVAL, COMMENCEMENT,

ESTABLISHMENT, RELOCATION OR EXPANSION OF INDUSTRIAL USES WITHIN SPECIFIC DEVELOPMENT NO. 84 ZONING DISTRICT FOR AN ADDITIONAL TEN (10) MONTHS AND FIFTEEN (15) DAYS PURSUANT TO GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 65858

2. Find that, in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the proposed action is not subject to the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act, pursuant to (Guidelines) Section 15060(c)(2) because the activity will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment and 15060(c)(3) because the activity is not a project as defined in Section 15378 of the CEQA Guidelines, California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Chapter 3, because it has no potential for resulting in physical change to the environment, directly or indirectly and so is not a project.

GOVERNMENT CODE §84308 APPLIES: No
City Council 22 – 557 4/1/2025
Extension of Moratorium on the Approval, Commencement, Establishment, Relocation, or Expansion of Industrial Uses in Specific Development No. 84 May 21, 2024

City Council 22 – 558 4/1/2025
Extension of Moratorium on the Approval, Commencement, Establishment, Relocation, or Expansion of Industrial Uses in Specific Development No. 84 May 21, 2024

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
On April 16, 2024, the City Council adopted a Moratorium on the Approval, Commencement, Establishment, Relocation, or Expansion of Industrial Uses within Specific Development No. 84 Zoning District through adoption of Urgency Interim Ordinance No. NS-3063. The purpose of this Moratorium was to immediately offer protection of public health, safety, and welfare from industrial uses significantly causing pollution burden to adjacent residential neighborhoods in the Transit Zoning Code (Specific Development No. 84) through the following conditions, including: code enforcement active cases; irreconcilable land use conflicts in the TZC; alarming air quality, noise, traffic, proximity to noxious use facilities, and public health concerns; and external regulatory agency responsiveness. During the moratorium, the City is not issuing permits that result in the approval, commencement, establishment, modification, relocation, or expansion of industrial uses in the Transit Zoning Code (TZC).

Pursuant to Government Code Section 65858, the Moratorium shall have no further force and effect 45-days from the date of its adoption, which was April 16, 2024, unless extended. An extension requires the City Council issue a written report ten days prior to the expiration of the Moratorium, or extension thereof, describing the measures taken to alleviate the condition which led to the adoption of the Moratorium, provide notice pursuant to Government Code Section 65090, and hold a public hearing. Government Code Section 65858(a) allows an extension for 10 months and 15 days and a subsequent extension for one year. An extension also requires a four-fifths (4/5) vote of the City Council.

On May 7, 2024, the City Council issued a report to the public, pursuant to Section 65858(d) of the California Government Code, describing the City’s measures to alleviate conditions that led to the adoption of the Moratorium.

City staff has determined that an extension of the Moratorium for an additional ten (10) months and fifteen (15) days pursuant to the Government Code is necessary to continue with data tracking and reporting, research appropriate regulations, and coordinate with outside regulatory agencies and City departments to provide a complete analysis and thorough evaluation of the more than 130 industrial businesses within the TZC.

An extension of the Moratorium would provide sufficient time to enable staff to determine whether further, permanent action is necessary and to generate recommendations to the Planning Commission and City Council. Such action may entail a zoning map amendment, zoning text amendment, or both, which would address industrial land uses in the TZC.

City Council 22 – 559 4/1/2025
Extension of Moratorium on the Approval, Commencement, Establishment, Relocation, or Expansion of Industrial Uses in Specific Development No. 84 May 21, 2024

DISCUSSION
Background
Review of City Department Activities
Immediately following the adoption of the Moratorium, staff conducted an interagency meeting, which included representatives from multiple City departments. These departments include the Planning Division, Building Safety Division, Code Enforcement Division, Business License, and Information Technology. Moreover, engagement with additional agencies such as the Police Department, Public Works Agency, and the Community Development Agency’s Economic Development Division has produced critical information illustrating the extent to which industrial activities are intertwined with residential land uses in the TZC area, specifically and most concentrated in the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods.

Data based on Business License and Economic Development records indicate that the application of the Moratorium affects more than 130 industrial businesses in the TZC. Of these, over one-dozen have active applications for permits, the majority of which are to legalize unpermitted work on industrial properties and address ongoing Code Enforcement Division notices of violation.

City staff continue to gather, review, and analyze information regarding affected industrial businesses within the TZC. Specific data and reporting pertains to applications submitted by industrial businesses for permits, entitlements, certificates of occupancy, business licenses, and other relevant records immediately prior to and following the adoption of the Urgency Interim Ordinance and currently under review by City staff.

Requests for information on calls for service and incident activities responded to by public safety departments of the Santa Ana Police Department (SAPD) and the Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA) are being reviewed by City staff to understand and validate public safety concerns or impacts shared by neighbors in disadvantaged communities with actual calls and emergencies reported.

Initial reports from the SAPD show calls for service in the TZC totaling 18,510 calls between March 2023 and April 2024. These calls for service included patrol checks, car stops, disturbances, alarm activation, trespassing, and many more types of calls for service. Of the 18,510 calls for service, 1,909 incidents reported were related to collisions, impounded vehicles, hit and run collisions, domestic violence, and Santa Ana municipal code violations. Similarly, data from OCFA shows 62 calls for service in 2022 and 66 calls for service for 2023 for a combined 128 calls for service for both 2022 and 2023 for advanced life support-related emergencies. Specifically, 29 of the service calls responded to by OCFA in 2022 were related to health stemming from respiratory concerns to chest pain and cardiac arrest, along with long-term diabetic issues and chest pains. In 2023, there was nearly a seven percent (7%) increase in the number of health-related calls OCFA responded to related to health issues.

City Council 22 – 560 4/1/2025
Extension of Moratorium on the Approval, Commencement, Establishment, Relocation, or Expansion of Industrial Uses in Specific Development No. 84 May 21, 2024

In addition, City staff continue to monitor Code Enforcement Division activities and implementation of the City’s Noxious Uses Ordinance pertaining to these facilities. Code Enforcement staff will broaden data reports that show enforcement activity beyond the Lacy and Logan neighborhoods within the TZC, where at the time of adoption of the Moratorium, 17 active open cases were issued Notice of Violations and administrative citations for the following types of violations: illegal storage, land use, zoning, property and landscape maintenance, unpermitted work, business license, and certificate of occupancy. Such violations include issues of odors, dust, traffic, noise, vibrations, and other documented impacts. The amount of active open industrial cases, in close proximity to one another, during a short period of time is creating a public nuisance and harming the public health, safety, and general welfare of the two residential neighborhoods.

Since the adoption of the Moratorium, City staff have received multiple code enforcement complaints from community members about industrial businesses in the TZC area that were also reported previously before the adoption of the Moratorium. City staff have received repeated code enforcement and air emission complaints about facilities in the Logan neighborhood and are working with Code Enforcement Division and SCAQMD staff to obtain responses, investigations, or reports provided by the Code Enforcement Division and SCAQMD to the complaints reported. Recent code enforcement complaints on properties in the Logan neighborhood involve complaints for recurring unpermitted work and land use violations that involve large commercial vehicles blocking street access and impacting nearby residents.

Code Enforcement Division follow-up has resulted in larger administrative citations, continued enforcement, and onsite meetings with business owners. Moreover, air emission complaints have been reported to SCAQMD. These complaints include one involving black smoke and another regarding unpermitted soil vapor extraction equipment onsite. Part of the jurisdictions that City staff are working with include SCAQMD staff to obtain updates regarding the status of these complaints. SCAQMD staff investigated one complaint that did not result in an enforcement action and is investigating the other complaint. SCAQMD staff has clarified that for air quality complaints they receive, their inspector is required to be physically present to observe the activity from the facility described in the complaint to determine if the complaint warrants further investigation or enforcement action in accordance with South Coast AQMD Rules 401 (Visible Emissions), 402 (Public Nuisance), and 403 (Fugitive Dust).

Community members continue to share concerns with City and SCAQMD staff regarding the turnaround time for an SCAQMD inspector to be physically present at an SCAQMD-permitted facility to investigate an air quality complaint, especially if a complaint is reported after working hours or on weekends.

City Council 22 – 561 4/1/2025
Extension of Moratorium on the Approval, Commencement, Establishment, Relocation, or Expansion of Industrial Uses in Specific Development No. 84 May 21, 2024

Review of Records and Activities of External Agencies
To broaden the analysis beyond the City's local land use impacts, City staff have initiated public records requests from outside regulatory agencies, such as the South Coast Air Quality Monitoring District, Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board, the Department of Toxic Substances Control, and others responsible for issuing supportive permits for industrial uses in the TZC. Such agencies are responsible for permit issuance, compliance activities, and/or monitoring hazardous clean-up sites, or other industrial facility-related activities and received current data requests for sites located within SD No. 84 that were initiated by City staff on April 25, 2024.

Data from outside regulatory agencies will assist City staff in further understanding activities between external regulatory agencies and industrial businesses that may place additional impacts on public health, safety, and welfare in affected neighborhoods adjacent to industrial businesses in the TZC. This information would enable City staff to understand the correlation and environmental burdens that may be attributed to permitted activities for industrial businesses in historically environmentally disadvantaged communities, specifically the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods. In response to the City’s request, SCAQMD clarified the need to process the records request by larger geographic areas, such as zip code area as an example, not specifically matching the boundaries of the TZC. The City has not received responses to its Public Records Act requests and once it does, additional time will be needed for City staff to carefully review and analyze the data in order to understand all activities (internal and external) and affected industrial businesses.

Comprehensive Zoning Code Update and Neighborhood Engagement City staff continue to work with Project Consultant MIG to ensure the City’s Zoning Code and General Plan are consistent. In order to maintain compliance with state law, comprehensive amendments to the Zoning Code will likely be required. MIG and City staff have already conducted extensive community outreach, stakeholder interviews, and reviews of existing zoning-related codes and policies in Santa Ana. These early efforts continue to indicate that there are irreconcilable land use conflicts and land use inconsistencies in the TZC area which are among the most pressing topics to be addressed as part of the comprehensive Zoning Code Update process in order to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the most vulnerable communities that face the impacts of the land use conflicts within the TZC area.

The Neighborhood Initiatives and Environmental Services (NIES) section of the Planning Division continue to coordinate with City departments, outside regulatory agencies, and staff from other federal and state agencies to identify additional resources available to enhance deeper awareness of pollution exposure in disadvantaged communities, long-term health effects, and options for immediate City Council 22 – 562 4/1/2025
Extension of Moratorium on the Approval, Commencement, Establishment, Relocation, or Expansion of Industrial Uses in Specific Development No. 84 May 21, 2024

solutions. The NIES team has held meetings and discussions with staff from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and CalEPA Environmental Justice Team to identify opportunities for linking environmental justice (EJ) resources and support to the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods. NIES staff also continue to coordinate with residents selected to represent the City’s EJ Clusters to complete the formation of the EJ Action Committee, the community-led EJ advocacy group. This group will help guide the prioritization and resource investments to implement the City’s General Plan EJ Policies and Implementation Actions.

Next Steps
During the Moratorium, staff will evaluate if further, permanent action to address the land use conflicts in the TZC is necessary. Such action may entail a zoning map amendment, zoning text amendment, or both, which would permanently address industrial land uses in the TZC.

Staff continues to receive, analyze, and prepare a thorough evaluation of industrial business uses within the TZC. Staff has determined that an extension of the Moratorium for an additional ten (10) months and fifteen (15) days, pursuant to Government Code Section 65858(a), is recommended to provide the additional staff time and resources needed to implement a comprehensive evaluation of the industrial uses in the TZC utilizing the data reporting and tracking, regulatory research, enforcement reports, and department discussions to fully understand the effects of industrial uses in the TZC and to continue to address current and immediate threats to public health, safety, and welfare, due to growing code enforcement complaints stemming from the irreconcilable land use conflicts within the TZC.

On May 7, 2024, a ten-day report was issued by the City Council pursuant to California Government Code Section 65858(d) and is attached and referenced as Exhibit A to the Ordinance attached to this staff report. The April 16, 2024 City Council Meeting staff report is included in this report as Exhibit 3, providing background on the issues and analysis on the original need for the Moratorium.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
The extension of the Moratorium is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”), as the proposed action is not subject to the requirements of CEQA, pursuant to Guidelines Section 15060(c)(2) because the activity will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment and 15060(c)(3) because the activity is not a project as defined in Section 15378 of the CEQA Guidelines, California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Chapter 3, because it has no potential for resulting in physical change to the environment, directly or indirectly and so is not a project, as the ordinance will temporarily preclude the approval, City Council 22 – 563 4/1/2025
Extension of Moratorium on the Approval, Commencement, Establishment, Relocation, or Expansion of Industrial Uses in Specific Development No. 84 May 21, 2024

commencement, establishment, relocation, or expansion of uses in Specific Development No. 84 (the Transit Zoning Code).

FISCAL IMPACTS
There is no fiscal impact associated with this action.

EXHIBITS

1. Uncodified Urgency Ordinance Extending Moratorium for Ten (10) Months and Fifteen (15) Days

2. Urgency Interim Ordinance No. NS-3036 adopted on April 16, 2024

3. April 16, 2024 City Council Staff Report and Exhibits

4. Public Notice
Submitted By: Minh Thai, Planning and Building Agency Executive Director Approved By: Alvaro Nuñez, Acting City Manager
City Council 22 – 564 4/1/2025
Ordinance No. NS - ____

UNCODIFIED URGENCY ORDINANCE NO. NS-XXXX

AN UNCODIFIED URGENCY ORDINANCE OF THE CITY

COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA ANA, EXTENDING A

MORATORIUM ON THE APPROVAL, COMMENCEMENT,

ESTABLISHMENT, RELOCATION OR EXPANSION OF

INDUSTRIAL USES WITHIN SPECIFIC DEVELOPMENT
NO. 84 ZONING DISTRICT FOR AN ADDITIONAL TEN (10)
MONTHS AND FIFTEEN (15) DAYS PURSUANT TO
GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 65858
WHEREAS, the City of Santa Ana has the police power pursuant to Article XI, section 7 of the California Constitution, to make and enforce ordinances to regulate the use of land within its jurisdictional boundaries; and
WHEREAS, Government Code Section 65858 expressly authorizes the City Council, in order to protect the public health, safety and welfare, to adopt an interim urgency ordinance prohibiting a use that is in conflict with a contemplated general plan, specific plan, or zoning proposal that the legislative body, planning commission, or the planning department is considering or studying or intends to study within a reasonable time, provided that the urgency measure shall require a four-fifths vote of the legislative body for adoption, and shall be of no further force and effect forty-five (45) days from its date of adoption, unless duly extended; and
WHEREAS, on April 16, 2024, the City Council adopted a Moratorium on the approval, commencement, establishment, relocation or expansion of industrial uses within Specific Development No. 84 (“SD-84”) also known as the Transit Zoning Code (“TZC”) by adoption of Urgency Ordinance No. NS-3063 to immediately offer protection of public health, safety, and welfare from industrial uses significantly causing pollution burden to adjacent residential neighborhoods in the TZC (SD-84) through the following conditions, including: code enforcement active cases; irreconcilable land use conflicts in the TZC; alarming air quality, noise, traffic, proximity to noxious use facilities, and public health concerns; and external regulatory agency responsiveness; and WHEREAS, the Moratorium will expire on June 1, 2024 unless extended; and WHEREAS, Government Code Section 65858 authorizes the City Council, after notice pursuant to Government Code Section 65090 and a public hearing, to adopt an ordinance extending the Moratorium for 10 months and 15 days, upon approval by a fourth-fifths vote, and upon making the same findings required for the adoption of the initial forty-five (45) day Moratorium; and
WHEREAS, Government Code Section 65858(d) requires the City Council, ten days prior to the expiration of the Moratorium or any extension thereof, to issue a written report describing the measures taken to alleviate the condition which led to the adoption of the Moratorium; and
City Council 22 – 565 4/1/2025
Ordinance No. NS -XXXX

WHEREAS, on May 7, 2024, City staff prepared, and the City Council issued and filed a report to the public, pursuant to Section 65858(d) of the California Government Code, describing the City’s measures to alleviate conditions that led to the adoption of the Moratorium; and
WHEREAS, Santa Ana Charter Sections 415 and 417 expressly authorize the City Council to enact urgency ordinances, which take effect immediately upon introduction, for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health or safety, containing a declaration of the facts constituting the urgency; and WHEREAS, Government Code Section 65858, authorizes the City Council to adopt an interim urgency ordinance with a four-fifths vote, without following the procedures otherwise required for the adoption of an ordinance, to protect the public safety, health, and welfare, prohibiting any uses that may be in conflict with a contemplated general plan, specific plan, or zoning proposal that the City Council, Planning Commission or the planning department is considering or studying or intends to study within a reasonable time; and
WHEREAS, in unanimously adopting the Moratorium on April 16, 2024, the City Council of the City of Santa Ana established the following findings, all of which below remain true and applicable and necessary to support extending the Moratorium:
• The TZC, located in the central core of Santa Ana, comprises approximately 450 acres, encompasses the Logan, Lacy, and Downtown neighborhoods, and was adopted by the City Council on June 7, 2010; and
• Upon the initial adoption of the TZC in 2010, the General Plan of the City of Santa Ana was updated with new land use
designations for the areas covered by the TZC to allow for new, mixed-use residential and commercial communities; and
• The goals of the TZC are to provide a transit-supportive, pedestrian-oriented development framework to support the addition of new and enhancement of existing communities through transit infrastructure; to preserve and reinforce the existing character and pedestrian nature of the City by strengthening urban form through improved development and design standards; to encourage alternative modes of
transportation; to provide zoning for the integration of new infill development into existing neighborhoods; to provide for a range of housing options; and to allow for the reuse of existing structures; and
City Council 22 – 566 4/1/2025
Ordinance No. NS - ____

• Industrial uses were established within the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods in close proximity to sensitive land uses such as residences and schools prior to the adoption of the TZC, as far back as the late 19th century, predating modern zoning
practices that take into account irreconcilable land use conflicts among variegated land uses; and
• The TZC provides new mixed-use zoning for properties
contained within its boundary while creating industrial overlay zones allowing properties being used as industrial uses at the time of its adoption to continue to be governed by industrial zoning districts until such time that properties were converted to the mixed-use zones allowed by the TZC; and
• Senate Bill (SB) 1000 went into effect in 2018, requiring local governments to identify environmental justice communities, called “disadvantaged communities”, in their jurisdictions and address environmental justice in their general plans through facilitating transparency and public engagement in the planning and decision-making processes, reducing harmful pollutants and the associated health risks in disadvantaged communities, and promoting equitable access to health-inducing benefits such as healthy housing options; and
• The City of Santa Ana completed a comprehensive update of its General Plan in April 2022; and
• The Office of the Attorney General of the State of California was actively involved in ensuring Santa Ana’s General Plan update complied with all aspects of SB 1000 prior to its adoption; and • As required by SB 1000, update of the General Plan and its associated land use plan identified and addressed long standing environmental justice issues throughout all of its elements, which include 77 implementation actions aimed at reducing harmful pollutants and associated health risks in disadvantaged communities; and
• Numerous policies of the General Plan are inconsistent with the present, irreconcilable land use pattern of the TZC. Specifically, these policies include Policy LU-1.1 (Compatible Uses), Policy LU-3.8 (Sensitive Receptors), Policy LU-3.9 (Noxious,
Hazardous, Dangerous, and Polluting Uses), Policy LU-3.11 (Air Pollution Buffers), Policy LU-4.3 (Sustainable Land Use Strategies), Policy LU-4.6 (Healthy Living Conditions), Policy CM-3.2 (Healthy Neighborhoods), Policy EP-1.9 (Avoid Conflict City Council 22 – 567 4/1/2025
Ordinance No. NS -XXXX

of Uses), and Policy CN-1.5 (Sensitive Receptor Decisions), which are targeted at correcting past land use planning practices that have placed an unequitable environmental and health burden on certain neighborhoods now termed
disadvantaged communities; and
• The industrial overlay zones in the TZC perpetuate past planning practices of locating industrial uses, or other noxious and unwanted uses, in close proximity to communities of color; and
• The Logan neighborhood is the oldest Mexican and MexicanAmerican neighborhood in Santa Ana and one of the oldest in Orange County, and one of the few places where Mexicans and those of Mexican descent were allowed to buy land due to restrictions and covenants based on race during the first half of the 20th century; and
• The construction of Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway through Santa Ana in the 1950s resulted in a number of families being displaced through the demolition of single-family homes in the
northeastern portion of the Logan neighborhood; and
• In the 1970s a proposed expansion of an arterial highway along Civic Center Avenue would have demolished a significant portion, if not all, of the Logan neighborhood; and
• The Logan and Lacy neighborhoods are within the second and third highest scored census tracts in Santa Ana, each with a composite score of 90 percent or greater, ranking in the 90th percentile or greater of census tracts in the State, and identified as “disadvantaged communities” by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) in its CalEnviroScreen model; and
• Assembly Bill (AB) 686 requires local jurisdictions to take deliberate actions to explicitly address, combat, and relieve disparities to disadvantaged communities, such as Logan and Lacy neighborhoods, resulting from past patterns of
segregation, disinvestment, and planning practices; and • The updated land use plan in the Land Use Element of the General Plan does not designate any properties within the TZC, including the Logan or Lacy neighborhoods, as industrial; rather, are designated as varying intensities of District Center or Urban City Council 22 – 568 4/1/2025
Ordinance No. NS - ____

Neighborhood land use designations—both of which are
inconsistent with industrial uses; and
• There are pressing and growing code enforcement complaints stemming from the irreconcilable land use conflicts in the TZC.

Specifically, in the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods, the City’s Code Enforcement Division has investigated over 33
commercial and industrial properties in the past nine months and currently has 17 active open cases that have been issued Notice of Violations and administrative citations for the following types of violations: illegal storage, land use, zoning, property and landscape maintenance, unpermitted work, business
license, and certificate of occupancy. The close proximity of active open industrial cases during a short period of time is creating a public nuisance that is draining City resources and that is harming public health, safety, and general welfare of the TZC’s existing and new residential neighborhoods from the concentration of open code enforcement cases nearby; and • In the Logan neighborhood, 52 industrial facilities (automotive, warehouse/storage, crematory, towing yards, construction) are presently in close proximity to sensitive uses monitored by external regulatory agencies such as South Coast AQMD,
Orange County Health Care Agency – Certified Unified Program Agencies (OC CUPA), Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Board (SARWQB), Orange County Fire Authority. Industrial facilities have caused significant pollution exposure to disadvantaged communities, including lead risk in soil and housing, diesel particulate matter from idling trucks, toxic release from facilities, traffic impacts, noise pollution, and airborne particulate matter or fine inhalable particles of 2.5 (PM2.5) microns or less in diameter. CalEnviroScreen reports higher environmental effects from active facility cleanup sites, hazardous waste facilities, and solid waste locations. Cumulative health impacts in the area include asthma, cardiovascular disease, and low birth weight, in this overburdened disadvantaged community factored by
socioeconomic indicators of poverty, linguistic isolation, housing burden, and education; and
• In the Lacy neighborhood, 76 industrial facilities (automotive, warehouse/storage, towing yards, construction) are presently in close proximity to sensitive uses monitored by external regulatory agencies such as South Coast AQMD, Orange
County Health Care Agency – Certified Unified Program
Agencies (OC CUPA), Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Board (SARWQB), Orange County Fire Authority. Industrial facilities City Council 22 – 569 4/1/2025
Ordinance No. NS -XXXX

have caused significant pollution onto disadvantaged
communities, including lead risk exposure, diesel particulate matter from idling trucks, toxic release from facilities, traffic impacts, noise pollution, vibration impacts, and airborne particulate matter or fine inhalable particles of 2.5 (PM2.5) microns or less in diameter. CalEnviroScreen reports higher environmental effects from active facility cleanup sites, hazardous waste facilities, and solid waste locations.

Cumulative health impacts in the area include asthma,
cardiovascular disease, and low birth weight, in this
overburdened disadvantaged community factored by
socioeconomic indicators of poverty, linguistic isolation, housing burden, and education; and
• There is a recent surge in residential development activity in the TZC that is exacerbating the irreconcilable land use conflicts between residential and industrial land uses. Examples include the Lacy Crossing residential development with over 100 ownership units directly adjacent to existing industrial land uses, for which the City receives regular complaints from residential occupants of disturbances from noise, vibrations, odors, and truck traffic; and the Rafferty mixed-use development with 218 residential units, including 11 onsite units for very-low income households, which is located less than one-fifth of a mile from industrial land uses; and
• There is a marked increase in the pending and active
development applications for industrial land uses in the TZC, including for contractor’s yards, construction debris storage yards, manufacturing operations, expansion of existing industrial businesses, and storage and warehousing operations,
stemming from shifting economic demands for goods and
services emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic; and
• The City Council approved a contract with Moore, Iacofano, Goltsman, Inc. (MIG) on October 17, 2023. To ensure the City’s Zoning Code and General Plan are consistent, and to maintain compliance with state law, comprehensive amendments to the Zoning Code are required; and
• MIG and City staff have conducted extensive community outreach, stakeholder interviews, and reviews of existing zoning-related codes and policies in Santa Ana. These early efforts have indicated that the irreconcilable land use conflicts and land use inconsistencies in the TZC area are among the top, most pressing topics that must be addressed as part of the City Council 22 – 570 4/1/2025
Ordinance No. NS - ____

comprehensive Zoning Code Update process in order to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the most vulnerable
communities that face the impacts of the land use conflicts within the TZC area; and
• The policies and implementation actions in the General Plan also require review, study, and possible revision in order to respond to recent concerns relating to the impacts of these industrial business uses in the TZC; and
• Given these concerns, the City Council directed that a study be undertaken of the current provisions of the TZC to address industrial business uses and determine whether such uses should be permitted in the zoning district, and if not, proceed with an ordinance amendment to preclude such uses from the district; and
• Based on the foregoing, the City Council found that continuing to issue permits, business licenses, or other applicable entitlements to individuals wishing to use their property located in the TZC for the purposes of industrial business use, prior to the City’s completion of its study of the potential impact of such uses, would pose a current and immediate threat to the public health, safety, and welfare, and that a temporary moratorium on the issuance of such permits, licenses, and entitlements in the TZC area is thus necessary; and
• The City Council further found that if an industrial business use is permitted in the TZC without further review and potential regulation, it will pose a serious threat to the public interest, health, safety and welfare for the following reasons:
o Adversely impacts surrounding businesses and
neighborhoods;
o Adversely impacts sensitive uses such as residences,
schools, parks, and places where children congregate;
o Conflicts with the goals and policies of the City's General Plan;
o Long-term incompatibility and inconsistency with
surrounding uses; and
o Risks to the public health, safety and welfare of the City; and
• The City Council also determined that prevention of detrimental impacts to residents, the public interest, health, safety and welfare required the immediate enactment of the urgency City Council 22 – 571 4/1/2025
Ordinance No. NS -XXXX

ordinance and that the absence of the urgency ordinance will create a serious threat to the orderly and effective
implementation of any code amendments, general plan
amendments or specific plan amendments which may be
adopted by the City; industrial business uses may be in conflict with or frustrate the contemplated updates and revisions to the Code. Moreover, permitting such uses during said studies and implementation would create impacts on the public health, safety and welfare that the City Council, in adopting the ordinance, found to be unacceptable; and
WHEREAS, Since the adoption of the Moratorium, City staff has begun to gather data and research the impact of these industrial uses in the TZC as set forth in the report issued by the City Council on May 7, 2204; and
WHEREAS, there is a need to study further the issues associated with industrial uses in the TZC and the impact that these uses have on the adjacent residential neighborhoods and their residents; and
WHEREAS, City staff, the Planning Commission, and the City Council each require a reasonable period of time to study the existing SD-84/TZC and to evaluate if further, permanent action to address the land use conflicts in the TZC is necessary; and WHEREAS, the City Council wishes to extend the Moratorium for a period of ten (10) months and fifteen (15) days, or until the City Council adopts an ordinance addressing the issues raised, whichever occurs first; and WHEREAS, at a duly noticed public hearing on May 21, 2024, the City Council heard testimonial evidence and all other evidence submitted from members of the public that were present and from City staff. The City Council reviewed, analyzed, considered and studied all oral and written testimony and evidence presented at the public hearing, including staff reports and presentations of City staff.

NOW, THEREFORE, the City Council of the City of Santa Ana does ordain as follows:

Section 1. The recitals above are each incorporated by reference and adopted as findings by the City Council.

Section 2. The City Council finds that there is a current and immediate threat to public health, safety and welfare posed by industrial uses in SD-84, also known as, the TZC. If an industrial business use is permitted in the TZC without further review and potential regulation, it will pose a serious threat to the public interest, health, safety and welfare due to adverse impacts on surrounding businesses and neighborhoods; adverse impacts on sensitive uses such as residences, schools, parks, and places where children congregate; conflicts with the goals and policies of the City’s General City Council 22 – 572 4/1/2025
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Plan; and the effect of long term incompatibility and inconsistency with surrounding uses.

Section 3. In accordance with Government Code Section 65858(d), on May 7, 2024, the City Council issued a written report describing the measures being taken to alleviate the conditions that lead to the adoption of the Moratorium and this extension thereof, attached hereto as Exhibit A and incorporated herein by reference.

Section 4. Government Code Section 65858 authorizes the City Council to adopt an interim Urgency Ordinance, without following the procedures otherwise required for the adoption of an ordinance, to protect the public safety, health and welfare, prohibiting any uses that may be in conflict with a contemplated general plan, specific plan, or zoning proposal that the City Council, Planning Commission of the planning department is considering or studying or intends to study within a reasonable time.

Section 5. Government Code Section 65858(a) provides that the City Council, after notice and a public hearing, may extend the interim Ordinance for 10 months and 15 days and subsequently extend the interim ordinance for one year. Any extension requires a four-fifths vote.

Section 6. The City Council, in accordance with Government Code Section 65858 and Santa Ana Charter Sections 415 and 417 hereby adopts this uncodified Urgency Ordinance extending the Moratorium on the approval, commencement, establishment, modification, relocation or expansion of industrial uses in the TZC for a period of ten (10) months and fifteen (15) days, commencing June 1, 2024. The Moratorium will now expire on April 15, 2025, or until the City Council adopts an Ordinance addressing the issues related to the approval, commencement, establishment, relocation or expansion of industrial uses within SD-84, also known as the TZC. For the purposes of this Urgency Ordinance, “industrial uses” includes those specified by Divisions 18 and 19 of Article III of Chapter 41 of the Santa Ana Municipal Code, and by Section 41-2007 of the Santa Ana Municipal Code and Table 2A in the Transit Zoning Code (Specific Development No. 84).

Section 7. This Ordinance shall have no further force and effect after a period of ten (10) months and fifteen (15) days, commencing June 1, 2024; unless, however, after public hearing the City Council, by four/fifths (4/5) vote, extend this Ordinance for a period of one more year.

Section 8. It shall be unlawful and a misdemeanor for any person to violate or fail to comply with any provision of the ordinance. The violation of any provision of this Ordinance shall be punished as provided in Section 1-8 of Chapter 1 of the Code.

Section 9. The City Council finds and determines that this Ordinance is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) pursuant to sections 15061(b)(3) and 15061(b)(5) of the CEQA Guidelines because it will not result in a City Council 22 – 573 4/1/2025
Ordinance No. NS -XXXX

direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment, as the ordinance will temporarily preclude the approval, commencement, establishment, relocation or expansion of uses in the zoning district.

Section 10. If any section, subsection, phrase, or clause of this Ordinance is for any reason held to be unconstitutional, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this Ordinance. The City Council hereby declares that it would have passed this Ordinance and each section, subsection, phrase or clause thereof irrespective of the fact that any one or more sections, subsections, phrases, or clauses be declared invalid or unconstitutional.

Section 11. This Ordinance is introduced, passed and adopted at one and the same meeting and is thereafter immediately effective. The City Council finds that this ordinance is necessary to protect the public safety, health and welfare. The reasons for the emergency are set forth in Section 1 of this Ordinance.

Section 12. The City Clerk shall certify to the adoption of this Ordinance and cause the same to be published in the manner prescribed by law.

ADOPTED this ___ day of ___________________, 2024.
_______________________
Valerie Amezcua
Mayor
APPROVED AS TO FORM:

Sonia R. Carvalho
City Attorney
By:_____________________________
Laura A. Rossini
Chief Assistant City Attorney

City Council 22 – 574 4/1/2025
Ordinance No. NS - ____

AYES: Councilmembers: ________________________________________ NOES: Councilmembers: ________________________________________ ABSTAIN: Councilmembers: ________________________________________ NOT PRESENT: Councilmembers: ________________________________________

CERTIFICATE OF ATTESTATION AND ORIGINALITY
I, Jennifer L. Hall, City Clerk, do hereby attest to and certify the attached Ordinance No.

NS-XXXX to be the original ordinance adopted by the City Council of the City of Santa Ana on _______________________, 2024.

Date: ________________ ____________________________________ City Clerk
City of Santa Ana
City Council 22 – 575 4/1/2025
Planning and Building Agency
www.santa-ana.org/planning-and-building
Item # 15
City of Santa Ana
20 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana, CA 92701
Staff Report
May 7, 2024
TOPIC: Ten-Day Written Report Pursuant to California Government Code Section 65858(d) Following the Adoption of Urgency Interim Ordinance No. NS-3063

AGENDA TITLE
Ten-Day Written Report Pursuant to California Government Code Section 65858(d) Following Adoption of Urgency Interim Ordinance No. NS-3063, a 45-day Moratorium on the Approval, Commencement, Establishment, Relocation, or Expansion of Industrial Uses within Specific Development No. 84

RECOMMENDED ACTION
Issue and file a Council report to the public, pursuant to Section 65858(d) of the California Government Code, describing the City’s measures to alleviate conditions that led to the adoption of Urgency Interim Ordinance No. NS-3063, on April 16, 2024, regarding a 45-day moratorium on the approval, commencement, establishment, relocation, or expansion of industrial uses within Specific Development No. 84 (the Transit Zoning Code).

GOVERNMENT CODE §84308 APPLIES: No

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Pursuant to Section 65858(d) of the California Government Code, the purpose of this staff report is to provide a written report no less than ten days prior to the expiration of Urgency Interim Ordinance No. NS-3063 describing the measures City staff has taken to alleviate the condition which led to the adoption of the Ordinance.

On April 16, 2024, the City Council adopted Urgency Interim Ordinance No. NS-3063, which establishes a 45-day moratorium on the approval, commencement, establishment, modification, relocation, or expansion of industrial uses in Specific Development No. 84, also known as the Transit Zoning Code (commonly referred to as the “Transit Zoning Code” or “TZC”) while City staff researches appropriate regulations and determines whether an extension pursuant to the Government Code is necessary.

Urgency Interim Ordinance No. NS-3063 shall have no further force and effect 45 days from the date of its adoption, unless, after a report on the first 45 days and a public hearing, the City Council members, again by four/fifths (4/5) vote, extend the Ordinance Exhibit A
City Council 22 – 576 4/1/2025
Ten-Day Report Describing Measures Taken to Alleviate the Condition which Led to the Adoption of Urgency Interim Ordinance No. NS-3063 (Transit Zoning Code Moratorium) May 7, 2024

for an initial extension period of ten (10) months and fifteen (15) days. Based on the adoption date of April 16, 2024, the Ordinance is scheduled to expire on June 1, 2024.

As City staff begins to analyze and prepare an evaluation of industrial business uses within the TZC, the evaluation will enable staff to generate recommendations to the Planning Commission and City Council to determine whether further, permanent action is necessary. Such action may entail a zoning map amendment, zoning text amendment, or both, which would address industrial land uses in the TZC.

DISCUSSION
Background
On April 16, 2024, the City Council adopted Urgency Interim Ordinance No. NS-3063 to immediately offer protection of public health, safety, and welfare from industrial uses significantly causing pollution burden to adjacent neighborhoods through the following conditions, including: code enforcement active cases; irreconcilable land use conflicts in the TZC; alarming air quality, noise, traffic, proximity to noxious use facilities, and public health concerns; and external regulatory agency responsiveness. During the urgency interim moratorium period, the City will not issue permits that result in the approval, commencement, establishment, modification, relocation, or expansion of industrial uses in the TZC.

Measures Taken
Review of City Department Activities
Immediately following the adoption of the 45-day moratorium, staff conducted an interagency meeting, which included representatives from multiple City departments.

These departments include the Planning Division, Building Safety Division, Code Enforcement Division, Business License, and Information Technology. Moreover, engagement with additional agencies such as the Police Department, Public Works Agency, and the Community Development Agency’s Economic Development Division has produced critical information illustrating the extent to which industrial activities are intertwined with residential land uses in the TZC area, specifically and most concentrated in the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods.

Data based on Business License and Economic Development records indicate that the application of Urgency Interim Ordinance No. NS-3063 affects up to 130 industrial businesses in the TZC. Of these, over one-dozen have active applications for permits, the majority of which are to legalize unpermitted work on industrial properties and address ongoing Code Enforcement Division notices of violation.

City Council 22 – 577 4/1/2025
Ten-Day Report Describing Measures Taken to Alleviate the Condition which Led to the Adoption of Urgency Interim Ordinance No. NS-3063 (Transit Zoning Code Moratorium) May 7, 2024

City staff continues to gather, review, and analyze information regarding affected industrial businesses within the TZC. Specific data and reporting pertains to applications submitted by industrial businesses for permits, entitlements, certificates of occupancy, business licenses, and other relevant records immediately prior to and following the adoption of the Urgency Interim Ordinance and currently being reviewed by City staff.

Requests for information on calls for service and incident activities responded to by public safety departments of the Santa Ana Police Department and Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA) are being reviewed by City staff to understand and validate public safety concerns or impacts shared by neighbors in disadvantaged communities with actual calls and emergencies reported.

In addition, City staff continues to monitor Code Enforcement Division activities and implementation of the City’s Noxious Uses Ordinance pertaining to these facilities. Code Enforcement staff will broaden data reports that show enforcement activity beyond the Lacy and Logan neighborhoods within the TZC, where at the time of adoption of the Urgency Interim Ordinance on April 16, 2024, 17 active open cases were issued Notice of Violations and administrative citations for the following types of violations: illegal storage, land use, zoning, property and landscape maintenance, unpermitted work, business license, and certificate of occupancy. Such violations include issues of odors, dust, traffic, noise, vibrations, and other documented impacts. The close proximity of active open industrial cases during a short period is creating a public nuisance that is harming public health, safety, and general welfare of the two residential neighborhoods from the concentration of open code enforcement cases nearby.

Review of Records and Activities of External Agencies
To broaden the analysis beyond the City's local land use impacts, City staff have initiated public records requests of violation records and violation status of outside regulatory agencies, and have contacted staff from external regulatory agencies such as the South Coast Air Quality Monitoring District (SCAQMD), Santa Ana Regional Quality Water Control Board, the Department of Toxic Substances Control, and others responsible for issuing supportive permits for industrial uses in the TZC. Specifically, these agencies are responsible for permit issuance, compliance activities, and/or monitoring hazardous clean-up sites, or other industrial facility-related activities and have received current data requests for sites located within SD No. 84.

Data from external regulatory agencies would assist City staff in further understanding activities between external regulatory agencies and industrial businesses that may place additional impacts on public health, safety, and welfare in affected neighborhoods adjacent to industrial businesses in the TZC. This information would enable City staff to understand the correlation and environmental burdens that may be attributed to permitted activities for industrial businesses in historically environmentally disadvantaged communities, specifically the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods. In City Council 22 – 578 4/1/2025
Ten-Day Report Describing Measures Taken to Alleviate the Condition which Led to the Adoption of Urgency Interim Ordinance No. NS-3063 (Transit Zoning Code Moratorium) May 7, 2024

response to the City’s request, SCAQMD clarified the need to process the records request by larger geographic areas, not specifically matching the boundaries of the TZC. When reports become available to the City, additional time will be needed for City staff to carefully review and analyze other internal data to understand all activities (internal and external) and affected industrial businesses.

Comprehensive Zoning Code Update and Neighborhood Engagement City staff continues to work with Project Consultant Moore, Iacofano, Goltsman, Inc. (MIG) to ensure the City’s Zoning Code and General Plan are consistent and, to maintain compliance with state law, comprehensive amendments to the Zoning Code are required.

MIG and City staff have already conducted extensive community outreach, stakeholder interviews, and reviews of existing zoning-related codes and policies in Santa Ana. These early efforts have indicated that the irreconcilable land use conflicts and land use inconsistencies in the TZC area are among the top, most pressing topics that must be addressed as part of the comprehensive Zoning Code Update process in order to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the most vulnerable communities that face the impacts of the land use conflicts within the TZC area.

City staff from the Neighborhood Initiatives and Environmental Services (NIES) section of the Planning Division will continue to coordinate with City departments, external regulatory agencies, and staff from other federal and state agencies to identify additional resources available to enhance deeper awareness of pollution exposure in disadvantaged communities, long-term health effects, and immediate solutions. The NIES team has held meetings and discussions with staff from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and CalEPA Environmental Justice Team to identify opportunities for linking environmental justice (EJ) resources and support to the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods. In addition, the NIES team has been working with the residents selected to represent the City’s EJ Clusters to complete the formation of the EJ Action Committee, the community-led EJ advocacy group, to guide the prioritization and resource investments to implement the City’s General Plan EJ Policies and Implementation Actions.

Next Steps
Staff implements the 45-day moratorium established by Urgency Interim Ordinance No.

NS-3063 through ongoing interagency coordination. Moreover, staff will continue to analyze and prepare an evaluation of industrial business uses within the TZC, which will enable staff to generate recommendations to the Planning Commission and City Council to determine whether an extension of the 45-day moratorium is recommended.

If an extension is recommended, it would be placed on the May 21, 2024 City Council agenda as a public hearing item, which is prior to the June 1 expiration date.

City Council 22 – 579 4/1/2025
Ten-Day Report Describing Measures Taken to Alleviate the Condition which Led to the Adoption of Urgency Interim Ordinance No. NS-3063 (Transit Zoning Code Moratorium) May 7, 2024

During the 45-day moratorium and any potential extension period, staff will evaluate if further, permanent action to address the land use conflicts in the TZC is necessary.

Such action may entail a zoning map amendment, zoning text amendment, or both, which would permanently address industrial land uses in the TZC.

Meeting Date Display

FISCAL IMPACTS
There is no fiscal impact associated with this action.

EXHIBITS

1. Adopted Urgency Interim Ordinance No. NS-3063

2. April 16, 2024 City Council Staff Report
Submitted By: Minh Thai, Planning and Building Agency Executive Director Approved By: Alvaro Nuñez, Acting City Manager
City Council 22 – 580 4/1/2025
ORDINANCE NO. NS- 3063

AN URGENCY ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SANTA

ANA PURSUANT TO GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION
65858 ADOPTING A 45- DAY MORATORIUM ON THE

APPROVAL, COMMENCEMENT, ESTABLISHMENT,

RELOCATION OR EXPANSION OF INDUSTRIAL USES
WITHIN SPECIFIC DEVELOPMENT NO. 84 ZONING

DISTRICT
WHEREAS, the City of Santa Ana has the police power pursuant to Article XI, section 7 of the California Constitution, to make and enforce ordinances to regulate the use of land within its jurisdictional boundaries; and
WHEREAS, Government Code Section 65858 expressly authorizes the City Council, in order to protect the public health, safety and welfare, to adopt an interim urgency ordinance prohibiting a use that is in conflict with a contemplated general plan, specific plan, or zoning proposal that the legislative body, planning commission, or the planning department is considering or studying or intends to study within a reasonable time, provided that the urgency measure shall require a four -fifths vote of the legislative body for adoption, and shall be of no further force and effect forty-five ( 45) days from its date of adoption, unless duly extended; and
WHEREAS, Specific Development No. 84 zoning district, also known as the Transit Zoning Code ( TZC), located in the central core of Santa Ana, comprises approximately 450 acres, encompasses the Logan, Lacy, and Downtown neighborhoods, and was adopted by the City Council on June 7, 2010; and WHEREAS, upon the initial adoption of the TZC in 2010, the General Plan of the City of Santa Ana was updated with new land use designations for the areas covered by the TZC to allow for new, mixed -use residential and commercial communities; and WHEREAS, the goals of the TZC are to provide a transit -supportive, pedestrian - oriented development framework to support the addition of new and enhancement of existing communities through transit infrastructure; to preserve and reinforce the existing character and pedestrian nature of the City by strengthening urban form through improved development and design standards; to encourage alternative modes of transportation; to provide zoning for the integration of new infill development into existing neighborhoods; to provide for a range of housing options; and to allow for the reuse of existing structures; and
WHEREAS, industrial uses were established within the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods in close proximity to sensitive land uses such as residences and schools prior to the adoption of the TZC, as far back as the late 1 gth century, predating modern Ordinance No. INS - 3063

City Council 22 – 581 4/1/2025
zoning practices that take into account irreconcilable land use conflicts among variegated land uses; and
WHEREAS, the TZC provides new mixed -use zoning for properties contained within its boundary while creating industrial overlay zones allowing properties being used as industrial uses at the time of its adoption to continue to be governed by industrial zoning districts until such time that properties were converted to the mixed - use zones allowed by the TZC; and
WHEREAS, Senate Bill ( SB) 1000 went into effect in 2018, requiring local governments to identify environmental justice communities, called " disadvantaged communities', in their jurisdictions and address environmental justice in their general plans through facilitating transparency and public engagement in the planning and decision -making processes, reducing harmful pollutants and the associated health risks in disadvantaged communities, and promoting equitable access to health -inducing benefits such as healthy housing options; and
WHEREAS, the City of Santa Ana completed a comprehensive update of its General Plan in April 2022; and
WHEREAS, the Office of the Attorney General of the State of California was actively involved in ensuring Santa Ana' s General Plan update complied with all aspects of SB 1000 prior to its adoption; and
WHEREAS, as required by SB 1000, update of the General Plan and its associated land use plan identified and addressed long standing environmental justice issues throughout all of its elements, which include 77 implementation actions aimed at reducing harmful pollutants and associated health risks in disadvantaged communities; and
WHEREAS, numerous policies of the General Plan are inconsistent with the present, irreconcilable land use pattern of the TZC. Specifically, these policies include Policy LU- 1. 1 ( Compatible Uses), Policy LU- 3. 8 ( Sensitive Receptors), Policy LU-3.9 Noxious, Hazardous, Dangerous, and Polluting Uses), Policy LU- 3. 11 ( Air Pollution Buffers), Policy LU- 4.3 (Sustainable Land Use Strategies), Policy LU- 4.6 ( Healthy Living Conditions), Policy CM-3.2 ( Healthy Neighborhoods), Policy EP- 1. 9 ( Avoid Conflict of Uses), and Policy CN- 1. 5 ( Sensitive Receptor Decisions), which are targeted at correcting past land use planning practices that have placed an unequitable environmental and health burden on certain neighborhoods now termed disadvantaged communities; and
WHEREAS, the industrial overlay zones in the TZC perpetuate past planning practices of locating industrial uses, or other noxious and unwanted uses, in close proximity to communities of color; and
Ordinance No. NS - 3063

WHEREAS, the Logan neighborhood is the oldest Mexican and Mexican - American neighborhood in Santa Ana and one of the oldest in Orange County, and one of the few places where Mexicans and those of Mexican descent were allowed to buy land due to restrictions and covenants based on race during the first half of the 20th century and
WHEREAS, the construction of Santa Ana ( 1- 5) Freeway through Santa Ana in the 1950s resulted in a number of families being displaced through the demolition of single-family homes in the northeastern portion of the Logan neighborhood; and WHEREAS, in the 1970s a proposed expansion of an arterial highway along Civic Center Avenue would have demolished a significant portion, if not all, of the Logan neighborhood; and
WHEREAS, the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods are within the second and third highest scored census tracts in Santa Ana, each with a composite score of 90 percent or greater, ranking in the 90th percentile or greater of census tracts in the State, and identified as " disadvantaged communities" by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) in its CalEnviroScreen model; and WHEREAS, Assembly Bill (AB) 686 requires local jurisdictions to take deliberate actions to explicitly address, combat, and relieve disparities to disadvantaged communities, such as Logan and Lacy neighborhoods, resulting from past patterns of segregation, disinvestment, and planning practices; and WHEREAS, the updated land use plan in the Land Use Element of the General Plan does not designate any properties within the TZC, including the Logan or Lacy neighborhoods, as industrial; rather, are designated as varying intensities of District Center or Urban Neighborhood land use designations —both of which are inconsistent with industrial uses; and
WHEREAS, there are pressing and growing code enforcement complaints stemming from the irreconcilable land use conflicts in the TZC. Specifically, in the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods, the City's Code Enforcement Division has investigated over 33 commercial and industrial properties in the past nine months and currently has 17 active open cases that have been issued Notice of Violations and administrative citations for the following types of violations: illegal storage, land use, zoning, property and landscape maintenance, unpermitted work, business license, and certificate of occupancy. The close proximity of active open industrial cases during a short period of time is creating a public nuisance that is draining City resources and that is harming public health, safety, and general welfare of the TZC' s existing and new residential neighborhoods from the concentration of open code enforcement cases nearby; and WHEREAS, in the Logan neighborhood, 52 industrial facilities ( automotive, warehouse/storage, crematory, towing yards, construction) are presently in close proximity to sensitive uses monitored by external regulatory agencies such as South Ordinance No. INS - 3063

City Council 22 – 583 4/1/2025
Coast AQMD, Orange County Health Care Agency — Certified Unified Program Agencies ( OC CUPA), Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Board ( SARWQB), Orange County Fire Authority. Industrial facilities have caused significant pollution exposure to disadvantaged communities, including lead risk in soil and housing, diesel particulate matter from idling trucks, toxic release from facilities, traffic impacts, noise pollution, and airborne particulate matter or fine inhalable particles of 2. 5 ( PM2.5) microns or less in diameter. CalEnviroScreen reports higher environmental effects from active facility cleanup sites, hazardous waste facilities, and solid waste locations. Cumulative health impacts in the area include asthma, cardiovascular disease, and low birth weight, in this overburdened disadvantaged community factored by socioeconomic indicators of poverty, linguistic isolation, housing burden, and education; and WHEREAS, in the Lacy neighborhood, 76 industrial facilities ( automotive, warehouse/ storage, towing yards, construction) are presently in close proximity to sensitive uses monitored by external regulatory agencies such as South Coast AQMD, Orange County Health Care Agency — Certified Unified Program Agencies ( OC CUPA), Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Board ( SARWQB), Orange County Fire Authority.

Industrial facilities have caused significant pollution onto disadvantaged communities, including lead risk exposure, diesel particulate matter from idling trucks, toxic release from facilities, traffic impacts, noise pollution, vibration impacts, and airborne particulate matter or fine inhalable particles of 2. 5 ( PM2. 5) microns or less in diameter.

CalEnviroScreen reports higher environmental effects from active facility cleanup sites, hazardous waste facilities, and solid waste locations. Cumulative health impacts in the area include asthma, cardiovascular disease, and low birth weight, in this overburdened disadvantaged community factored by socioeconomic indicators of poverty, linguistic isolation, housing burden, and education; and
WHEREAS, there is a recent surge in residential development activity in the TZC that is exacerbating the irreconcilable land use conflicts between residential and industrial land uses. Examples include the Lacy Crossing residential development with over 100 ownership units directly adjacent to existing industrial land uses, for which the City receives regular complaints from residential occupants of disturbances from noise, vibrations, odors, and truck traffic; and the Rafferty mixed -use development with 218 residential units, including 11 onsite units for very -low income households, which is located less than one -fifth of a mile from industrial land uses; and WHEREAS, there is a marked increase in the pending and active development applications for industrial land uses in the TZC, including for contractor' s yards, construction debris storage yards, manufacturing operations, expansion of existing industrial businesses, and storage and warehousing operations, stemming from shifting economic demands for goods and services emerging from the Covid- 19 pandemic; and WHEREAS, The City Council approved a contract with Moore, lacofano, Goltsman, Inc. ( MIG) on October 17, 2023. To ensure the City's Zoning Code and General Plan are consistent, and to maintain compliance with state law, comprehensive amendments to the Zoning Code are required; and
Ordinance No. NS - 3063

WHEREAS, MIG and City staff have conducted extensive community outreach, stakeholder interviews, and reviews of existing zoning -related codes and policies in Santa Ana. These early efforts have indicated that the irreconcilable land use conflicts and land use inconsistencies in the TZC area are among the top, most pressing topics that must be addressed as part of the comprehensive Zoning Code Update process in order to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the most vulnerable communities that face the impacts of the land use conflicts within the TZC area; and WHEREAS, the policies and implementation actions in the General Plan also require review, study, and possible revision in order to respond to recent concerns relating to the impacts of these industrial business uses in the TZC; and WHEREAS, given these concerns, the City Council hereby directs that a study be undertaken of the current provisions of the TZC to address industrial business uses and determine whether such uses should be permitted in the zoning district, and if not, proceed with an ordinance amendment to preclude such uses from the district; and WHEREAS, based on the foregoing, the City Council finds that continuing to issue permits, business licenses, or other applicable entitlements to individuals wishing to use their property located in the TZC for the purposes of industrial business use, prior to the City's completion of its study of the potential impact of such uses, would pose a current and immediate threat to the public health, safety, and welfare, and that a temporary moratorium on the issuance of such permits, licenses, and entitlements in the TZC area is thus necessary; and
WHEREAS, if an industrial business use is permitted in the TZC without further review and potential regulation, it will pose a serious threat to the public interest, health, safety and welfare for the following reasons:
1) Adversely impacts surrounding businesses and neighborhoods; 2) Adversely impacts sensitive uses such as residences, schools, parks, and places where children congregate;
3) Conflicts with the goals and policies of the City's General Plan; 4) Long-term incompatibility and inconsistency with surrounding uses; and 5) Risks to the public health, safety and welfare of the City; and WHEREAS, prevention of detrimental impacts to residents, the public interest, health, safety and welfare requires the immediate enactment of this urgency ordinance.

The absence of this urgency ordinance will create a serious threat to the orderly and effective implementation of any code amendments, general plan amendments or specific plan amendments which may be adopted by the City; industrial business uses may be in conflict with or frustrate the contemplated updates and revisions to the Code.

Moreover, permitting such uses during said studies and implementation would create Ordinance No. NS - 3063

City Council 22 – 585 4/1/2025
impacts on the public health, safety and welfare that the City Council, in adopting this ordinance, has found to be unacceptable; and
WHEREAS, the City Council finds, determines and declares that the current and immediate threat to the public health, safety and welfare of the city and its citizens necessitates the immediate enactment of this urgency ordinance by a four -fifths vote of the City Council.

NOW, THEREFORE, the City Council of the City of Santa Ana does ordain as follows:

Section 1. The recitals above are each incorporated by reference and adopted as findings by the City Council.

Section 2. The City Council finds and determines that this ordinance is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (" CEQA") pursuant to sections 15061( b)( 3) and 15061( b)( 5) of the CEQA Guidelines because it will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment, as the ordinance will temporarily preclude the approval, commencement, establishment, relocation or expansion of uses in the zoning district.

Section 3. California Government Code Section 65858 authorizes the City Council to adopt an interim urgency ordinance, without following the procedures otherwise required for the adoption of an ordinance, to protect the public safety, health, and welfare, prohibiting any uses that may be in conflict with a contemplated general plan, specific plan, or zoning proposal that the City Council, Planning Commission or the planning department is considering or studying or intends to study within a reasonable time.

Section 4. The City Council, in accordance with Government Code Section 65858, hereby adopts this urgency ordinance establishing a 45-day moratorium on the approval, commencement, establishment, modification, relocation or expansion of industrial uses in the TZC while City staff researches appropriate regulations and whether an extension pursuant to the Government Code is necessary. For the purposes of this Ordinance, " industrial uses" includes those specified by Divisions 18 and 19 of Article III of Chapter 41 of the Santa Ana Municipal Code, and by Section 41- 2007 of the Santa Ana Municipal Code and Table 2A in the Transit Zoning Code ( Specific Development No. 84).

Section 5. This ordinance shall have no further force and effect forty-five ( 45) days from the date of its adoption; unless, however, after public hearing the City Council members, by four/fifths ( 4/5) vote, extend this ordinance for an initial period of ten ( 10) months and fifteen ( 15) days and subsequently, after public hearing, the City Council members, by four/fifths (4/5) vote, extend this ordinance one more year.

Ordinance No. NS - 3063

Section 6. It shall be unlawful and a misdemeanor for any person to violate or fail to comply with any provision of the ordinance. The violation of any provision of this ordinance shall be punished as provided in Section 1- 8 of Chapter 1 of the Code.

Section 7. If any section, subsection, phrase, or clause of this ordinance is for any reason held to be unconstitutional, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this ordinance. The City Council hereby declares that it would have passed this ordinance and each section, subsection, phrase or clause thereof irrespective of the fact that any one or more sections, subsections, phrases, or clauses be declared invalid or unconstitutional.

Section 8. This ordinance is introduced, passed and adopted at one and the same meeting and is thereafter immediately effective. The City Council finds that this ordinance is necessary to protect the public safety, health and welfare. The reasons for the emergency are set forth in Section 1 of this ordinance.

Section 9. The City Clerk shall certify to the adoption of this ordinance and cause the same to be published in the manner prescribed by law.

ADOPTED this 16t' day of April, 2024,
APPROVED AS TO FORM:

Sonia R. Carvalho
City Attorney
By: CJ WAQ-y N -
Laura A. Rossini
Chief Assistant City Attorney
AYES: Councilmembers Amezcua, Bacerra, Hernande Lopez
Penaloza Phan. Vazquez (7)
NOES: Councilmembers None (0)
ABSTAIN: Councilmembers None (0)
NOT PRESENT: Councilmembers None (0)
Ordinance No. NS - 3063

City Council 22 – 587 4/1/2025

CERTIFICATE OF ATTESTATION AND ORIGINALITY
I, JENNIFER L. HALL, City Clerk, do hereby attest to and certify the attached Ordinance No. NS- 3063 to be the original ordinance adopted by the City Council of the City of Santa Ana on April 16, 2024.

Date: 4 k acat-\- akCity
Ordinance No. NS - 3063

28. Urgency Interim Ordinance Pursuant to Section 65858(a) of the California Government Code Adopting a 45-day Moratorium on the Approval, Commencement, Establishment, Relocation, or Expansion of Industrial Uses within Specific Development No. 84
(A copy of the full text of the proposed urgency ordinance is available for review in the City Clerk’s Office)
Department(s):

Recommended Action:

1. Adopt an urgency ordinance by four-fifths (4/5) vote, pursuant to California Government Code Section 65858(a), adopting a 45-day moratorium on the approval, commencement, establishment, relocation, or expansion of industrial uses within Specific Development No. 84 zoning district.

ORDINANCE NO. NS-XXXX entitled AN URGENCY INTERIM ORDINANCE OF

THE CITY OF SANTA ANA PURSUANT TO GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 65858 ADOPTING A 45-DAY MORATORIUM ON THE APPROVAL,

COMMENCEMENT, ESTABLISHMENT, RELOCATION OR EXPANSION OF INDUSTRIAL USES WITHIN SPECIFIC DEVELOPMENT NO. 84 ZONING

DISTRICT

2. Find that, in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the proposed action is not subject to the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act, pursuant to (Guidelines) Section 15060(c)(2) because the activity will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment and 15060(c)(3) because the activity is not a project as defined in Section 15378 of the CEQA Guidelines, California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Chapter 3, because it has no potential for resulting in physical change to the environment, directly or indirectly and so is not a project.

City Council 22 – 589 4/1/2025
Planning and Building Agency
www.santa-ana.org/planning-and-building
Item # 28
City of Santa Ana
20 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana, CA 92701
Staff Report
April 16, 2024
TOPIC: Transit Zoning Code Urgency Interim Ordinance (Moratorium)

AGENDA TITLE
Urgency Interim Ordinance Pursuant to Section 65858(a) of the California Government Code Adopting a 45-day Moratorium on the Approval, Commencement, Establishment, Relocation, or Expansion of Industrial Uses within Specific Development No. 84

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS

1. Adopt an urgency ordinance by four-fifths (4/5) vote, pursuant to California Government Code Section 65858(a), adopting a 45-day moratorium on the approval, commencement, establishment, relocation, or expansion of industrial uses within Specific Development No. 84 zoning district.

ORDINANCE NO. NS-XXXX entitled AN URGENCY INTERIM ORDINANCE OF

THE CITY OF SANTA ANA PURSUANT TO GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 65858 ADOPTING A 45-DAY MORATORIUM ON THE APPROVAL,

COMMENCEMENT, ESTABLISHMENT, RELOCATION OR EXPANSION OF INDUSTRIAL USES WITHIN SPECIFIC DEVELOPMENT NO. 84 ZONING

DISTRICT

2. Find that, in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the proposed action is not subject to the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act, pursuant to (Guidelines) Section 15060(c)(2) because the activity will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment and 15060(c)(3) because the activity is not a project as defined in Section 15378 of the CEQA Guidelines, California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Chapter 3, because it has no potential for resulting in physical change to the environment, directly or indirectly and so is not a project.

GOVERNMENT CODE §84308 APPLIES: No

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Staff is recommending adoption of an urgency interim ordinance, pursuant to Government Code Section 65858(a), also known as a moratorium, to address current and immediate threats to public health, safety, and welfare, due to growing code City Council 22 – 590 4/1/2025
Transit Zoning Code Urgency Interim Ordinance (Moratorium) April 16, 2024

enforcement complaints stemming from the irreconcilable land use conflicts within the Specific Development No. 84 zoning district (commonly referred to as the “Transit Zoning Code” or “TZC”). Specifically, in the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods, and surrounding areas, the City’s Code Enforcement Division has investigated over 33 commercial and industrial properties in the past nine months and currently has 17 active open cases that have been issued Notice of Violations and administrative citations for the following types of violations: illegal storage, land use, zoning, property and landscape maintenance, unpermitted work, business license, and certificate of occupancy. The close proximity of active open industrial cases during a short period is creating a public nuisance that is straining City resources and that is harming public health, safety, and general welfare of the TZC’s existing and new residential neighborhoods.

If adopted, the urgency ordinance would establish a 45-day moratorium on the approval, commencement, establishment, modification, relocation, or expansion of industrial uses in the TZC while City staff researches appropriate regulations and determines whether an extension pursuant to the Government Code is necessary. The urgency ordinance shall have no further force and effect 45-days from the date of its adoption, unless, after a report on the first 45 days and a public hearing, the City Council members, again by four/fifths (4/5) vote, extend this ordinance for an initial extension period of ten (10) months and fifteen (15) days.

DISCUSSION
Background
Specific Development No. 84 (the Transit Zoning Code)
The Specific Development No. 84 zoning district, also known as the Transit Zoning Code (“TZC”), is located in the central urban core of the City and comprises over 100 blocks and 450 acres. The TZC includes the Civic Center, Downtown, and the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods, which are among the City’s most historic in age and in established residential communities. As shown in Exhibit 2, the TZC is generally bounded by First Street, Flower Street, Civic Center Drive, Grand Avenue, and the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway. Prior to the implementation of the TZC, the area consisted of a wide range of civic, commercial, industrial, and residential land uses under a variegated amalgamation of zoning districts and their regulations.

In June 2010, the City Council adopted Ordinance No. NS-2804, adopting various entitlements approving the creation of the TZC. The TZC established a transitsupportive, pedestrian-oriented development framework to support the addition of new transit infrastructure; preserve and reinforce the existing character and pedestrian nature of the City by strengthening urban form through improved development and City Council 22 – 591 4/1/2025
Transit Zoning Code Urgency Interim Ordinance (Moratorium) April 16, 2024

design standards; encourage alternative modes of transportation; provide for a range of housing options; and allow for the reuse of existing structures.

Moreover, the TZC provided new zoning for all of the properties contained within its boundary with the exception of those properties zoned Light Industrial (M1) or Heavy Industrial (M2). These M1 and M2 properties retained their existing zoning, but were covered by two overlay zones that allows for the option of future mixed-use development to be exercised at the discretion of the property owner. In support of the TZC, the City Council also approved a General Plan amendment, establishing numerous mixed-use General Plan land use designations for the entirety of the TZC. In these industrial overlay areas, however, the resulting new General Plan land use designations immediately resulted in zoning inconsistencies and land use conflicts between the new General Plan land use designations and the industrial overlays.

Since 2010, and specifically in the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods, these industrial uses have remained, changed ownership, undergone expansions or intensifications, and created numerous land use conflicts and disturbances that affect surrounding residential communities. Specifically, in the Logan neighborhood alone, these land uses create quality of life, health and safety, and other trespass issues for residential properties that often directly abut these industrial land uses. These issues include odors, dust, traffic, noise, vibrations, and other documented impacts that have taken place for nearly a decade and a half, despite the change in underlying General Plan land use designation.

Comprehensive Zoning Code Update
The City Council approved a contract with Moore, Iacofano, Goltsman, Inc. (MIG) on October 17, 2023. To ensure the City’s Zoning Code and General Plan are consistent, and to maintain compliance with state law, comprehensive amendments to the Zoning Code are required. Necessary amendments include the creation of new zoning district designations and corresponding development standards; updates to the definitions, signage, nonconforming, and parking sections; reorganization of the entire Zoning Code to a more user-friendly format; and new standards to reflect new land use trends, economic development trends, and land use goals of the City.

MIG and City staff have conducted extensive community outreach, stakeholder interviews, and reviews of existing zoning-related codes and policies in Santa Ana. These early efforts have indicated that the irreconcilable land use conflicts and land use inconsistencies in the TZC area are among the top, most pressing topics that must be addressed as part of the comprehensive Zoning Code Update process in order to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the most vulnerable communities that face the impacts of the land use conflicts within the TZC area.

City Council 22 – 592 4/1/2025
Transit Zoning Code Urgency Interim Ordinance (Moratorium) April 16, 2024

Historically Disadvantaged Communities
Prior to the adoption of the City’s Transit Zoning Code (TZC), the City permitted industrial uses within the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods in close proximity to sensitive land uses such as residences and schools. By way of context, the Logan neighborhood represents the oldest Mexican and Mexican-American neighborhoods of Santa Ana and one of the oldest barrios in Orange County, and one of the few places where Mexicans and those of Mexican descent were allowed to buy land due to restrictions and covenants based on race during the first half of the 20th century. Moreover, as a neighborhood, the area was established before the modern practice of separating impactful land uses, also known as zoning. The Logan neighborhood itself originated as early as 1886 and was largely settled by 1900, before the practice of zoning was enshrined by Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co. in 1926. By then, the neighborhood comprised residential, industrial, commercial, and related land uses, with issues further exacerbated by rail lines, fuel storage depots, and the construction of the Santa Ana Freeway between 1947 and 1956.

Comprehensive data analysis and mapping tools generated by the California EPA (CalEPA), the Center for Diseases Control/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (CDC/ATSDR), the U.S. EPA (EPA), and California Healthy Places Index (HPI), present concerning information regarding environmental conditions impacting residents in the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods. Exhibit 3 of this report references EJ maps showing rankings of at least 90% or higher in heavy air pollution attributed to indicators describing exposure to Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5, Diesel Particulate Matter, Air Toxics Cancer Risk, Toxic Releases to Air, and Hazardous Water Proximity exposures. Multiple sources of environmental exposure and pollution burden into communities of color, including the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods, presents an alarming set of challenges and decline in healthy community conditions that will impact their quality of life and life expectancy with continued heavy industrial uses nearby.

Implementation of Senate Bill (SB 1000), City General Plan Update (GPU), and new Environmental Justice (EJ) Policies and Actions
SB 1000 went into effect in 2016, requiring local governments to address pollution and other hazards that disproportionately impact low-income and communities of color within their jurisdiction as a way to proactively plan for and address environmental concerns when developing and updating components of the General Plan. During this period, the City began and extended its comprehensive public engagement process for the General Plan Update through its adoption in April 2022. The City and community worked to ensure that the new General Plan included SB 1000 requirements of addressing environmental justice in local general plans through facilitating transparency and public engagement in the planning and decision-making processes, reducing City Council 22 – 593 4/1/2025
Transit Zoning Code Urgency Interim Ordinance (Moratorium) April 16, 2024

harmful pollutants and the associated health risks in disadvantaged communities, and promoting equitable access to health-inducing benefits such as healthy housing options.

Of note, the new General Plan mixed-use land use designations in the TZC area were largely left intact, including those in the Lacy and Logan neighborhoods, when the General Plan Update was adopted in 2022.

Santa Ana’s current General Plan champions implementation policies, including 77 EJ actions that address air quality, noxious uses, water safety, residential lead exposure in the soil, and other environmental public health conditions. City staff, over the past year, have worked on a process to create an EJ Action Committee of EJ cluster area residents, community-based organizations (CBOs), and County and City staff representatives, to guide implementation and resource investments to protect neighborhoods from experiencing any further environmental harm. For the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods, incompatible land uses allowed from past zoning decisions, including the industrial overlay zones, have perpetuated the practices of locating industrial uses or other noxious and unwanted uses, in close proximity to communities of color.

Code Enforcement and Immediate Ongoing Issues
In the Lacy and Logan neighborhoods within the TZC, the Code Enforcement Division has investigated over 33 commercial and industrial properties in the past nine months and currently has 17 active open cases that have been issued Notice of Violations and administrative citations for the following types of violations: illegal storage, land use, zoning, property and landscape maintenance, unpermitted work, business license, and certificate of occupancy. These violations include issues of odors, dust, traffic, noise, vibrations, and other documented impacts. The close proximity of active open industrial cases during a short period is creating a public nuisance that is harming public health, safety, and general welfare of the two residential neighborhoods from the concentration of open code enforcement cases nearby.

Since June 2023, the TZC communities have experienced a marked increase in impacts stemming from the irreconcilable industrial and residential land use conflicts in the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods. Residents in the TZC have increased their reporting of complaints and public health concerns to City staff regarding emitted contaminants and zoning violations from industrial businesses in the neighborhoods. Concerns that range from air pollution and smoke, toxic release exposures, idling trucks on residential streets, lead exposure, illegal storage, unpermitted uses, loud noise at night, and other property maintenance pose an immediate public health threat that is straining public resources to continuously investigate and address these matters. Six months ago, a fire incident at Macera Crematory, located at 1020 Fuller Street, alarmed neighbors at 9:18 p.m. on August 29, 2023. Neighbors shared with City officials disturbing video of high flames escaping the stack on the rooftop, the screeching noise that went nonstop for 10 minutes, and what they described as a foul odor attributed to the fire. As City staff City Council 22 – 594 4/1/2025
Transit Zoning Code Urgency Interim Ordinance (Moratorium) April 16, 2024

followed up with external regulatory agencies issuing permits to operate this facility, and quickly, staff observed the limitations from regulatory agencies and their compartmentalized processes to investigate and act on enforcement measures.

Since 2022, the City has enhanced community services by restructuring its Planning Division to contain a Neighborhood Initiatives and Environmental Services (NIES) section, which oversees, among other functions, environmental justice efforts in Santa Ana and regional coordination to address such issues. Despite this restructuring, it is now well documented that the NIES section’s coordination with external regulatory agencies has not resulted in a favorable outcome in enforcement by responsible external agencies such as South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), California Department of Consumer Affairs Cemetery and Funeral Bureau (CFB), and Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA) in many of these investigations. In response, the City has adopted new regulations such as a Noxious Uses Ordinance (Ordinance No.

NS-3044, adopted June 20, 2023), which amends Zoning Ordinance No. 2023-01 that includes: a notification requirement to the City by the property owner to obtain a permit from a regulatory public agency; a requirement of a 1,000 linear foot distance buffer measured from the outermost boundary of the subject property; and a conditional use permit requirement from a regulatory public agency to handle, store, emit, or discharge particulate materials, exhaust emissions, or regulated compounds, or chemicals near a public park, school (K-12), or property zoned for residential purposes.

City staff have also researched commercial real estate acquisition data and current for sale properties to identify any trends that could potentially generate an increase in the application of the City’s Noxious Uses Ordinance for proposed or expanded industrial uses. From September 2022 to date, seven properties, primarily industrial businesses, sold and three of those businesses (800-808 E. Washington Avenue, 1045 Fuller Street, and 923 N. Logan Street) are located in the Logan neighborhood. Currently, two large properties are in the market for multifamily and land types located in the TZC.

Environmental Justice (EJ)/Disadvantaged Communities (DACs) Profile: Logan and Lacy neighborhood impacts
A demographic profile of the Lacy and Logan neighborhoods combined represent a population of 5,907, which encompass 1,564 households, a median household income of $56,864, average household size is nearly four persons, median age is 27 years, percapita income is $23,495, and 74% comprise renter-occupied units based on demographic forecasts for 2023. Nearly 25% of the population is under 14 years of age and 14% are 55 years of age and older. Nearly 3% of the population attended up to 12th grade with no diploma, over 31% are high school graduates, and nearly 97% of the working population over 16 years of age are employed.

This data illustrates that the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods are within the second and third highest scored census tracts in Santa Ana, each with a composite score of 90% or City Council 22 – 595 4/1/2025
Transit Zoning Code Urgency Interim Ordinance (Moratorium) April 16, 2024

greater, ranking in the 90th percentile or greater of census tracts in the State, and identified as “disadvantaged communities” by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) in its CalEnviroScreen model. Failure to address ongoing irreconcilable land use conflicts that are the target of this moratorium will further exacerbate the ongoing demographic and environmental justice challenges that these two neighborhoods within the TZC have grappled with since their founding.

General Plan Inconsistency with Present Land Uses
Numerous policies of the General Plan are inconsistent with the present, irreconcilable land use pattern of the TZC. Specifically, these policies include Policy LU-1.1 (Compatible Uses), Policy LU-3.8 (Sensitive Receptors), Policy LU-3.9 (Noxious, Hazardous, Dangerous, and Polluting Uses), Policy LU-3.11 (Air Pollution Buffers), Policy LU-4.3 (Sustainable Land Use Strategies), Policy LU-4.6 (Healthy Living Conditions), Policy CM-3.2 (Healthy Neighborhoods), Policy EP-1.9 (Avoid Conflict of Uses), and Policy CN-1.5 (Sensitive Receptor Decisions), which are targeted at correcting past land use planning practices that have placed an unequitable environmental and health burden on certain neighborhoods now termed disadvantaged communities.

The purpose of the interim ordinance is to immediately offer protection of public health, safety, and welfare from these irreconcilable land use conflicts in the TZC, during the time that City staff analyzes and prepares an evaluation of industrial business uses within the TZC. Such an evaluation will enable staff to generate recommendations to the Planning Commission and City Council to determine whether industrial uses should be permitted in the zoning district, and, if not, proceed with an ordinance and zoning map amendment to the district. During the interim moratorium period, City staff will not issue permits, business licenses, or other applicable entitlements to individuals wishing to use their property for the purposes of industrial business use in the TZC.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
This ordinance is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”), as the proposed action is not subject to the requirements of CEQA, pursuant to Guidelines Section 15060(c)(2) because the activity will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment and 15060(c)(3) because the activity is not a project as defined in Section 15378 of the CEQA Guidelines, California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Chapter 3, because it has no potential for resulting in physical change to the environment, directly or indirectly and so is not a project, as the ordinance will temporarily preclude the approval, commencement, establishment, relocation, or expansion of uses in the zoning district.

FISCAL IMPACTS
There is no fiscal impact associated with this action.

City Council 22 – 596 4/1/2025
Transit Zoning Code Urgency Interim Ordinance (Moratorium) April 16, 2024

EXHIBITS

1. Interim Ordinance (Moratorium)

2. Transit Zoning Code (TZC) Map

3. Logan and Lacy Community Summary Infographic and Environmental Justice (EJ) Data Maps City General Plan Environmental Justice Implementation Actions

4. City General Plan Environmental Justice (EJ) Implementation Actions Submitted By: Ali Pezeshkpour, AICP, Planning Manager
Approved By: Alvaro Nuñez, Acting City Manager
City Council 22 – 597 4/1/2025
Ordinance No. NS - ____

ORDINANCE NO. NS-XXXX

AN URGENCY ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SANTA

ANA PURSUANT TO GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION
65858 ADOPTING A 45-DAY MORATORIUM ON THE

APPROVAL, COMMENCEMENT, ESTABLISHMENT,

RELOCATION OR EXPANSION OF INDUSTRIAL USES
WITHIN SPECIFIC DEVELOPMENT NO. 84 ZONING

DISTRICT
WHEREAS, the City of Santa Ana has the police power pursuant to Article XI, section 7 of the California Constitution, to make and enforce ordinances to regulate the use of land within its jurisdictional boundaries; and
WHEREAS, Government Code Section 65858 expressly authorizes the City Council, in order to protect the public health, safety and welfare, to adopt an interim urgency ordinance prohibiting a use that is in conflict with a contemplated general plan, specific plan, or zoning proposal that the legislative body, planning commission, or the planning department is considering or studying or intends to study within a reasonable time, provided that the urgency measure shall require a four-fifths vote of the legislative body for adoption, and shall be of no further force and effect forty-five (45) days from its date of adoption, unless duly extended; and
WHEREAS, Specific Development No. 84 zoning district, also known as the Transit Zoning Code (TZC), located in the central core of Santa Ana, comprises approximately 450 acres, encompasses the Logan, Lacy, and Downtown neighborhoods, and was adopted by the City Council on June 7, 2010; and WHEREAS, upon the initial adoption of the TZC in 2010, the General Plan of the City of Santa Ana was updated with new land use designations for the areas covered by the TZC to allow for new, mixed-use residential and commercial communities; and WHEREAS, the goals of the TZC are to provide a transit-supportive, pedestrianoriented development framework to support the addition of new and enhancement of existing communities through transit infrastructure; to preserve and reinforce the existing character and pedestrian nature of the City by strengthening urban form through improved development and design standards; to encourage alternative modes of transportation; to provide zoning for the integration of new infill development into existing neighborhoods; to provide for a range of housing options; and to allow for the reuse of existing structures; and
WHEREAS, industrial uses were established within the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods in close proximity to sensitive land uses such as residences and schools prior to the adoption of the TZC, as far back as the late 19th century, predating modern zoning practices that take into account irreconcilable land use conflicts among variegated land uses; and
City Council 22 – 598 4/1/2025
Ordinance No. NS -XXXX

WHEREAS, the TZC provides new mixed-use zoning for properties contained within its boundary while creating industrial overlay zones allowing properties being used as industrial uses at the time of its adoption to continue to be governed by industrial zoning districts until such time that properties were converted to the mixeduse zones allowed by the TZC; and WHEREAS, Senate Bill (SB) 1000 went into effect in 2018, requiring local governments to identify environmental justice communities, called “disadvantaged communities”, in their jurisdictions and address environmental justice in their general plans through facilitating transparency and public engagement in the planning and decision-making processes, reducing harmful pollutants and the associated health risks in disadvantaged communities, and promoting equitable access to health-inducing benefits such as healthy housing options; and
WHEREAS, the City of Santa Ana completed a comprehensive update of its General Plan in April 2022; and
WHEREAS, the Office of the Attorney General of the State of California was actively involved in ensuring Santa Ana’s General Plan update complied with all aspects of SB 1000 prior to its adoption; and
WHEREAS, as required by SB 1000, update of the General Plan and its associated land use plan identified and addressed long standing environmental justice issues throughout all of its elements, which include 77 implementation actions aimed at reducing harmful pollutants and associated health risks in disadvantaged communities; and
WHEREAS, numerous policies of the General Plan are inconsistent with the present, irreconcilable land use pattern of the TZC. Specifically, these policies include Policy LU-1.1 (Compatible Uses), Policy LU-3.8 (Sensitive Receptors), Policy LU-3.9 (Noxious, Hazardous, Dangerous, and Polluting Uses), Policy LU-3.11 (Air Pollution Buffers), Policy LU-4.3 (Sustainable Land Use Strategies), Policy LU-4.6 (Healthy Living Conditions), Policy CM-3.2 (Healthy Neighborhoods), Policy EP-1.9 (Avoid Conflict of Uses), and Policy CN-1.5 (Sensitive Receptor Decisions), which are targeted at correcting past land use planning practices that have placed an unequitable environmental and health burden on certain neighborhoods now termed disadvantaged communities; and
WHEREAS, the industrial overlay zones in the TZC perpetuate past planning practices of locating industrial uses, or other noxious and unwanted uses, in close proximity to communities of color; and
WHEREAS, the Logan neighborhood is the oldest Mexican and MexicanAmerican neighborhood in Santa Ana and one of the oldest in Orange County, and one of the few places where Mexicans and those of Mexican descent were allowed to buy City Council 22 – 599 4/1/2025
Ordinance No. NS - ____

land due to restrictions and covenants based on race during the first half of the 20th century and
WHEREAS, the construction of Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway through Santa Ana in the 1950s resulted in a number of families being displaced through the demolition of single-family homes in the northeastern portion of the Logan neighborhood; and WHEREAS, in the 1970s a proposed expansion of an arterial highway along Civic Center Avenue would have demolished a significant portion, if not all, of the Logan neighborhood; and
WHEREAS, the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods are within the second and third highest scored census tracts in Santa Ana, each with a composite score of 90 percent or greater, ranking in the 90th percentile or greater of census tracts in the State, and identified as “disadvantaged communities” by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) in its CalEnviroScreen model; and WHEREAS, Assembly Bill (AB) 686 requires local jurisdictions to take deliberate actions to explicitly address, combat, and relieve disparities to disadvantaged communities, such as Logan and Lacy neighborhoods, resulting from past patterns of segregation, disinvestment, and planning practices; and WHEREAS, the updated land use plan in the Land Use Element of the General Plan does not designate any properties within the TZC, including the Logan or Lacy neighborhoods, as industrial; rather, are designated as varying intensities of District Center or Urban Neighborhood land use designations—both of which are inconsistent with industrial uses; and
WHEREAS, there are pressing and growing code enforcement complaints stemming from the irreconcilable land use conflicts in the TZC. Specifically, in the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods, the City’s Code Enforcement Division has investigated over 33 commercial and industrial properties in the past nine months and currently has 17 active open cases that have been issued Notice of Violations and administrative citations for the following types of violations: illegal storage, land use, zoning, property and landscape maintenance, unpermitted work, business license, and certificate of occupancy. The close proximity of active open industrial cases during a short period of time is creating a public nuisance that is draining City resources and that is harming public health, safety, and general welfare of the TZC’s existing and new residential neighborhoods from the concentration of open code enforcement cases nearby; and WHEREAS, in the Logan neighborhood, 52 industrial facilities (automotive, warehouse/storage, crematory, towing yards, construction) are presently in close proximity to sensitive uses monitored by external regulatory agencies such as South Coast AQMD, Orange County Health Care Agency – Certified Unified Program Agencies (OC CUPA), Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Board (SARWQB), Orange County Fire Authority. Industrial facilities have caused significant pollution exposure to City Council 22 – 600 4/1/2025
Ordinance No. NS -XXXX

disadvantaged communities, including lead risk in soil and housing, diesel particulate matter from idling trucks, toxic release from facilities, traffic impacts, noise pollution, and airborne particulate matter or fine inhalable particles of 2.5 (PM2.5) microns or less in diameter. CalEnviroScreen reports higher environmental effects from active facility cleanup sites, hazardous waste facilities, and solid waste locations. Cumulative health impacts in the area include asthma, cardiovascular disease, and low birth weight, in this overburdened disadvantaged community factored by socioeconomic indicators of poverty, linguistic isolation, housing burden, and education; and WHEREAS, in the Lacy neighborhood, 76 industrial facilities (automotive, warehouse/storage, towing yards, construction) are presently in close proximity to sensitive uses monitored by external regulatory agencies such as South Coast AQMD, Orange County Health Care Agency – Certified Unified Program Agencies (OC CUPA), Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Board (SARWQB), Orange County Fire Authority.

Industrial facilities have caused significant pollution onto disadvantaged communities, including lead risk exposure, diesel particulate matter from idling trucks, toxic release from facilities, traffic impacts, noise pollution, vibration impacts, and airborne particulate matter or fine inhalable particles of 2.5 (PM2.5) microns or less in diameter.

CalEnviroScreen reports higher environmental effects from active facility cleanup sites, hazardous waste facilities, and solid waste locations. Cumulative health impacts in the area include asthma, cardiovascular disease, and low birth weight, in this overburdened disadvantaged community factored by socioeconomic indicators of poverty, linguistic isolation, housing burden, and education; and
WHEREAS, there is a recent surge in residential development activity in the TZC that is exacerbating the irreconcilable land use conflicts between residential and industrial land uses. Examples include the Lacy Crossing residential development with over 100 ownership units directly adjacent to existing industrial land uses, for which the City receives regular complaints from residential occupants of disturbances from noise, vibrations, odors, and truck traffic; and the Rafferty mixed-use development with 218 residential units, including 11 onsite units for very-low income households, which is located less than one-fifth of a mile from industrial land uses; and WHEREAS, there is a marked increase in the pending and active development applications for industrial land uses in the TZC, including for contractor’s yards, construction debris storage yards, manufacturing operations, expansion of existing industrial businesses, and storage and warehousing operations, stemming from shifting economic demands for goods and services emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic; and WHEREAS, The City Council approved a contract with Moore, Iacofano, Goltsman, Inc. (MIG) on October 17, 2023. To ensure the City’s Zoning Code and General Plan are consistent, and to maintain compliance with state law, comprehensive amendments to the Zoning Code are required; and
WHEREAS, MIG and City staff have conducted extensive community outreach, stakeholder interviews, and reviews of existing zoning-related codes and policies in City Council 22 – 601 4/1/2025
Ordinance No. NS - ____

Santa Ana. These early efforts have indicated that the irreconcilable land use conflicts and land use inconsistencies in the TZC area are among the top, most pressing topics that must be addressed as part of the comprehensive Zoning Code Update process in order to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the most vulnerable communities that face the impacts of the land use conflicts within the TZC area; and WHEREAS, the policies and implementation actions in the General Plan also require review, study, and possible revision in order to respond to recent concerns relating to the impacts of these industrial business uses in the TZC; and WHEREAS, given these concerns, the City Council hereby directs that a study be undertaken of the current provisions of the TZC to address industrial business uses and determine whether such uses should be permitted in the zoning district, and if not, proceed with an ordinance amendment to preclude such uses from the district; and WHEREAS, based on the foregoing, the City Council finds that continuing to issue permits, business licenses, or other applicable entitlements to individuals wishing to use their property located in the TZC for the purposes of industrial business use, prior to the City’s completion of its study of the potential impact of such uses, would pose a current and immediate threat to the public health, safety, and welfare, and that a temporary moratorium on the issuance of such permits, licenses, and entitlements in the TZC area is thus necessary; and
WHEREAS, if an industrial business use is permitted in the TZC without further review and potential regulation, it will pose a serious threat to the public interest, health, safety and welfare for the following reasons:
(1) Adversely impacts surrounding businesses and neighborhoods; (2) Adversely impacts sensitive uses such as residences, schools, parks, and places where children congregate;
(3) Conflicts with the goals and policies of the City's General Plan; (4) Long-term incompatibility and inconsistency with surrounding uses; and (5) Risks to the public health, safety and welfare of the City; and WHEREAS, prevention of detrimental impacts to residents, the public interest, health, safety and welfare requires the immediate enactment of this urgency ordinance.

The absence of this urgency ordinance will create a serious threat to the orderly and effective implementation of any code amendments, general plan amendments or specific plan amendments which may be adopted by the City; industrial business uses may be in conflict with or frustrate the contemplated updates and revisions to the Code.

Moreover, permitting such uses during said studies and implementation would create impacts on the public health, safety and welfare that the City Council, in adopting this ordinance, has found to be unacceptable; and
City Council 22 – 602 4/1/2025
Ordinance No. NS -XXXX

WHEREAS, the City Council finds, determines and declares that the current and immediate threat to the public health, safety and welfare of the city and its citizens necessitates the immediate enactment of this urgency ordinance by a four-fifths vote of the City Council.

NOW, THEREFORE, the City Council of the City of Santa Ana does ordain as follows:

Section 1. The recitals above are each incorporated by reference and adopted as findings by the City Council.

Section 2. The City Council finds and determines that this ordinance is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) pursuant to sections 15061(b)(3) and 15061(b)(5) of the CEQA Guidelines because it will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment, as the ordinance will temporarily preclude the approval, commencement, establishment, relocation or expansion of uses in the zoning district.

Section 3. California Government Code Section 65858 authorizes the City Council to adopt an interim urgency ordinance, without following the procedures otherwise required for the adoption of an ordinance, to protect the public safety, health, and welfare, prohibiting any uses that may be in conflict with a contemplated general plan, specific plan, or zoning proposal that the City Council, Planning Commission or the planning department is considering or studying or intends to study within a reasonable time.

Section 4. The City Council, in accordance with Government Code Section 65858, hereby adopts this urgency ordinance establishing a 45-day moratorium on the approval, commencement, establishment, modification, relocation or expansion of industrial uses in the TZC while City staff researches appropriate regulations and whether an extension pursuant to the Government Code is necessary. For the purposes of this Ordinance, “industrial uses” includes those specified by Divisions 18 and 19 of Article III of Chapter 41 of the Santa Ana Municipal Code, and by Section 41-2007 of the Santa Ana Municipal Code and Table 2A in the Transit Zoning Code (Specific Development No. 84).

Section 5. This ordinance shall have no further force and effect forty-five (45) days from the date of its adoption; unless, however, after public hearing the City Council members, by four/fifths (4/5) vote, extend this ordinance for an initial period of ten (10) months and fifteen (15) days and subsequently, after public hearing, the City Council members, by four/fifths (4/5) vote, extend this ordinance one more year.

Section 6. It shall be unlawful and a misdemeanor for any person to violate or fail to comply with any provision of the ordinance. The violation of any provision of this ordinance shall be punished as provided in Section 1-8 of Chapter 1 of the Code.

City Council 22 – 603 4/1/2025
Ordinance No. NS - ____

Section 7. If any section, subsection, phrase, or clause of this ordinance is for any reason held to be unconstitutional, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this ordinance. The City Council hereby declares that it would have passed this ordinance and each section, subsection, phrase or clause thereof irrespective of the fact that any one or more sections, subsections, phrases, or clauses be declared invalid or unconstitutional.

Section 8. This ordinance is introduced, passed and adopted at one and the same meeting and is thereafter immediately effective. The City Council finds that this ordinance is necessary to protect the public safety, health and welfare. The reasons for the emergency are set forth in Section 1 of this ordinance.

Section 9. The City Clerk shall certify to the adoption of this ordinance and cause the same to be published in the manner prescribed by law.

ADOPTED this ___ day of ___________________, 2024.
_______________________
Valerie Amezcua
Mayor
APPROVED AS TO FORM:

Sonia R. Carvalho
City Attorney
By:_____________________________
Laura A. Rossini
Chief Assistant City Attorney
AYES: Councilmembers: ________________________________________ NOES: Councilmembers: ________________________________________ ABSTAIN: Councilmembers: ________________________________________ NOT PRESENT: Councilmembers: ________________________________________ City Council 22 – 604 4/1/2025
Ordinance No. NS -XXXX

CERTIFICATE OF ATTESTATION AND ORIGINALITY
I, Jennifer L. Hall, City Clerk, do hereby attest to and certify the attached Ordinance No.

NS-XXXX to be the original ordinance adopted by the City Council of the City of Santa Ana on _______________________, 2024.

Date: ________________ ____________________________________ City Clerk
City of Santa Ana
City Council 22 – 605 4/1/2025
H
H
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WASHINGTON AV WASHINGTON AV WASHINGTON AV

FLOWER ST FLOWER ST

CIVIC CENTER DR CIVIC CENTER DR

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BROADWAY BROADWAY BROADWAY BROADWAY

PARTON ST PARTON ST

SANTA ANA BLVD SANTA ANA BLVD

SANTA ANA BLVD SANTA ANA BLVD

ROSS ST ROSS ST ROSS ST ROSS ST

HALLADAY ST

HICKORY ST

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STANDARD AV

CYPRESS AV

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SYCAMORE ST

GRAND AV
6TH ST

BIRCH ST

SYCAMORE ST SYCAMORE ST SYCAMORE ST

FRENCH ST FRENCH ST

BUSH ST BUSH ST BUSH ST

BUSH ST

SPURGEON ST

FRENCH ST

MORTIMER ST

FLOWER ST FLOWER ST

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6TH ST
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WELLINGTON AV

HATHAWAY ST

STAFFORD ST

BIRCH ST
14TH ST

VAN NESS AV

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3RD ST 3RD ST 3RD ST 3RD ST 3RD ST 3RD ST SPURGEON ST SPURGEON ST 10TH ST

PORTER ST

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5TH ST 5TH ST 5TH ST

SANTA ANA BLVD

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WASHINGTON AV
14TH ST
6TH ST

SANTA FE ST

VANCE ST

BROWN ST

LACY ST

HATHAWAY ST

GARFIELD ST

GARFIELD ST

MINTER ST

MARTHA LN

STAFFORD ST
11TH ST
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10TH ST

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LACY ST
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FRUIT ST

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PARTON ST
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0 275 550 1,100 1,650 2,200 2,750
Feet /
Transit Zoning Code SD-84
District Boundary
Corridor (CDR)
Downtown (DT)
Government Center (GC)
Open Space (OS)
Transit Village (TV)
Urban Center (UC)
Urban Neighborhood (UN-1)
Urban Neighborhood (UN-2)
Industrial Overlay M-1 (OZ)
Industrial Overlay M-2 (OZ)
SD-84
City Council 22 – 606 4/1/2025
EXHIBIT 3 - Logan and Lacy Community Summary Infographic and Environmental Justice (EJ) Data Maps City Council 22 – 607 4/1/2025
EXHIBIT 3 - Logan and Lacy Community Summary Infographic and Environmental Justice (EJ) Data Maps (Continued)
The Community Summary infographic data are from ESRI 2023 forecasts, U.S. Census Bureau, and prior year American Community Survey results. Data references population, race and ethnicity, income, age, employment, homeownership, and a population density greater than the City’s population density of 12,471.5 people per square mile.

City Council 22 – 608 4/1/2025
EXHIBIT 3 - Logan and Lacy Community Summary Infographic and Environmental Justice (EJ) Data Maps (Continued)
The CalEnviroScreen 4.0 provides an insight into vulnerable communities that are most affected by pollution burdens, with special consideration on race and ethnicity. The map below highlights the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods within the City of Santa Ana at 90% or above as being burdened by pollution.

City Council 22 – 609 4/1/2025
EXHIBIT 3 - Logan and Lacy Community Summary Infographic and Environmental Justice (EJ) Data Maps (Continued)
The map below highlights the Disadvantaged Communities (DACs) within the City of Santa Ana, with both Logan and Lacy neighborhoods falling into that category. The CalEPA has responsibility for identifying those communities and CalEPA’s designation of disadvantaged communities must be based on “geographic, socioeconomic, public health, and environmental hazard” criteria. CalEPA DACs affect an entire or a portion of thirty-three of Santa Ana’s neighborhoods.

City Council 22 – 610 4/1/2025
The Center for Diseases Control (CDC) Environmental Justice Index Map uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau, and other federal agencies to rank the cumulative impacts of environmental injustices on health for every census tract.

The map below shows the census tract that includes part of the Lacy neighborhood, which appears to rank HIGH in air pollution due to exposure to Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5, Diesel Particulate Matter from idling trucks, and Air Toxics Cancer Risk indicators.

City Council 22 – 611 4/1/2025
EXHIBIT 3 - Logan and Lacy Community Summary Infographic and Environmental Justice (EJ) Data Maps (Continued)
The map below shows the census tract that includes the Logan neighborhood, which appears to rank HIGH in air pollution related to exposure to Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5, Diesel Particulate Matter from idling trucks, and Air Toxics Cancer Risk indicators.

City Council 22 – 612 4/1/2025
EXHIBIT 3 - Logan and Lacy Community Summary Infographic and Environmental Justice (EJ) Data Maps (Continued)
The EPA’s Environmental Justice map and screening tool uses national consistent data combining environmental and demographic indicators in maps and reports. The map below highlights the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods within the City of Santa Ana ranking as it relates to Air Toxics Cancer Risk, reflecting at 90% or higher.

City Council 22 – 613 4/1/2025
EXHIBIT 3 - Logan and Lacy Community Summary Infographic and Environmental Justice (EJ) Data Maps (Continued)
The map below highlights the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods within the City of Santa Ana ranking as it relates to Diesel Particulate Matter indicating percentiles above 90%.

City Council 22 – 614 4/1/2025
EXHIBIT 3 - Logan and Lacy Community Summary Infographic and Environmental Justice (EJ) Data Maps (Continued)
The map below highlights the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods within the City of Santa Ana ranking as it relates to Hazardous Water Proximity, showing a percentile of 95% or above.

City Council 22 – 615 4/1/2025
EXHIBIT 3 - Logan and Lacy Community Summary Infographic and Environmental Justice (EJ) Data Maps (Continued)
The map below highlights the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods within the City of Santa Ana ranking as it relates to Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5 reflecting a heavy burden of 95% and above in the percentile score.

City Council 22 – 616 4/1/2025
EXHIBIT 3 - Logan and Lacy Community Summary Infographic and Environmental Justice (EJ) Data Maps (Continued)
The map below highlights the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods within the City of Santa Ana’s ranking as it relates to Lead Paint showing that the percentile is within 80% and 90%.

City Council 22 – 617 4/1/2025
EXHIBIT 3 - Logan and Lacy Community Summary Infographic and Environmental Justice (EJ) Data Maps (Continued)
The map below indicates the Logan and Lacy neighborhoods within the City of Santa Ana ranking as it relates to Toxic Releases to Air showing a high percentile score of 90%.

City Council 22 – 618 4/1/2025
EXHIBIT 3 - Logan and Lacy Community Summary Infographic and Environmental Justice (EJ) Data Maps (Continued)
The Healthy Places Index (HPI) comprises a data and policy platform to advance equitable community investments, develop critical programs and policies and advance health equity through open and accessible data. The map below captures the City of Santa Ana, which indicates that the majority of the City of Santa Ana’s neighborhoods rank on the LOW scale of the healthy community conditions, as seen in the dark blue and light blue layers.

City Council 22 – 619 4/1/2025
EXHIBIT 3 - Logan and Lacy Community Summary Infographic and Environmental Justice (EJ) Data Maps (Continued)
Using the HPI mapping tool, the Lacy
neighborhood ranks at a 9.6% of the
least healthy community conditions.

Using the HPI mapping tool, the Logan
neighborhood ranks on the LOW end,
showing nearly 11% of the least healthy
community conditions.

City Council 22 – 620 4/1/2025
City of Santa Ana
General Plan EJ Actions

GENERAL
PLAN

ELEMENT
REF #
EJ
policy

IMPLEMENTATION ACTION

RESPONSIBLE
DEPT/
AGENCY
TIME
FRAME
Community 1.1 Yes
Engage EJ communities on recreation and cultural programs. Incorporate community stakeholders from environmental justice communities to form an Environmental Justice Action Committee to guide the identification of recreational and cultural programing needs and desires.

PRCSA / PBA 2023
Community 1.2 Yes
Community conversation. Plan for and conduct a community survey every two years related to community health, pollution concerns, parks, community engagement, and community service needs, with focused outreach to environmental justice priority areas utilizing various platforms, such as social media and school events, to encourage substantial survey participation.

CMO
Every two
years
Community 1.3 Yes
Collaboration. Develop intentional, strategic partnerships with public, private, and nonprofit entities to improve health outcomes by leveraging capacity, resources, and programs around mutually beneficial initiatives that promote health, equity, and sustainability in neighborhoods within environmental justice area boundaries. Develop a comprehensive partnership policy providing guidelines that can be used throughout the City organization.

PBA/PRCSA 2022 -2024
Community 1.4 Yes
Community coordination on underutilized spaces. Coordinate with community residents, property owners, and other stakeholders to identify vacant and potentially underutilized properties and strategize how such properties could be repurposed into public parks or commercial recreation facilities.

PBA/PRCSA 2022 &
ongoing
Community 1.5 Yes
Alternative facilities. In park deficient and environmental justice areas, identify facilities that are viable alternatives to public parks and municipal facilities for recreational, cultural, and health and wellness programs, including but not limited to school facilities, facilities of faith-based and civic organizations, and privately owned recreation and entertainment facilities. Identify, inventory, and rank other resources for potential park system acquisition, expansion to existing parks, and/or parks development opportunity within the community.

PRCSA 2022
Community 1.6 Yes
Program accessibility. To ensure residents of environmental justice area boundaries have access to recreational, cultural, and health and wellness programs, establish accessibility corridors that provide attractive, comfortable, and safe pedestrian and bike access to public recreational facilities in the Parks Master Plan (an implementation action of the Open Space Element). Identify public realm improvements needed to create these accessibility corridors. Prioritize investments for accessibility corridors in the city's capital investment program; include investments for accessibility corridors when investments are made in new parks and recreation facilities within environmental justice area boundaries.

PRCSA/PWA 2022
City Council Page 1 of 11 22 – 621 4/1/2025
City of Santa Ana
General Plan EJ Actions

GENERAL
PLAN

ELEMENT
REF #
EJ
policy

IMPLEMENTATION ACTION

RESPONSIBLE
DEPT/
AGENCY
TIME
FRAME
Community 1.7 Yes
Rental property outreach. Augment the Proactive Rental Enforcement Team and Residential Response Team with additional outreach geared toward absentee owners of rental properties. Create and periodically distribute outreach materials in order to educate absentee owners about legal obligations to maintain and upkeep rental properties. Distribute information to tenants about their rights and protection, so they are not penalized for reporting or living in a dwelling unit that does not meet health and safety standards. Translate outreach efforts into Spanish, Vietnamese, and other appropriate languages. Prioritize such outreach for properties within environmental justice area boundaries.

PBA
2022 &
Ongoing
Community 1.8 Yes
Neighborhood rehabilitation. Continue to seek state and federal funding for neighborhood rehabilitation projects and collaborate with community-based organizations to identify housing issues and improvements needed, especially for housing within environmental justice area boundaries.

CDA Ongoing
Community 2.1 Yes
Facilities to support lifelong learning. For areas within park deficient and environmental justice areas , conduct, maintain, and publicize an inventory of public, nongovernmental, and private facilities that can be used by organizations to support early childhood education, after school activities, libraries and learning centers, and other meetings and educational opportunities.

CMO 2024
Community 2.2 Yes
Public realm. Identify areas in need of a public realm plan to provide attractive, comfortable, and safe walking corridors to promote accessibility to community programs or activity centers, in conjunction with the City's Active Transportation Plan.

PWA/PBA Ongoing
Community 3.1 Yes
Community health care facilities. Evaluate options to support existing and potential community health care facilities in environmental justice focus areas through a variety of mechanisms such as reduced permit fees, reduced impact fees, and tax incentives.

PBA/CMO 2023
Community 3.2 Yes
Pedestrian access to health facilities. Ensure that new or redeveloped health care facilities include pedestrian-friendly site amenities. In areas where mobile clinics are stationed, ensure the location is safe and accessible for pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users.

PBA Ongoing
Community 3.3 Yes
Health metrics. Engage with the Orange County Health Care Agency and other stakeholders to monitor key health indicators to measure the success of the outcome of General Plan policies and the implementation plan, including reduction in incidence in asthma and low birth weight of infants.

PBA/CMO 2022
City Council Page 2 of 11 22 – 622 4/1/2025
City of Santa Ana
General Plan EJ Actions

GENERAL
PLAN

ELEMENT
REF #
EJ
policy

IMPLEMENTATION ACTION

RESPONSIBLE
DEPT/
AGENCY
TIME
FRAME
Community 3.4 Yes
Prevention activities. Coordinate with the County Health Care Agency to identify the root causes of health disparities and inequities in Santa Ana, with additional detail for residents living within environmental justice area boundaries. Identify potential programmatic changes and resources to better address the root causes.

PBA/CMO 2022 - 2024
Community 3.5 Yes
Environmental education. Encourage all education institutions in Santa Ana to include curriculum regarding environmental justice and local efforts to promote clean business operations, environmental quality, and the health in our community.

PBA/CMO 2022 - 2024
Community 3.6 Yes
Fresh and healthy foods. Pursue programs, incentives, and/or grants to encourage urban agriculture and small grocery or convenience stores to sell fresh foods in the city, especially those within environmental justice area boundaries. Examples include grants or loans to purchase updated equipment, publicity, or directories of healthy food outlets, or connecting stores to wholesale sources of healthy, local, or organic food.

CDA 2022
Community 3.6A Yes
Food Deserts. Collaborate with Orange County Health Care Agency (OCHCA) to gather and map food desert data, and share publicly through the City's Environmental Quality webpage.

PBA 2024
Community 3.7 Yes
Public health and wellness collaboration summit. Collaborate with health care providers, health and wellness advocates, and other public health stakeholders to identify ways to improve the provision of and access to health and wellness services throughout the city. Include a discussion on areas within environmental justice area boundaries and other areas underserved by parks, programs and services that support health and wellness.

PRCSA
2022 &
ongoing
Community 3.8 Yes
Environmental soil and human health screening measures. Collaborate with Orange County Health Care Agency, and local stakeholders such as Orange County Environmental Justice and UC Irvine Public Health, in efforts to provide increased healthcare services (i.e., blood lead testing, treatment) for residents, especially those that reside in environmental justice communities. Additionally, collaborate to advocate for adjustment of the County and State policies for health and environmental screening levels to promote healthy outcomes related to lead contamination as recommended by health experts.

PBA Ongoing
Community 3.9 Yes
Environmental Justice Staff. Identify funding and hire a full-time Environmental Justice staff member to collaborate with the community to implement the environmental justice policies and actions including community outreach, collaboration on environmental health studies, pursuing grants, and coordination with federal, state, and local agencies regarding environmental concerns in the City.

CMO 2022
City Council Page 3 of 11 22 – 623 4/1/2025
City of Santa Ana
General Plan EJ Actions

GENERAL
PLAN

ELEMENT
REF #
EJ
policy

IMPLEMENTATION ACTION

RESPONSIBLE
DEPT/
AGENCY
TIME
FRAME
Conservation 1.1 Yes
Air quality planning. Review existing and monitor the development of new air monitoring and emissions reduction plans prepared by the South Coast Air Quality Management District. Gather and evaluate measures and strategies in such plans for their applicability to and feasibility for Santa Ana.

PBA
2022 &
annually
Conservation 1.2 Yes
Community identification. Coordinate with the South Coast Air Quality Management District and local stakeholders to pursue a priority community designation for eligible environmental justice areas of the city , with focus on areas with unique needs and highest pollution burden as identified in the CalEnviroScreen tool. If such designation is not awarded, seek grant funds for activities such as local air quality monitoring.

PBA
2022 &
Ongoing
Conservation 1.3 Yes
Proactive engagement. Collaborate with the South Coast Air Quality Management District and local stakeholders in environmental justice areas experiencing local air pollutions issues to outline objectives and strategies for monitoring air pollution in advance of the establishment of a community emissions reduction and/or air monitoring plan.

PBA
2022 &
Ongoing
Conservation 1.4 Yes
Health risk criteria. Establish criteria for requiring health risk assessments for existing and new industries, including the type of business, thresholds, and scope of assessment. Review existing and establish new regulation to reduce and avoid increased pollution near sensitive receptors within environmental justice area boundaries.

PBA 2022 - 2027
Conservation 1.5 Yes
Agency permits. Monitor the South Coast Air Quality Management District permitting and inspection process and the Orange County Health Care Agency to identify businesses in Santa Ana with potential hazardous materials or by-products, with a special focus on environmental justice communities. Serve as a liaison for residents to identify potential emission violations. Share information and data with the community on the City’s Environmental Quality web page.

PBA
2022 &
Ongoing
Conservation 1.6 Yes
Emissions monitoring. Coordinate with the South Coast Air Quality Management District to monitor existing air measurements and recommend new air measurements and locations.

PBA
2022 &
Ongoing
Conservation 1.7 Yes
Truck idling. Evaluate strategies to reduce truck idling found or reported in areas with sensitive receptors, with a priority placed on environmental justice areas PBA/PD 2022 - 2024
Conservation 1.8 Yes
Improve older trucks. Promote the City’s Vehicle Replacement Plan and explore the replacement of older trucks through City participation in regional incentive programs and education of Santa Ana private fleet owners of program opportunities.

PWA 2022
City Council Page 4 of 11 22 – 624 4/1/2025
City of Santa Ana
General Plan EJ Actions

GENERAL
PLAN

ELEMENT
REF #
EJ
policy

IMPLEMENTATION ACTION

RESPONSIBLE
DEPT/
AGENCY
TIME
FRAME
Conservation 1.9 Yes
Indirect source rules. Support the development of indirect source rules, drayage truck rules, advanced clean truck routes, and heavy-duty low NOx rules by the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

CMO Ongoing
Conservation 1.10 Yes
Interagency team. Establish an environmental quality interagency team to evaluate, monitor, and make recommendations to address air quality and environmental hazard issues, with a special focus on environmental justice areas. Publish results and information on the City’s website through a dedicated Santa Ana Environmental Quality web page.

PBA
2022 &
Ongoing
Conservation 1.11 Yes
Public education. Augment existing outreach programs to improve public awareness of State, regional and local agencies’ roles and resources to identify, monitor, and address air quality and other environmental hazards in the community.

PBA/PWA Ongoing
Conservation 1.12 Yes
Data collection for emissions plans. Coordinate with the South Coast Air Quality Management District to explore ways to initiate data collection efforts for a community emissions reduction and/or community air monitoring plan, including the identification of information needed (new or updated), potential data sources and needed resources, and strategies to engage residents and collect information.

PBA 2022
Conservation 1.13 Yes
Community survey on healthy lifestyles. Plan for and conduct a community survey of residents every two years related to community health, pollution, parks, community engagement, and community services, with focused outreach for environment justice concerns and priority areas (tie into other City efforts like Strategic Plan, park and recreation planning, community benefits, etc.).Report findings of survey through the various media platforms and utilize input to inform periodic evaluation and update of General Plan.

CMO
Every two
years
Conservation 1.14 Yes
Expanded interactions. Identify opportunities to expand regular attendance and support neighborhood associations and community groups to hold regular meetings with City staff and decision-makers in neighborhoods within environmental justice communities, so that residents, community organizations and businesses can communicate their unique issues and needs, as well as their recommendations on how best to implement environmental quality, environmental health, and environmental justice policies. Arrange for language interpretation services as needed at these meetings so that all residents can participate.

PBA/CMO Ongoing
Conservation 1.15 Yes
Expanded representation. Expand representation of residents from neighborhoods within environmental justice area boundaries by extending residents from such areas to become board, commission, and task force members as openings occur
PBA/CMO Ongoing
City Council Page 5 of 11 22 – 625 4/1/2025
City of Santa Ana
General Plan EJ Actions

GENERAL
PLAN

ELEMENT
REF #
EJ
policy

IMPLEMENTATION ACTION

RESPONSIBLE
DEPT/
AGENCY
TIME
FRAME
Conservation 1.16 Yes
City budget. Evaluate the City’s budget and financial policies to include direction for prioritizing public services and improvements within environmental justice area boundaries. Augment budget meeting presentations to include a section dedicated to the status of actions and improvements to address the needs of residents within environmental justice area boundaries.

CMO Annually
Economic
Prosperity

3.5 Yes
Green business incentives. Continue to promote and market the Recycling Market Development Zone. Develop an incentive program to encourage nonpolluting industry and clean green technology companies that reduce environmental impacts and the carbon footprint to locate to the city.

Encourage existing businesses to invest in technology and best practice to transition to sustainable business practices.

CDA Ongoing
Historical
Preservation

3.8 Yes
Equitable access. Establish a fee reduction or waiver program for low-income applicants to ensure equitable access and participation in the Mills Act Program.

PBA 2023
Land Use 2.10 Yes
Open space requirements. Evaluate public open space and park requirements in the zoning code for residential and nonresidential uses. Consider requirements and/or incentives to aggregate public open space areas required by two or more uses to form larger and more usable areas and facilities.

PBA/PRCSA 2022 - 2027
Land Use 3.2 Yes
Design guidelines and standards. Update the zoning code's development and operational standards for industrial zones to address incompatibility with adjacent uses, including minimum distance requirements to buffer heavy industrial uses from sensitive receptors. Conduct a study to evaluate and establish appropriate minimum distances and landscape buffers between polluting industrial uses from sensitive receptors such as residences, schools, day care, and public facilities.

PBA 2022 - 2027
Land Use 3.3 Yes
Healthy lifestyles. Collaborate with residents and industry stakeholders to create a program to incentivize and amortize the removal of existing heavy industrial uses adjacent to sensitive uses.

PBA 2022
Land Use 3.4 Yes
Funding for air filtration. Seek funding from South Coast Air Quality Management District and other regional sources for the installation of high-efficiency air filtration systems in buildings, homes, and schools located in areas with high levels of localized air pollution, especially for those within environmental justice area boundaries.

PBA 2022
Land Use 3.5 Yes
Business incentive. Explore economic development incentives and grant funding to encourage existing or draw new business investments in the industrial zones to incorporate more environmentally sustainable practices.

CDA Ongoing
Land Use 3.6 Yes
Lead paint abatement. Coordinate with County of Orange Health Care Agency and community organizations to strengthen local programs and initiatives to eliminate lead-based paint hazards, with priority given to residential buildings located within environmental justice area boundaries.

CDA / PBA 2021 &
Ongoing
City Council Page 6 of 11 22 – 626 4/1/2025
City of Santa Ana
General Plan EJ Actions

GENERAL
PLAN

ELEMENT
REF #
EJ
policy

IMPLEMENTATION ACTION

RESPONSIBLE
DEPT/
AGENCY
TIME
FRAME
Land Use 3.14 Yes
Sunshine ordinance. Update City Sunshine Ordinance, incorporating best practices for outreach in environmental justice areas in Santa Ana
CMO 2022
Land Use 3.15 Yes
Communication tools. Explore tools for communication with residents and sensitive receptors when new industrial uses are proposed in their areas
PBA 2022 - 2024
Land Use 3.16 Yes
Health in corridors. Require a Health Risk Assessment to identify best practices to minimize air quality and noise impacts when considering new residential uses within 500 feet of a freeway.

PBA 2022 - 2027
Land Use 3.17 Yes
Training for safe practice. Pursue the EPA Renovate Right Program to train local residential contractors for certification as lead renovators to promote safe work practices and prevent lead contamination.

PBA 2022
Land Use 3.18 Yes
Renovations and lead prevention. Evaluate the feasibility of requiring contractor training and/or certification for safe work practices to conduct residential renovations for pre-1978 structures that may contain existing lead paint.

PBA & CDA Ongoing
Land Use 3.19 Yes
Promote health. Partner with local organizations (e.g., OC Health Care Agency, Latino Health Access, Santa Ana Unified School District, Garden Grove Unified School District, Orange County Environmental Justice, and the Coalition of Community Health Centers) to increase blood lead testing, outreach, education, and referral services through a ‘promotora’ or community peer outreach model that addresses the root causes of elevated blood lead levels impacting Santa Ana residents, with special focus in environmental justice communities and for children living in pre-1978 housing.

PBA 2022 - Ongoing
Land Use 3.20 Yes
Safe housing. Require all residential rehabilitation projects that use local, or HUD federal funds to comply with the Lead Safe Housing Rule, to remove lead paint hazards, depending on the nature of work and the dollar amount of federal investment in the property CDA Ongoing
Land Use 3.21 Yes
Prevention education. Collaborate with local organizations such as Orange County Health Care Agency, State Environmental Protection Agency, and community-based environmental justice organizations to identify funds and create a Santa Ana Prevent Lead Poisoning Education Program, with special focus on disadvantaged communities and pre-1978 housing stock.

PBA 2022 - Ongoing
City Council Page 7 of 11 22 – 627 4/1/2025
City of Santa Ana
General Plan EJ Actions

GENERAL
PLAN

ELEMENT
REF #
EJ
policy

IMPLEMENTATION ACTION

RESPONSIBLE
DEPT/
AGENCY
TIME
FRAME
Land Use 3.22 Yes
Public health outcomes. Support the Orange County Health Care Agency in their role in investigating public complaints regarding unsafe lead work practices and lead hazards wherein children are present,
through enforcement of local housing standards to assure healthy outcomes, including for individuals and households presenting with concerns about lead exposure and/or with confirmed lead levels of >3.5ug/dL, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates as the threshold for followup and case management in children.

PBA
2022 &
Ongoingng
Land Use 3.23 Yes
Agency permits. Work with South Coast Air Quality Management District and Orange County Health Care Agency to evaluate existing special permit process and criteria for approval, and identify potential policy changes to minimize issuance of special permits with potential health impacts.

PBA 2022
Land Use 3.24 Yes
Public health. Partner with Orange County Health Care Agency and community serving organizations to evaluate best practices and benefits of preparing a Public Health Plan to address environmental hazards in Santa Ana, with special focus in environmental justice communities. Conduct public meetings to gather information and present preliminary findings.

PBA 2022 - 2024
Land Use 3.25 Yes
Engage EJ communities. Work with community serving organizations, neighborhood leaders, and residents to form an Ad Hoc Committee to develop ongoing EJ Community Engagement programs for existing and new disadvantaged EJ communities, including multilingual communication protocols.

Host quarterly Roundtable meetings with local stakeholders to guide and evaluate implementation of environmental justice policies.

PBA 2022
Land Use 3.26 Yes
Health conditions. Work with state agencies including the Department of Toxic Substances Control and South Coast Air Quality Management District, Orange County Health Care Agency and local stakeholders including Orange County Environmental Justice and UC Irvine Public Health to identify PBA Ongoing
Land Use 3.27 Yes
Groundwater practice. Coordinate with the State Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) to monitor the Santa Ana Southeast Groundwater Clean Up Project and identify measurable progress to remediate groundwater contamination. Share information with the community on the City’s Environmental Quality web page.

PBA Ongoing
City Council Page 8 of 11 22 – 628 4/1/2025
City of Santa Ana
General Plan EJ Actions

GENERAL
PLAN

ELEMENT
REF #
EJ
policy

IMPLEMENTATION ACTION

RESPONSIBLE
DEPT/
AGENCY
TIME
FRAME
Land Use 3.28 Yes
Tenant protections. Provide information to residential tenants regarding Landlord Tenant Laws in the State, such as AB 1481, and Santa Ana’s Just Cause for Tenant Eviction and Rent Stabilization ordinance that provide protections against evictions for those who seek action to improve substandard housing and hazardous conditions.

PBA
2022 &
Ongoing
Land Use 3.29 Yes
Development site history. Update the City’s Development Review application process to require developers to provide information regarding the prior use of the site and history of hazardous materials on the property, in order to identify potential for site contamination from hazardous materials or soil lead contamination to be remediated.

PBA 2022
Land Use 4.6 Yes
Fireworks and environmental pollution. Study the data available to understand the health effects and environmental exposure, including air quality and noise impacts, from airborne sources such as fireworks shows and displays, with special focus on environmental justice areas.

PBA/CMO/PD 2022 - 2024
Land Use 4.7 Yes
Construction improvements. Identify best practices and communication tools to monitor mitigation measures and oversight of private and public construction improvements to protect the health and safety of health of the community, with focus on environmental justice areas.

PWA/PBA Ongoing
Mobility 3.5 Yes
Safe routes to schools and parks. Develop and pursue implementation of a Safe Routes to School Plan and a Safe Routes to Parks Plan
PWA/PRCSA Ongoing
Mobility 4.5 Yes
Citywide Design Guidelines update. Update the Citywide Design Guidelines to strengthen pedestrian and cyclist linkages to development centers and residential neighborhoods and coordinate on-site landscape with public realm landscaping. PBA/PWA 2022 - 2027 Mobility 5.8 Yes
Air quality improvements. Participate in inter-jurisdictional efforts to promote improvements in air quality and to meet state and federal mandates through advanced technology and TDM programs PBA/PWA 2021-2035
Open Space 1.2 Yes
Interagency Forum. Convene an interagency forum to take a coordinated approach to evaluating the feasibility for converting City-owned properties to parkland, with special focus in park deficient and environmental justice areas.

PRCSA 2022
Open Space 1.7 Yes
Public parkland requirements for residential projects. Update the Residential Development Fee Ordinance for large residential projects, which include projects of 100 residential units or more, to require public parkland within the City limits and a 10-minute walking distance of the new residential projects.

PBA/PRCSA 2022
City Council Page 9 of 11 22 – 629 4/1/2025
City of Santa Ana
General Plan EJ Actions

GENERAL
PLAN

ELEMENT
REF #
EJ
policy

IMPLEMENTATION ACTION

RESPONSIBLE
DEPT/
AGENCY
TIME
FRAME
Open Space 1.7A Yes
Open space and park land incentives. Allow developers a reduction in on-site open space by giving credits for park land for public use. Establish a process and program to incentivize developers to provide additional on-site and/or publicly accessible open space to create public park land and open space. Research and collaborate with residents, developers, and community organizations to design and implement an open space density bonus to incentivize the creation of additional on-site open space in exchange for more density in the project.

PBA & PRCSA 2022-2027
Open Space 1.10 Yes
New parkland collaborative. Coordinate with property owners to explore options to provide public access and programming on privately-owned open space in park deficient areas, including options to acquire land through purchase, land dedication, easements, and land leases that would allow for permanent or temporary public use of land for open space and recreational opportunities.

PRCSA
2022 &
Ongoing
Open Space 1.11 Yes
Joint-use agreements. Coordinate with public school districts, private schools, and other community organizations to provide community members with access to additional open space and recreational resources.

PRCSA
2022 &
Ongoing
Open Space 1.13 Yes
New programming in underserved areas. Partner with community organizations to offer new programs that are accessible to residents who live in areas underserved by open space and recreational facilities. Develop a comprehensive partnership policy providing guidelines that can be used throughout the City organization.

PRCSA 2022
Open Space 1.14 Yes
Community partnerships. Continue building partnerships with community-based organizations that administer social services to the elderly, youth, and other special needs groups; create use agreements for these providers to use public park facilities to meet the recreational and educational needs of these groups.

PRCSA Ongoing
Open Space 1.15 Yes
Community input. Identify and utilize multilingual and interactive community engagement tools, initiated through the Parks and Recreation Master Plan, for residents and facility users to provide ongoing input about open space needs, park design, facility improvements, and programming PRCSA 2022
Open Space 1.16 Yes
Acquisitions to meet park standard. Using the Park Master Plan as guidance, identify and acquire property within the City for park and open space use which will focus on bringing the park and recreation system to three acres of land per 1,000 residents with a plan to keep pace with future urban growth.

PRCSA
2022 &
ongoing
Public
Services

1.4 Yes
Fiscal priority for public improvements. Identify City fiscal and operational procedures and potential thresholds involved in the prioritization of general funds for public programming, service, or infrastructure improvements for residents living within environmental justice area boundaries.

CMO
2021 &
annually
City Council Page 10 of 11 22 – 630 4/1/2025
City of Santa Ana
General Plan EJ Actions

GENERAL
PLAN

ELEMENT
REF #
EJ
policy

IMPLEMENTATION ACTION

RESPONSIBLE
DEPT/
AGENCY
TIME
FRAME
Safety 2.4 Yes
Lead contamination. Work with local and regional partners, such as Orange County Environmental Justice, Orange County Health Care Agency and University of California at Irvine Public Health, to understand the prevalence, sources, and implications of lead contamination of soil across Santa Ana.

Collaborate with environmental justice stakeholders in proposing solutions to remove hazardous leadcontaminated soils in the city and with benchmarks to measure and track effectiveness of proposed programs.

PBA/CDA Ongoing
Safety 2.5 Yes
Business education. Collaborate with state and county agencies and trade organizations to educate and inform industrial business owners about permit regulations required for safe facility operations and about best practices.

PBA/CDA Ongoing
City Council Page 11 of 11 22 – 631 4/1/2025

CITY OF SANTA ANA
Planning and Building Agency
20 Civic Center Plaza ● P.O. Box 1988
Santa Ana, California 92702
www.santa-ana.org/pba

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
BEFORE THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA ANA, CA.

The City of Santa Ana encourages the public to participate in the decision-making process. The following notice is being provided so that you can ask questions, make comments and stay informed about projects that might be important to you. We encourage you to contact us prior to the Public Hearing if you have any questions.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN - The City Council of the City of Santa Ana will hold a public hearing to receive public testimony and will take action on the item described below.

Proposed Action: The City of Santa Ana is proposing to adopt an ordinance extending Ordinance No.

NS-3063 for 10 months and 15 days pursuant to Section 65858(a) of the California Government Code continuing a moratorium on the approval, commencement, establishment, relocation, or expansion of industrial uses within Specific Development No. 84 zoning district.

Environmental Impact: Pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines, the proposed action is not subject to the requirements of CEQA pursuant to Section 15060(c)(2) and 15060(c)3. The activity will not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment. Furthermore, the activity is not a project as defined in Section 15378 of the CEQA Guidelines, California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Chapter 3 because it has no potential for resulting in physical change to the environment, directly or indirectly.

Meeting Details: This public hearing will be held on Tuesday, May 21, 2024, at 5:30 p.m. or as soon thereafter as the matter may be heard, in the City Council Chamber, 22 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana, CA 92701. Members of the public may attend this meeting in-person or join via Zoom. For the most up to date information on how to participate virtually in this meeting, please visit https://www.santaana.org/agendas-and-minutes/.

Written Comments: If you are unable to participate in the meeting, you may send written comments by e-mail to [email protected] (reference the Agenda Item # in the subject line) or mail to Jennifer L. Hall, City Clerk, City of Santa Ana, 20 Civic Center Plaza – M30, Santa Ana, CA 92701.

Deadline to submit written comments is 4:00 p.m. on the day of the meeting. Comments received after the deadline may not be distributed to the City Council but will be made part of the record.

Where To Get More Information: All staff reports regarding any item on this agenda are available for public inspection in the City Clerk’s Office during regular business hours and posted on the City’s website the Tuesday before a Council meeting at: https://www.santa-ana.org/agendas-and-minutes/.

Who To Contact For Questions: Should you have any questions, please contact Margarita Macedonio with the Planning and Building Agency by phone at (714) 667-2288 or by email at [email protected].

City Council 22 – 632 4/1/2025
Note: If you challenge the decision on the above matter in court, you may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised at the public hearing described in this notice, or in written correspondence delivered to the City Council of the City of Santa Ana at, or prior to, the public hearing.

Si tiene preguntas en español, favor de llamar a Margarita Macedonio (714) 667-2288.

Nếu cần liên lạc bằng tiếng Việt, xin điện thoại cho Tony Lai số (714) 565-2627.

City Council 22 – 633 4/1/2025

CITY OF SANTA ANA
Planning and Building Agency
20 Civic Center Plaza ● P.O. Box 1988
Santa Ana, California 92702
www.santa-ana.org/pba

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

BEFORE THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE

CITY OF SANTA ANA, CA
The City of Santa Ana encourages the public to participate in the decision-making process. The following notice is being provided so that you can ask questions, make comments, and stay informed about projects that might be important to you. We encourage you to contact us prior to the Public Hearing if you have any questions.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN - The City Council of the City of Santa Ana will hold a public hearing to receive public testimony and will take action on the item described below.

Project Location: The area within the Transit Zoning Code/Specific Development (SD) No. 84 Zoning District, as depicted in the attached map.

Project Applicant: City of Santa Ana
Proposed Project: City Council consideration of Zoning Ordinance Amendment (ZOA) No. 2024-02 and Amendment Application (AA) No. 2024-03 to amend the Transit Zoning Code (Specific Development (SD) No. 84) zoning district of Chapter 41 (Zoning) of the Santa Ana Municipal Code and to amend the City’s Zoning Map. The proposed amendments include removal of industrial uses from the permitted uses table, updates to the nonconforming regulations, a new amortization process, and new operational standards applicable to businesses within the zoning district. The proposal also includes removing the Light Industrial (M1) and Heavy Industrial (M2) suffixes from certain properties within the SD-84 zoning district, as shown on the City’s Zoning Map.

Environmental Impact: In accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the CEQA Guidelines, an addendum has been prepared to the City of Santa Ana’s Transit Zoning Code (SD-84) Environmental Impact Report (EIR) to demonstrate that, pursuant to the standards contained in CEQA Guidelines Section 15162, this project is within the scope of the Transit Zoning Code (SD-84) EIR No. 2006-02, State Clearinghouse (SCH) No. 2006071100, certified by the City of Santa Ana on June 7, 2010. The Transit Zoning Code (SD-84) EIR fully analyzed the potential impacts associated with the proposed code amendments. This is consistent with Section 8.06 of the City’s Local Guidelines for Implementing CEQA.

Action Taken by the Planning Commission on March 6, 2025: Planning Commission recommends that the City Council adopt the following: a Resolution to make findings pursuant to Public Resources Code Section 21166 and adopt the Addendum to the Transit Zoning Code Environmental Impact Report (State Clearinghouse Number No. 2006071100), a Zoning Ordinance Amendment (ZOA) No. 2024-02 to make changes to the text of the Transit Zoning Code and Amendment Application (AA) No. 2024-03 to amend the SD-84 zoning district of Chapter 41 (Zoning) of the Santa Ana Municipal Code to amend the City’s Zoning Map to remove the Light Industrial (M1) and Heavy Industrial (M2) suffixes from certain properties in the SD-84 zoning district. VOTE: 4-2-1 (Ayes: Commissioners Oliva, Pham, Escamilla, Woo; Noes: Commissioners Benninger, Leo; Absent: Commissioner Ramos).

City Council 22 – 634 4/1/2025
Meeting Details: This public hearing will be held on Tuesday, April 1, 2025 at 5:30 P.M., or as soon thereafter as the matter may be heard, in the City Council Chamber, 22 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana, CA 92701. Members of the public may attend this meeting in-person or join via Zoom. For the most up to date information on how to participate virtually in this meeting, please visit https://www.santaana.org/agendas-and-minutes/.

Written Comments: If you are unable to participate in the meeting, you may send written comments by e-mail to [email protected] (reference the Agenda Item # in the subject line) or mail to Jennifer L. Hall, City Clerk, City of Santa Ana, 20 Civic Center Plaza – M30, Santa Ana, CA 92701.

Deadline to submit written comments is 4:00 p.m. on the day of the meeting. Comments received after the deadline may not be distributed to the City Council but will be made part of the record.

Where To Get More Information: All staff reports regarding any item on this agenda are available for public inspection in the City Clerk’s Office during regular business hours and posted on the City’s website the Tuesday before a Council meeting at: https://www.santa-ana.org/agendas-and-minutes/.

Who To Contact For Questions: Should you have any questions, please contact Margarita Macedonio with the Planning and Building Agency at [email protected] or (714) 667-2288.

Note: If you challenge the decision on the above matter in court, you may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised at the public hearing described in this notice, or in written correspondence delivered to the City Council of the City of Santa Ana at, or prior to, the public hearing.

Si tiene preguntas en español, favor de llamar a Nuvia Ocampo (714) 667-2732.

Nếu cần liên lạc bằng tiếng Việt, xin điện thoại cho Kristie Ha (714) 565-2627.

City of Santa Ana
Transit Zoning Code Area
City Council 22 – 635 4/1/2025
Jennifer L. Hall, CMC
City Clerk
Publish Orange County Reporter - Legals Section
Date: March 19, 2025
City Council 22 – 636 4/1/2025