Santa Ana : Judge Extends Ban on Razing ‘Red Car’ Depot

A Superior Court judge Thursday extended an order blocking demolition of the old Pacific Electric depot, which the city wants to clear to make way for a luxury condominium project downtown.

Commissioner Thomas Keenan’s order prevents any further demolition of the depot, on 4th Street east of French Street, until Jan. 3, the day following a scheduled court hearing on the matter. The depot was built in 1927 and used as the terminal for the old “Red Car” trains that shuttled passengers among Santa Ana, San Diego, Long Beach and Los Angeles until 1950. It has most recently been used as a thrift store by the Salvation Army, which occupies another soon-to-be demolished building on the site.

A citizens’ group, the Alliance for Fair Redevelopment, along with Heritage Orange County, a historical site preservation group, are suing the city in an attempt to prevent construction of the 194 condominiums. Alliance attorney Salvador Sarmiento said the group hopes to get the city to conduct an environmental impact report on the site and rewrite the city’s general plan to designate the area for low-income housing.

City Atty. Edward Cooper said Santa Ana plans to save the building’s front wall--which contains a unique curved shape that allowed the Red Cars to pull around to the platform--for eventual reconstruction at another site. Heritage director Kathy Les said the historical significance of the structure is in its relation to growth of downtown Santa Ana and would be lost if it were moved elsewhere. “Our position is, yes, save the buildings and then convert them to low- and moderate-income housing,” she said.

Cooper noted that Heritage officials didn’t show up when the City Council approved the project in July, although several other people spoke against the project, and legal advertisements about the hearing were published in local newspapers. “Our contention is that they did not exhaust all their administrative remedies,” he said.