Santa Ana OKs Zoning Change in Logan Barrio

Residents of the Logan barrio, one of Santa Ana’s oldest Latino enclaves, claim that they won a round in their fight against creeping industrialization at City Hall on Monday night.

But the city’s planning manager said the City Council’s decision really won’t make much difference for the community, which she says someday will be completely industrial.

The barrio, squeezed between the Civic Center, Amtrak station and Santa Ana Freeway, was zoned for industrial use in 1923. But Latinos have lived there since the early 1900s.

Today, factories and storage yards occupy lots next to small, well-kept family homes.

By a 7-0 vote, the council on Monday night changed zoning designations throughout the neighborhood, dropping the peculiar “X” suffix from lots zoned M-2 for heavy industrial use and R-2 for residential use.

The “X” suffix, which was not used elsewhere in the city, enabled property owners to convert their lots from residential to industrial use--or vice versa, though that rarely happened--simply by obtaining a conditional use permit.

The uncertain nature of the neighborhood has prevented residents from obtaining bank loans to improve or rebuild their homes, said Sam Romero, spokesman for the Logan barrio neighborhood organization.

“This will make things a lot cleaner,” Romero said. “Hopefully, it will make the bankers much more receptive to giving loans, and we hope to see new residential construction here.”

At the very least, Romero said, the zoning change will enable residents to preserve what is left of the barrio.

But city Planning Manager Melanie Fallon said the council’s decision Monday will not change the character of the neighborhood.

Businesses still will be allowed to coexist with houses, and property owners still can change their property from residential to industrial, although they now must obtain a zoning change instead of a use permit, she said. “It really doesn’t make much of a difference. (A zone change) is not any harder to get.”

Businesses have slowly been replacing houses in Logan, as property changes hands and new owners tear down homes, Fallon said.