SANTA ANA : Zoning Is Obstacle for Forensic Labs

The county is in final negotiations with a private developer to lease two proposed eight-story buildings in Santa Ana that would house forensic laboratories for the Sheriff’s Department and new offices for the Environmental Management Agency. The county is negotiating with Hutton Development Co. Inc. on the lease. Hutton, which would own the structures, was chosen by the County Board of Supervisors last summer to build the two triangular-shaped buildings and a parking garage.

The proposed $27.9-million project has been named the Hutton Civic Centre Plaza and would be on a 3.4-acre vacant lot between Santa Ana Boulevard and 3rd Street, across from Sheriff’s Department headquarters. Drawings call for the two buildings to be divided by a diagonal open courtyard.

But because office uses are not allowed at the site, the Santa Ana Planning Commission and the City Council must approve zoning amendments before work can begin. City planners will review the amendments Monday. Construction is scheduled to begin in November and be completed by 1992.

The project has been touted as an annex to the county’s Civic Center, said Santa Ana Planning Commissioner Don Sizemore.

But Sizemore said he is concerned that the proposal is inconsistent with the rest of the area. “Those buildings are going to be next door to single-family homes and lower-scale condominiums. It’s going to be a high-density project that just doesn’t seem consistent with what Santa Ana wants for that area any more,” Sizemore said.

Sizemore also expressed concern that the sheriff’s building would be used as a holding facility for prisoners.

Deputy City Atty. Richard Lay said the county does not plan to use the building as a holding facility, adding that a deed restriction will prohibit it.

Hutton Development is best known for the 46-acre Hutton Centre business complex at MacArthur Boulevard and the Costa Mesa Freeway. The Civic Center area buildings were designed by Albert C. Martin Associates, an Irvine-based architecture firm, which designed the city hall building for Los Angeles. All of the sheriff’s forensic facilities, including the county’s new genetic testing laboratory, would be at the new site.

Currently, the sheriff’s four forensic facilities--the identification bureau and the crime, toxicology and DNA laboratories--are spread out in different buildings in the Civic Center, said Frank Fitzpatrick, director of the sheriff-coroner’s forensic sciences services.

The different locations have been inconvenient for employees, particularly if a case requires several tests, Fitzpatrick said. Proposed Hutton Civic Centre The Hutton Development Co. plans to build two eight-story buildings that would be separated by a courtyard. An eight-level parking lot would be built next to the center. The Environmental Management Agency would occupy Building 1, which would face Third Street, and the sheriff’s forensic center would occupy Building 2, which faces Santa Ana Boulevard. Source: Santa Ana Planning Department staff report