ORANGE : Plans for Homeless Shelter Withdrawn

Plans for a three-story building to house homeless women and children were withdrawn after residents in the Old Towne historic district said the building was too tall and massive for the neighborhood.

The residents said they would welcome the home--but on a smaller scale.

After a 1 1/2-hour hearing before the Planning Commission that drew more than 100 people, the Orange County Rescue Mission withdrew its plans for a “House of Hope” on three lots on Lemon Street. Mission officials said they will explore scaling down the project.

John Lands, Rescue Mission president, said residents “said loud and clear they really don’t want another three-story building there. But all the people who spoke against the three stories were not against our project, which we feel good about.”

Sherine Reams, a resident at the Rescue Mission’s group home in Huntington Beach, spoke of the need for another shelter.

“There are a lot of people standing on the street corners that I see looking for hope, and this is what we need,” Reams said, “A house of hope.”

Even opponents of the proposal called the project “lofty” and “commendable.” Most speakers, Old Towne residents and property owners, assured the Rescue Mission that they favored the shelter but believed that its design would compromise the neighborhood’s historic flavor.

The mile-square Old Towne district is dominated by pre-1940s homes of one and two stories. As proposed, the House of Hope, which would shelter up to 45 homeless women and children, would exceed the neighborhood’s 30-foot height limit by 8 feet.

Representatives of the Old Towne Preservation Assn., a group that closely guards the architectural integrity of the district, said the building design did not reflect a distinct historic style, another prerequisite for building in Old Towne.

“The Old Towne Preservation Assn. is not opposed to the project’s use,” member Ann Siebert said. “We think it’s commendable to have a home for homeless women and children.” But, she said, the project should “adhere to the Old Towne guidelines that we’ve worked so hard to put into city ordinance.”

The plans for House of Hope, approved by the Design Review Board in December, were based on the Ronald McDonald House on Batavia Street, the only three-story building in Old Towne and a design recently honored by the city’s beautification committee. The design plans for Ronald McDonald were donated to the Rescue Mission, saving them the cost of starting from scratch.

Lands said the organization now will consider paying for plans for a lower building.

“We don’t want to put something there that will be detrimental to the neighborhood,” Lands said.