SANTA ANA : City OKs New Limits on Density of Homes

It will now be illegal for property owners in Santa Ana to build a second unit on their land if it is in a neighborhood zoned for single-family homes.

The new regulation is part of revised residential development standards passed by the City Council last week and designed to limit density in neighborhoods.

“The main purpose is to improve the quality of life in the neighborhoods,” said Linda Hale, the city’s senior planner. “In the past, if you had a lot large enough, you could submit a proposal to have an additional unit approved on your lot.

“The feeling is that this detracted from the single-family character of many neighborhoods and resulted in some very poor design.”

The rules also affect areas of the city that have been zoned to allow two or more homes on a single lot. These projects must now be built on larger lots to ensure more open space.

New apartment projects will also be required to have more open space and private enclosed storage areas.

Councilwoman Patricia A. McGuigan said the tougher standards are long overdue.

“We’ve got neighborhoods where you can’t even park a car on the driveway without it hanging over into the street,” McGuigan said. “This makes for more livability rather than having homes being built with no room for a front yard or a back yard.”

Councilman John Acosta, who said he wanted to hold a public hearing before considering the matter, voted against the revised rules.

“What we’ve done is freeze property values forever,” Acosta said. “I think it’s a travesty of justice to strip people of their land values and not afford every individual who owns property to express what they are going to do with their land.”

Projects currently in the advanced stages of the approval process will be exempt from the revised ordinance.