ORANGE : Train Depot Area to Be Revitalized

City officials are hoping that sweeping zoning changes approved this week will eventually transform the Santa Fe Depot area into a bustling commercial neighborhood over the next 15 to 20 years.

After nearly three years of public hearings, the City Council unanimously passed a new plan Tuesday night, which changed the depot area’s zoning from industrial to primarily commercial. Designed to preserve the area’s historic character, the plan allows for a pedestrian mall, a farmers’ market, specialty retail shops and a host of new restaurants.

Officials said they hope that the zoning changes, which affect 15 acres in southwest Orange, will enable the financially strapped city to capitalize on the influx of potential consumers generated by the opening of a commuter rail station and a bus transfer point this December.

The old Santa Fe Depot, at 184 Atchison St., four blocks west of the Orange Historic Plaza District, will begin serving as a Metrolink stop Dec. 6. The commuter rail line runs from Oceanside to Los Angeles. A second Metrolink line, connecting Riverside to Irvine, is planned to begin service in Orange by January, 1995.

The city will also relocate its interchange point for four bus routes upon the opening of the Metrolink rail stop in December.

While proposals to revitalize the depot area have been circulating for nearly 20 years, it took the city’s retention of a Metrolink stop to crystallize rezoning plans, city officials said. After decades of serving as a vital link to the city’s economy, the Santa Fe Depot closed in 1971 and the neighboring areas fell into physical and economic decline.

Equally dramatic zoning changes, however, have yet to be adopted for a roughly 16-acre site north of Maple Avenue, also in the depot area. Current proposals would permit substantial residential development in the depot area north of Maple, but city officials say the changes are unlikely unless the local economy improves.

Current proposals would alter zoning from industrial to residential, which could allow construction of as many as 300 new apartments and condominiums. Plans also call for housing low- and moderate-income families and senior citizens.

But these plans have met with opposition from some neighbors who say the proposed zone changes would bring more crime and traffic to the area. Also, noise and safety concerns have been raised about the proposed housing’s proximity to railroad tracks.