SANTA ANA : Logan Neighborhood Zoning Debated

Residents and city officials have differing views of the situation but agreed this week on one thing: The city’s historic Logan neighborhood has a problem.

The neighborhood, which was well established by the early 1900s, consists of 116 parcels evenly divided between homes and businesses.

Homes sit on land zoned residential, while businesses occupy property zoned manufacturing. Though residents and officials are sharply divided over which way the neighborhood should go, most agreed that it will surely deteriorate if the zoning remains mixed.

Many residents say they cannot get home improvement loans because banks and other lenders view the area as a depressed one that might eventually be for manufacturing only.

Some houses have been abandoned, property owners say, because nobody wants to live in them, and they cannot be sold for commercial use because the land is zoned residential.

The City Council, which sponsored a study session on the situation Thursday, heard comments from more than a dozen of the 40 residents and property owners from Logan who attended.

Many speakers said that the individual landowners, not the city, should be the ones who decide how property is zoned.

“Let us do what we want with our property,” one speaker said. “We’re not telling [others] what to do with their property.”

The council has taken no action on the matter.

Councilwoman Lisa Mills said she would like to see a vote by August, however, on a single zoning designation for the entire neighborhood.

“We have to set a vision for the future,” she said. “We do everyone a disservice by not making a decision.”

If the council decides to designate the area for manufacturing, she said, existing homes would be allowed to stand.