Countywide : 2 Parties Want to Buy Historic House’s Lot

County officials said this week they plan to sell the land on which Santa Ana’s historic Howe-Waffle House sits.

The Santa Ana Historical Preservation Society, which has its headquarters in the 106-year-old Victorian mansion, fears the sale could imperil the structure. While the city owns the building, the county owns the land and has identified the parcel as a surplus asset it intends to unload.

The society is working to raise the estimated $140,000 needed to buy the land.

But a church next door also has expressed interest in buying the land, located on Civic Center Drive and Sycamore Street.

The Board of Supervisors will decide Tuesday whether to seek bids for the property and inform Santa Ana that its lease will expire by late February.

If the winning bidder shows no interest in keeping the mansion on the site, the city will have to remove it by Feb. 24, county officials said.

For the past 20 years, the county has leased the land to the city for free.

The county already has sold more than a dozen properties, ranging from houses in Upper Newport Bay to vacant lots in Santa Ana. Officials hope to use revenue generated from asset sales to help dig the county out of bankruptcy.