SANTA ANA : Design Standards Decision Delayed

The City Council has postponed for three months a decision on setting new design standards for gasoline stations and automobile repair shops.

The council had been scheduled to vote on an ordinance that would affect future stations or those planning extensive remodeling.

“It’s something we really want to get right,” said City Manager David N. Ream.

The ordinance, in its current form, would require stations to have such features as 15 feet of frontage landscaping, five-foot planters around all buildings, parking next to convenience stores, and a wall at least six feet high along the rear and side property lines.

The requirements drew fire from an Arco representative at a council meeting last week and from an engineering company that specializes in designing auto service stations.

Leo Urquiza, president of Da Vinci Engineering Inc., said the ordinance doesn’t take into consideration the acreage of individual sites, traffic flow and the amount of room needed for a tanker truck to deliver fuel.

Assistant Planning Director Kenneth Adams defended the proposed standards, saying: “We consider this set of standards a generic set of standards applicable across the board,” Adams said.