Proposal Splits Santa Ana Enclave

There’s no mistaking the shared interests among many of the residents of French Park, the distinctive neighborhood just a few blocks from downtown Santa Ana’s bustling Latino business district.

Scattered among the middle-class residents of tired, stucco-walled apartment buildings, the proud caretakers of some of Orange County’s oldest homes dwell in a world of ongoing, expensive restorations.

They use dental picks to delicately remove paint from walls, buy wallpaper with vintage designs, and share advice about rewiring their century-old Victorians.

It’s no wonder they pursue their work with such detail and passion: The entire tree-shrouded neighborhood of front porches and picket fences was placed on the National Registry of Historic Places in 1999.

But a restoration project of a whole other kind has divided these neighbors, and folks hope that when the dust settles, they’ll still be friends.

A 37-story office tower -- Orange County’s tallest building -- is proposed for a downtown parcel just two blocks away. It will, everyone agrees, dramatically shift the ambience of downtown Santa Ana, characterized now by its low-slung, decades-old office buildings and storefronts, into the realm of glass-sheathed modernity.

In the neighborhood debate on whether this proposal is good for French Park, the homeowners association board of directors has voted as divisively as is possible -- 6 to 5 -- to spend $10,000 from the treasury to fight the proposal. It’s money that would otherwise be spent on neighborhood improvements, grants to lower-income neighbors to fix their properties, and exotic tools such as the community-owned $600 paint shaver.

The association’s majority says the money is more urgently needed to thwart construction of the $86-million office tower or, if it is approved by the Santa Ana City Council on July 6, to challenge the project in court. The board majority winces at the prospect of another 2,000 nearby office workers and the attendant traffic congestion so close to French Park, once the county’s most elite neighborhood and named for a pioneer resident.

“We are not mindlessly opposed to development,” said Paul Giles, a database administrator who doubles as president of the neighborhood association, who lives in a 1903 pink Colonial Revival home. “We are opposed to spot zoning. We are opposed to development without a plan, without consideration for the neighborhoods.”

Debbie McEwen echoes his feelings: “What quality of life we have will be destroyed by this project. It will bring smog, noise and traffic.”

Some, such as schoolteacher Jeanette Martin, oppose spending money to fight the project but still worry if it will somehow alter the neighborhood.

“There’s a concern because people put a lot of blood, sweat and tears in these houses,” said Martin, who has spent years restoring a turn-of-the-century Craftsman painted saffron, olive green and burgundy. “You wonder how this project will affect you.”

Alfonso Bustamante, a psychologist who bought a 1905 Colonial Revival, said he is upset that association money is being used to fight the office tower, because he thinks its construction will trigger much-needed development in downtown Santa Ana. He allowed his house to be included in the association’s big fundraiser, a home tour, and the proceeds will now be used to campaign against a project that he supports.

Bustamante and his wife, Patricia, will be able to see the tower from the window in their living room, which features a radial staircase, original crown molding, the original brick-stone fireplace and even the original heating system with its wrought-iron black grills on the hardwood floors.

“I’m afraid of what this is doing -- not to the neighborhood, but to us as neighbors,” said Patricia Bustamante, a native of San Francisco, who is used to seeing tall buildings next to restored homes. “I just hope we can be good neighbors again.”

The neighborhood is made up of some of the oldest homes in Orange County, built between 1885 and 1920.

Lodged between the bustle of a Latino shopping district and the Santa Ana Freeway, the area is a refuge for an eclectic group of professionals who eschew Orange County’s tract-home subdivisions for the dynamics of Santa Ana’s historic downtown, including its Latino community of apartments and storefront businesses.

The debate over the office tower has created an uncommon rift among neighbors who are engaged in one another’s lives and share interests in everything from jazz to evening dog-walking to paint samples that are almost off the charts, with names like eggplant and aubergine.

“Santa Ana has a negative image, but I think our neighborhood is great,” said Ann Dickman, a field representative for Nextel who lives with her husband in a 1910 Craftsman. “There are people walking here. The place is alive. No one just goes home, closes the garage door not to be seen again.”

“We get involved in our houses. Once you get involved, the house becomes alive again, and everything is a discovery,” said William Beaubeaux, an architect.

Among the folks of French Park, Beaubeaux feels most betrayed by the association’s decision to fight the office tower -- because he was contracted by the developer to process plans and paperwork on the project. He also allowed his 1922 Craftsman bungalow to be featured on the tour, only to have the fundraising turned against his client.

“It’s definitely not a vote that represented everyone in the neighborhood, obviously,” said Beaubeaux, who moved to French Park from Newport Beach to be closer to his job.

While he awaits the city’s decision on the building, Beaubeaux is restoring his own home. He recently painted the exterior sage green, put in Asian-inspired plants and a fountain.

Despite their differences, Beaubeaux and Giles remain neighbors who can see each other from their windows on Spurgeon Street. Giles spotted Beaubeaux traipsing down the block on a recent night with the Bustamantes’ high-pressure hose to clean house siding and admired his new plants.

The ensuing dialogue suggests there is hope for overcoming the differences about the tower.

Giles and a friend, “saw the perfect thing for your garden: an Asian goddess,” Giles told Beaubeaux. “We’re going to get it for you.”