Laserfiche WebLink
<br />8 <br /> <br />8 <br /> <br />8 <br /> <br />Moreover, what guarantee does the City have that this project will even be completed as <br />proposed? What is to prevent the developer from walking away prior to completion or even <br />afterward if the hoped-for tenants fail to materialize, leaving Santa Ana with not just another <br />empty building, but a monstrous eyesore in the bargain? Has the financing been obtained? Have <br />architects and other designers already utilized actually been paid? Where is the ironclad <br />commitment from the developer that legally locks him in and puts him at substantial risk? What <br />recourse is there by the City if thé proponents' rosy assurances or expectations don't pan out in <br />the future? Will Santa Ana be left holding the bag? <br /> <br />And why does it have to be so gosh-darned tall? There already is a "tallest building in <br />Orange County" somewhere and I'll bet not one in ten thousand residents could even care less, <br />much less identify it. Such a moniker only lasts until the next one is built anyway, and whatever <br />temporary cache it supposedly brings frankly smacks more of a phallic obsession than anything <br />else. I understand the building trades and commercial real estate industry favor this project. Yet <br />it takes about the same number of people to build a 10 - 15 story building as it does to build a 35 <br />story building-they're just not employed for as long a period of time. In any event, these aren't <br />pennanent jobs. <br /> <br />I recently took a trip to Paris, and in one part ofthat otherwise beautiful city, an enonnous <br />boxy skyscraper, the Montparnasse Tower, stands all alone amid a sea of older 2 to 4-story <br />buildings. As one travel writer aptly noted, "it looks like the box the Eiffel Tower came in." It <br />looks so grossly out of place and is such an unattractive structure, one can only wonder, what <br />were the city leaders thinking? Completed in the early 1970's, it was then the tallest building in <br />Europe, but, inevitably, it soon lost that claim as well. The building is now fairly seedy and not <br />fully occupied (if it ever was), but is nevertheless a pennanent blight on the cityscape, and is the <br />towering monument to a gross lapse in responsible city planning. (After it was built, a disgusted <br />public passed a law preventing buildings over 7 stories from being built in the area.) <br /> <br />Of course, Santa Ana is not Paris, but many of the issues about the reasonableness of this <br />proposed project are similar. You have another opportunity to reconsider whether this ugly glass <br />tower is really a legacy you'd like to leave behind in Santa Ana. What's the worst that could <br />happen if this project is not approved? This is not the only opportunity that will come the City's <br />way. The known negatives clearly outweigh the glossy, but largely illusory, positives. <br /> <br />Please vote NO on One Br adway Plaza. Thank you for your consideration, <br /> <br />JPH:bm <br /> <br /> <br />=ñomeowner and voter <br /> <br />75E-55 <br />