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I Mar 04 2014 6:03PM KANE Diane f3. Xane, P! 7711 Cookout Dri la JoCCa, CaCifornia March 4, 2014 Mayor Miguel Pulido and City Council City of Santa Ana P.O. Box 1988, M -31 Santa Ana, CA 92701 Re: Sexlinger Orchard and Farmhouse EIR Honorable Mayor Pulido and Council Members: 858 454 7180 p.2 ,.D. ve 12 037 rr iJ "L7 I am veteran architectural historian with over 40 years o experience, almost two decades of which were as the cultural resource specialist for Caltrans in Los Angeles. In field surveying agricultural lands for new freeway alignment throughout Southern California as part of environmental review, I have had substantial experience in documenting and evaluating historic landscapes. I had the pleasure of vi iting the Sexlinger Orchard and Farmhouse historic site on Sunday March 2, 2014. This modest 5 -acre orchard and farmhouse was once a common occurrence in Orange County. But with the rapid and almost complete land us conversion from agricultural to urbanized uses over the past half - century in Orange Co ty, it is now a rare composite resource that both documents and explains the 200' cen ury citrus industry in Southern California. The farmhouse tangibly represents the Sexlin�er family's middle class status, as well as its long relationship with the property, a small- lricale orange grove. Without its associated citrus landscape, also known as its "setting, ' the farmhouse would just be another Craftsman bungalow. With the associated orang grove, it becomes an economic unit, one of many other small -scale agricultural units that comprised Orange County's agricultural underpinnings in the early 2001 century. Although recognized by the City of Santa Ana with its designation of the property, this wider context is surprisingly underdeveloped in the environmental record's cultural analysis of the property. More specifically, the orange grove's size and location i dicate a wider land use pattern in this part of Santa Ana that has all but disappeared under tract developments. Its Valencia orange trees, and their regular organization in evenly spaced rows, explain how the growing portion of the orange industry functioned. Tres were uniformly spaced and mrefuily pruned into even heights for easier maintenance. This included spraying for pest control, smudging to prevent frost, fertilization, irrigatio and harvest. Patterns in the land that note this activity include old irrigation equipment, depressed channels for water and smudge pot remnants. Clear] t�llq�....g,gn lie is needed to explain the property's meaning. A few representative Oran�e�iAs j fiat to a typica] Craftsman bungalow are insufficient to convey its historical significance. Although some of the orange trees are