Remarks by Alan Woo
34 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 2
- Play at 7:24
“Second. I was wondering if we could discuss briefly the main place report. But I would go with the first A and B.”
Planning Commission · Sep 14, 2026
- Play at 8:05
“I withdraw my request and just go with the first motion, which was to approve A, B, and C. And it was seconded.”
Planning Commission · Sep 14, 2026
- Play at 34:20
“Okay. I thought we have seen this before, because one of the attractiveness of the program is that it's for sale. And in the past, Commissioner Leo has brought up the fact that we have a lot of rental units, but we have very few opportunities for inter-generation building wealth, particularly for affordable housing. And one attractiveness of this project is that it provides us with an opportunity for it. And I thought we did discuss this before because of the affordable housing unit. And that the fact there's three-story townhomes Thank you.”
Planning Commission · Sep 14, 2026
- Play at 1:00:19
“How many years have you owned this property again?”
Planning Commission · Sep 14, 2026
- Play at 1:00:51
“And since you have your design team here, I'm kind of curious about 30 years from now, or 20 years from now, let's say 20 years, as the children grow up, as the pits make their way through the hallways and stuff, And as we have walkability in the area, I'm wondering what is the maintenance plan, what kind of materials are you using on the exterior of your painting and on the apartment to prevent mold on the inside in the kitchen and showers and all that? Will it still look like that in 10, 15, 20 years? Can you just help us out?”
Planning Commission · Sep 14, 2026
- Play at 1:03:12
“if you never own a home or in a townhome, lots of things can happen because it's a big community that has to work together. Thank you.”
Planning Commission · Sep 14, 2026
- Play at 1:37:11
“Thank you for doing your homework and bringing back some of the past decisions that were made and laws and all that, pertaining infill housing and inclusionary zoning housing and affordable housing, a whole cohort. It's refreshing to me since 40 years ago, SANO pushed for those kinds of issue and didn't know what it would look like. And I guess that's what it looks like when you include all those things in there that we have today that we didn't have back then. And it's refreshing to see how that manifests itself in terms of this project. Having said that, There are some things that I guess…”
Planning Commission · Sep 14, 2026
- Play at 2:07:42
“Could we put a recommendation to designated for that neighborhood to be using that money?”
Planning Commission · Sep 14, 2026
- Play at 2:08:05
“be geographically used where that project took so uh in our process we don't have a way of doing it with the motion of approving the project that's right because i i could remember bob poussevard you know the famous guy for whenever it is a development he tried to get a community center out of it and use that community benefit dollars to like channel into community centers so we don't do that huh”
Planning Commission · Sep 14, 2026
- Play at 2:08:51
“Yeah, that was a method that the former county planner used to get community centers built. But I'm just curious. Thank you.”
Planning Commission · Sep 14, 2026
- Play at 1:03:37
“In preparation for tonight's meeting, I was kind of curious because something triggered as I was listening from the comments from our first session. from the public, the changes since those that were here when most of this was farmland and unoccupied land to what it is today. And I put myself in the position of remembering the 13 neighborhoods that I came to organize late 1970s, and what those residents told me about their neighborhood. And one that's a strength of the, it seems, of this update is that it responded to what their vision for the future seemed to be. They wanted strong, viable,…”
Planning Commission · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 1:11:57
“And I understand that some neighborhood association and some group invited you to come out to their territory, to their place, and to ask questions, right?”
Planning Commission · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 1:12:26
“so my third question is in those special district to increase density and increase uh housing they follow a pattern of what is already happening in that area so the update to the zoning is to continue to uh let the positive forces continue but having an avenue to deal with other people that may want to come into the area and do something totally different than what is already going on. For instance, around 17th Street, you have the official office, and someone wanted to put a fertilizer factory, would not be conducive. You're right in saying that you're not coming out of the blue to decide…”
Planning Commission · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 1:13:58
“And so, these zoning changes is not specifically targeting an individual property owner or individual business or individual institution, but it follows what already exists there and you're trying to make that into something that can, not you're trying to make something, but you're trying to make the zoning compatible with what's existing there.”
Planning Commission · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 1:14:37
“And the last part is, so we're gonna make a recommendation should we arrive before nine o'clock that we forward to the city council which then has the final decision. Hopefully they have read the 400 pages heard all the public testimony and understand also what we've been dealing with over the years, in my case, about the last eight years of watching this process go through and that we can unite the city both businesses and residents along the same line about using this to grow what the general plan has in mind for the vision of Santa Ana, which is a different vision when I arrived here,…”
Planning Commission · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 3:27:47
“I'd like to make a motion that we continue our meeting on August 31st, given that it would give more time for the residents and businesses to review the documents because we're running out of time due to the outage with Southern California Edison.”
Planning Commission · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 35:43
“I want to review Article 1, page 1. And this has to do with the purpose and authority. The Zoning Code and this chapter is enacted based on the authority vested in the City of Santa Ana as Charter and the Santa Ana Municipal Code and the State of California, including but not limited to the State Constitution, Planning Zoning Law, California Government Code 65800 and the California Health Corps. In other words, the City Council Planning Commission and planning department invested with the authority to follow the general plan and establish those visions that you showed in the first slide for…”
Planning Commission · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 36:44
“Okay. Then there will be conforming, there is existing non-conforming and conforming uses that has come up over time. And so as those arise, it's up to the property owner to either conform or seek a permit nonconforming use. So there's a process in which we go through to answer those things and there's a process for comments from the public when they arise. Is that correct?”
Planning Commission · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 37:34
“Right. The way I see these 400-some pages is that You've taken the general plan and the visions and the guiding principle, and then you organize them by different sections and zoning areas, and try to put as much information that is available for the public to see, including a website. When they go on that page, they could click on something, leave a question, which you guys will answer, right? And how many comments have you gotten on that already? Oh goodness we've gotten over 100 comments how many over 100 over 100 so over 100 people took the time to to read and answer right so we're…”
Planning Commission · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 39:17
“yeah so so you know the enforcement of the zoning and the application of the zoning for the property use. are all in play there, and they will arise and we will have a chance to adjust for it, comment on it, and use the new guiding principles and value systems, right? And the point I'm getting to is that this is no mean crystal ball that can encompass everything, but it's a well-done, organized way of looking at each of the zoning areas specifically specific area if i was a property owner i would be looking at the specific area in my zoning and say oh this is my property it's affected this…”
Planning Commission · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 42:03
“So anyway, the 17th Street and these small businesses may not be in any specific plan, but they can be covered as businesses within that zone. Correct. Okay. And if the opportunity comes up, we can report things like there's an abandoned building there that no one uses and all that. So it's up to, again, the Public Neighborhood Association and anyone that cares to call you guys and say, OK, this has been boarded up. We see people hanging out there. And is there something that can be done with it? So there's an opportunity to take care of those problem properties. There's a property that used…”
Planning Commission · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 2:34:28
“The role of churches in community and there's only seem to be important anchors historically as not only. a place of worship and service, but also serving as a community service and providing other services that are needed in the community. And I was wondering, we recently approved a different kind of church that had no pews and no services, but they were more like an office building, you know, and our zoning allows for those kinds of services in a business complex area. But I'm looking at the neighborhood character of some of the other established churches in the community, like not only New…”
Planning Commission · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 2:37:13
“Just did a brief research that there's at least four defense area businesses operating in Santa Ana, of which two of them are having to do with drones. and other military uses. And I think that is allowed under our industrial, you know, flex plan and all that. But I just thought I'd bring that to our attention.”
Planning Commission · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 2:52:29
“So there's a process for school districts to clear the property excess surplus property, right? at which time then private market might step in and say, oh, I like to do this with it, right? So if we designate a zoning today, it may affect how the property is decided later on when the school district takes on a character. So maybe what we have right now, you know, survives. You know, I don't know, but I just thought to reflect on that. Things change when other jurisdiction makes a decision. about regarding the properties under their jurisdiction.”
Planning Commission · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 2:56:56
“I just want to congratulate staff on the good job. doing on this document, it's a difficult thing to explain to people that it's forward thinking and it's not designed to punish any property. But we do need to clean things up, you know, and you have an opportunity to do it.”
Planning Commission · Aug 11, 2026