City of Santa Ana

Bullshit parking fees with a grace period of 5 minutes. I accidentally came here and they fucking charged me for parking.

A quaint California town. Not much happening when we went through, but the people were friendly and welcoming.

Prepare to wait if you come for any type of permit or building questions. When it’s finally your turn, wow, you’re treated like an idiot. If you had citation on the record, forget it. You’re a criminal. I can’t count the number of times the word «misdemeanor» was thrown at me for changing some windows without a permit. It is «punishable at my discretion» the code enforcer kept repeating when I was sent to see him. Punishment beyond what he was doing of course and I turned myself in not preparing to take it I suppose. Mid while, graffiti still routinely appears on my garage door. I suppose I have double security now, windows that lock and the code enforcement guy looking over my house.

Real Estate prospective:
Watch out, many condos near the mall is on land lease. Price looks so good for a 2 bed 2 baths condo 245k! Then you find out it is a land lease! The agents should advertise that fact too so house hunters are aware of it!
Rent and housing price is relatively cheaper than Irvine so it is more affordable.
Crime index is not too high either.
Down town is good for Mexican, American, Middle Eastern food and no Asian food.

Planning on doing any kind of additions, etc. I suggest going on google maps. If you won’t be able to see what you want to do from satellite, don’t pull a permit. The City will make the process hell. I tried to do this the right way but. Small little room addition. I’m out about 7grand in extras so far from what the city first told me. Changing out windows throughout the house. Best part is each time I schedule an inspection they send some new inspector who make up a whole new list of things holding up inspection. Good news — today’s list won’t cost but another 1k.

I live in the South Coast Metro area which is leafy and beautiful except that the police dept has been instructed by the city to allow homeless to take over bus stops and other areas (I know this because I’ve spoken the PD about the issue).
My biggest complaints, however, are that the city planner permits projects that clash with existing buildings (see «The Marke» at Hutton Center for an example of this) and that, outside of the metro area, the city doesn’t have enough parks and green spaces; unlike the neighboring cities of Costa Mesa and Irvine, Santa Ana bulldozed every last bit of wilderness within the city limits. Shameful. Why not create greenbelts, parks or nature preserves that run alongside the river bed? Politicians underestimate the value residents place on a little contact with nature.

I love Downtown Santa Ana! All the hip little places to eat and bars, the artist village, the farmers market, and all the cool event they have through out the year :)

Don’t hate our city for the wrongs of a few. This city has been doing a lot to improve its image. It’s unfortunate that the Santa Ana name has a horrible rep.
I, too, felt that way (I’m a transplant from LA county). I was «never gonna live in OC and especially Santa Ana!!!» But, I did move to OC and I do love living here. There are new developments and road expansions, new restaurants popping up and just an overhaul here and there.
I am not proud of the most recent incident at the Crosby, but despite that horrific incident, the city is still what I call home.
My major complaint about Santa Ana is it’s lack of green space and parks. It saddens me to see 40 – 50 kids playing their little hearts out in parking lots in the hot summer heat. Grass and playgrounds and trails would help these children grow and thrive. Playing is essential to a healthy life, whether you are a kid or just a kid at heart (like me).
Please, don’t be afraid. Love each other and respect one another and take a journey to downtown Santa Ana with an open mind and heart. Everyone is welcome!
Don’t let the bad of a few, be the marker you judge the whole.

Horrible city with horrible traffic and streets. Its a relatively small city and it just seems so run down and dirty. Yes I am reviewing a city lol! Even Downtown Santa Ana is cheap looking when compared to other Downtown areas. Where’s the money at to fix this. There was a time when Santa Ana was one of the richest and nicest areas in California (A loooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnggggggggg time ago).

This city is best avoided. Especially the pig depot. A cop ain’t good for shit except passing you by. They have a terrible police. Unfriendly, unhelpful and really unable to serve and protect. I don’t some crappy «police» force «serving» and «protecting» me.
And then there is the other side if the law. Don’t much care for them but at least they don’t harass me. That’s whys roll with a pistol grip pump on my lap at all times.
It’s best just to avoid this city unless you want to see the REAL OC.

Convenient parking but most people that work there have some sorta of attitude. This is by far the worst building dept. I’ve ever worked with.
My plan checker was Kathy and she was a nightmare to work with. She was unprofessional, during our last meeting I brought the MRI contractor and General contactor in case she had more questions (this was my 3^rd attempt) during our meeting she yelled at all of us in front of everyone for no good reason.
The only nice/​professional person I met there was Jason Kwak, he is the Senior Plan check Engineer and he was very helpful and understanding. (I was forced to reach out to him since Kathy was not willing to help, all she did was to criticize the details on the drawings even though they were engineered by a structural engineer. Instead of helping us, all she kept saying was «Why this, Why that, this does’t work bla bla bla). Not helpful at all! In my experience, the plan check engineers are there to help us, we work as a team and if they see a red flag, they point it out and try to help you understand why it doesn’t work and offer a solution to the problem.
Even the structural engineer said Kathy had no idea what she was doing. How sad is that? She just had this power trip and it was way over her head. Once I proved her wrong she just wanted to abuse her power. I hope we won’t have to deal with her, I rather have a root canal! I don’t think she understand that more projects in their city the better for them!

I came in here for permits.
If you are coming in for the same thing — — I hope, hope, hope you are in no rush — — not only does it take forEVER, but everyone that I have dealt with here is slow and they don’t really seem to care if you end up leaving with a permit or not. (I am sure that’s not the case for all departments, but in the departments I have been to, that’s definitely the situation!!!)
Oh — and don’t bother to email or call because on the off chance that you are actually able to get a hold of someone, they will take down your information, but won’t ever bother getting back to you. I actually got a hold of someone last time I called, he told me to email my documents for approval before I came in to get my permits. I sent everything over and called and emailed him for the next six weeks. When I finally went in to see what the status of my application was (since he wouldn’t call me back, I had no idea if I was getting the permit or I was missing paperwork or something else was wrong), that same guy told me that the email that I sent must have went into his junk mail /​spam folder because he never got that email or any of my subsequent ones… I guess that his voicemail has a spam filter also :(