Main Street Studied as Melrose-Style Area

Trendy shopping districts like Melrose Avenue and Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Los Angeles County could be the models for the South Main Street area, city officials said.

Those retail areas are characterized in part by avant-garde specialty clothing stores. South Main in Santa Ana already includes clothing stores and other small businesses such as hairdressers and real estate offices.

City officials here think Main Street between 1st Street and Warner Avenue has enough in common with Los Angeles’ upscale commercial zones to study whether it can be made into a cutting-edge business area.

Both the Los Angeles and Santa Ana areas are near capacity with businesses, city officials said. But new zoning requirements could make it easier for the area to evolve, they said.

Proposals including eliminating the requirement that buildings be at least 15 feet from property lines and removing requirements for monument signs that take up limited land area.

Businesses in the Abbot Kinney and Melrose areas have thrived under such conditions by, for example, using climbing vines to replace traditional landscaping, city project manager Vicki Uehli said.

Proposed new zoning ordinances would be presented to the City Council by the end of the year.