Posted July 2026 | By Eric Engelbert | Project completed early 2026.
Small Infill, Big Process: How 8 New Condominiums Came to 301 North Mountain View Street
Not every new development in Santa Ana involves hundreds of units or hundreds of millions of dollars. Sometimes the most instructive projects are the smaller ones, the infill condominiums on a three-quarter-acre lot in a residential neighborhood that required a General Plan Amendment, a zone change, environmental review, a Planning Commission hearing, and two City Council hearings before a single foundation could be poured. The Mountain View 8-Unit Condominium Development at 301 and 305 North Mountain View Street is one of those projects, and the story of how it came together tells you something important about what new for-sale housing looks like in western Santa Ana when a small developer decides to work through the full entitlement process.
The project was submitted by Mountain View R&E Investments, LLC, with Lin Bui listed as the project applicant, and was formally approved by the Santa Ana City Council on December 15, 2020. The City of Santa Ana listed the project as completed in early 2026. What came out of that process is four two-story paired-home buildings totaling eight for-sale condominiums, each with three bedrooms, approximately 1,800 square feet of living space, and an attached two-car garage, on a combined site at 301 and 305 North Mountain View Street in western Santa Ana.
The Site: Aging Residential on Agricultural-Zoned Land
The 0.74-acre site at 301 and 305 North Mountain View Street had an unusual regulatory history before the new condominiums were built. The General Plan designated it Low-Medium Density Residential (LMR-11), a designation that reflects the surrounding neighborhood of modestly scaled single-family and smaller multifamily properties that make up western Santa Ana's residential blocks. The zoning on record, however, was General Agricultural (A-1), a holdover designation that in older California cities like Santa Ana frequently reflects land whose original classification has simply never been updated as the city grew around it. The existing structures on the parcel were residential in use but sitting on land that had not been formally rezoned to match its actual use.
The project required a General Plan Amendment to change the land use designation, a zone change from A-1 to bring the parcel into conformance with its residential context, and a Tentative Tract Map to create the condominium subdivision that would allow the eight units to be individually sold. Each of those approvals required its own public hearing process. The environmental review was conducted as an Initial Study with a Mitigated Negative Declaration under CEQA, which the City filed on June 8, 2020 with a public comment period through July 8. The Notice of Determination confirming no significant unmitigated environmental impacts was filed with the state on December 17, 2020, two days after City Council approval.
The site sits on North Mountain View Street approximately half a block north of First Street, within walking distance of the Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center and the surrounding neighborhood retail that serves western Santa Ana. A separate development, the 1st and Mountain View Townhome project, is underway a short distance to the south, making North Mountain View Street a notable infill corridor for new for-sale housing in this part of the city.
Four Paired Buildings, Eight Condominiums, One Shared Community
The project's design is straightforward and practical. Four two-story residential buildings are arranged across the 0.74-acre site, with each building containing two side-by-side condominium units. The paired-home format reads as a duplex in scale and massing but is legally structured as a condominium map, meaning each of the eight units is sold individually as a fee-simple condominium with its own assessor's parcel number and title. Buyers own their unit and a proportional interest in the common areas of the project.
Each of the eight units includes three bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, approximately 1,800 square feet of living area across two stories, and a 400-square-foot attached two-car garage. The garage access is integrated into the building footprint, eliminating the need for external carports or surface lot parking for residents. The site plan provides required guest and accessible parking in addition to the private garages.
Two-story layout
~1,800 SF living area
Attached 2-car garage (~400 SF)
4 buildings
2 units per building
Paired-home format
Individual fee-simple title
Condominium map (Tentative Tract Map)
HOA common areas
301 and 305 N. Mountain View
Western Santa Ana
Near Regional Transit Center
| Project Name | Mountain View 8-Unit Condominium Development |
|---|---|
| Address | 301 and 305 North Mountain View Street, Santa Ana, CA 92703 |
| Total Units | 8 for-sale condominiums |
| Unit Size | ~1,800 SF per unit (3BR / 2.5BA) |
| Parking | Attached 2-car garage per unit (~400 SF) |
| Building Configuration | 4 two-story paired buildings (2 units each) |
| Site Size | 0.74 acres |
| Prior Zoning | General Agricultural (A-1) |
| Prior General Plan | Low-Medium Density Residential (LMR-11) |
| Developer / Applicant | Mountain View R&E Investments, LLC (Lin Bui) |
| Environmental Review | Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) |
| Sunshine Ordinance Meeting | March 12, 2020 |
| Planning Commission Hearing | October 26, 2020 |
| City Council Approval | December 15, 2020 |
| Project Status | Completed (City of Santa Ana, February 2026) |
| City Planner | Pedro Gomez, AICP — Principal Planner — (714) 667-2790 |
The Entitlement Process: From Sunshine Meeting to City Council in About Nine Months
The Sunshine Ordinance community meeting for the Mountain View project was held on March 12, 2020, just days before COVID-19 shutdowns halted in-person gatherings throughout California. The timing meant the rest of the public review process shifted to virtual hearings. The Notice of Intent under CEQA was filed June 8, 2020, and the public review period for the Mitigated Negative Declaration closed on July 8, 2020. The Initial Study found no significant unmitigated environmental impacts associated with the project, consistent with the relatively modest scale of eight homes on less than one acre in an established residential neighborhood.
The Planning Commission held a public hearing on October 26, 2020. The City Council heard the matter on December 1, 2020, and then held a second hearing and approved the project at its December 15, 2020 meeting. The approvals included the General Plan Amendment changing the land use designation, the zone change from A-1 to a designation consistent with the residential use, and the Tentative Tract Map establishing the condominium subdivision structure. The Notice of Determination was filed with the state's CEQA clearinghouse two days after council approval, closing the environmental record. From the Sunshine meeting to final approval, the entitlement ran approximately nine months, which is efficient for a project requiring a GPA and zone change, even accounting for the pandemic-era transition to virtual hearings.
New For-Sale Condominiums in Western Santa Ana: What Buyers Should Know
Eight units is a small project by any measure, but small infill projects like this one tend to matter more to the immediate neighborhood than large mixed-use developments in distant corridors. The homes at 301 and 305 North Mountain View directly replace older residential structures with larger, newer units that meet current building codes, include modern insulation and energy efficiency requirements, and offer attached two-car garages, a feature that is genuinely scarce in western Santa Ana's older housing stock where street parking is competitive and carports were a common but inferior substitute.
The three-bedroom configuration makes these units functional for families, and the approximately 1,800-square-foot floor plan puts them in a range that competes with both attached townhomes and smaller detached single-family homes in the surrounding market. Buyers comparing these condominiums to nearby rental options will find that the monthly cost of ownership at prevailing financing rates for a unit in this size range, with a two-car garage and new construction quality, is meaningfully different from what is available in professionally managed rental communities in western Santa Ana. The condominium HOA structure adds a monthly cost that should be factored into any affordability comparison, but it also covers the maintenance of shared improvements that individual homeowners would otherwise carry on their own.
For sellers in the surrounding neighborhood, new construction comps at 301 and 305 Mountain View provide useful data points when pricing older single-family or attached homes within a few blocks. Buyers who prefer the character of older homes but want to understand the gap between new and resale pricing in western Santa Ana will find this community a useful reference.
Interested in New Construction or Resale in Western Santa Ana? Let's Talk.
Whether you are a buyer who wants to know if there are any remaining units at this community or comparable new construction nearby, a seller looking at how new comps affect your home's value, or a buyer simply trying to understand the Santa Ana market from downtown west through the Mountain View corridor, we work with clients across the city and all of Orange County.
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