Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Would you please take the roll call? Chair Murphy? Here.

Commissioner Hanson?

Here. Commissioner Stewart?

Here. Commissioner Rice-Schmidt? Here. And Vice Chair Chesley-Obson? Thank you.

Bruce, would you lead us in the pledge, please? Are there any additions or changes to the agenda?

No changes.

Could I have a motion to accept the agenda as distributed?

I move to approve the Planning Commission minutes of June 17th as submitted. Agenda. Oh, the agenda, oh.

Sorry.

Jumping ahead.

I move to approve the agenda as submitted.

I second. Roll call. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed?

No. I am opening the public communications. We have two speakers tonight. Kim Ming. Good evening.

I just came on behalf of Andy Whitman. He's going to be your liaison for the next six months. But unfortunately, he wasn't able to make it to tonight. So I said that I would show up. And he sent me words to say to you guys. So I'll just read from him. He said he would have liked to have been present tonight for this meeting But my wife and I are spending the fourth with their son I was really happy to learn that I will be the liaison to the Planning Commission for the next six months I look forward to being an observer of good work that this commission is doing I also look forward to being a facilitator liaison between the Commission City staff and the City Council You may have heard me say this in the past, but I think it bears repeating how much I appreciate each of you and your service to the community. Your skills, judgment, and voices are indispensable to the City of Ojai planning process. Enjoy your Fourth of July holiday. So thank you. Thank you, Kim.

You're welcome. Next we have Anita. I'm on item number two. Oh, item two. OK, sorry. You did. You did. I didn't look. My bad. OK, is there anyone online? Sherry? No. OK, then I will close the public hearing, our public communications, and we will move to the consent calendar.

Now we have minutes to approve. I move that we approve the Planning Commission minutes of June 17 as submitted.

I second.

Roll call, please, Sherry. Roy Schmidt?

Yes. Stewart?

yes Hanson yes Murphy yes okay moving on we have disclosure of site visits and ex parte contacts to disclose Bruce yes I rode my bicycle around the out perimeter and looked around to see what I could through but it's very interesting and that's primarily all I did with that okay thank you

nothing on my end no okay Katrina I will recuse myself from item number two because I live within 500 feet okay thank you I have been to the site I have not had any recent ex parte contacts So now we will move on to the public hearing item. And that would be design review permit, DRP 26-004. which I will hand over now to the staff to discuss.

Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Good evening, commissioners and community members. My name is Lucas Seibert. I'm the community development director for the city of Ojai. The item you have before you tonight is a modification to an existing design review permit, and more importantly, I'm going to walk through the PowerPoint presentation, and I'm also going to ask for the designer, the architect for this project, Jason Herbert. to speak on this as well. He'll give some more detail as to what's being proposed here in terms of the modifications. What I'm going to speak to tonight is kind of the history. Within the packet, there was a lot of information because there has been a lot of information that has been put together. This is probably just a snapshot of the information. but it's the information that's pertinent to the proposal for tonight and certainly helps to provide some context to where this project has gone and where it is at currently in its current phase. And hopefully with this PowerPoint presentation and with Jason's help, we'll get you up to speed and informed as well as with the community and obviously open up for public hearing and public comment. So with that, the project itself is located at... Hold on. Ah, there we go. The project itself is located at 312 West Aliso Street. From a historical context standpoint, this project was approved as a 10-unit market rate development in 2007, approved by city council in 2007. Revisions to the project were approved in 2016. Those revisions were within the framework by which we're seeing phase two, which I'll go into later on, or here in a moment, to the project. The project itself is consisting of four different phases. More importantly though, before I go into the phases, is the settlement agreement. The settlement agreement was approved by city council in 2023, December of 2023. And that included this site as well as three others. The others include Mallory Way, which is just to the north of this. It includes a project on East Ojai, 510 East Ojai, which also included affordable units. Mallory Way includes affordable units. And then there was a project that was approved on 304 South Montgomery. All of those included affordable units. This site in particular was originally approved in 2007 with 10 units as a part of the settlement agreement and included two additional units which were deed restricted to be affordable. So the site itself originally did not have approval for affordability, but in 2023 as a part of the settlement agreement, two additional units were included. Those units themselves are part of phase one, which is just wrapping up right now. So going into the phasing plan itself for Cottages Among the Flowers, it consists of four phases, which is kind of unique and a little bit unusual. The four phases themselves allow for the construction of the 12 units that we're talking about. The first phase includes four units, those four units have just wrapped up and we're getting ready to start and work on phase two. Phase two includes three market rate units, those units that we're going to be talking about tonight. Phase three includes three additional market rate units and then phase four includes two market rate units. Important piece for phase two. The reason why this is coming before this body tonight for consideration is when the surveyor and the contractor were staking out the site for the additions that are meant for the project itself, it was identified that one of the additions is actually going into the channel. Obviously, the addition can't go into the channel without us doing some fairly hefty environmental work to address that. So instead, the developer looked at that as an opportunity to pivot and downsize these three units. That in itself, if you're looking at the phasing plan itself, obviously I just talked about phase one, which includes the two units that are closest to Aliso Street, single story. And then the two units, I can use my cursor here just for a moment. There it is. So if you follow the cursor, the two ADU units are above the five-car garage that you're seeing here. And those were a part of the settlement agreement. Now, phase two, which is the one that you're seeing front and center here, it's highlighted in yellow, yellow dashed, includes those three units. Those three units also include the piece that I just spoke about, which is, if I can use my cursor here again, there it is. this addition right here is what caused all the frustration and confusion. Because when you stake it out, it actually goes into the channel. So that had everybody kind of taking a look at, and actually I went out to the site with the developer and really kind of addressed and took a look at it to understand what we were dealing with. And at that point we started talking about alternatives. So the alternative you're seeing tonight is what ended up culminating from that. Now, before we go into it, I want to give a little bit of background. A lot of the material in here is kind of a refresher to this, but the history piece is one that's kind of interesting because if you look at the purpose of what Cottages is and what it culminated from, it was built as an affordable rental housing project. That was its original intention. It was purchased by John D. Burnham in 1929. designed by a local architect, Harold Burkett. The vision was a group of small Carmel-style cottages or bungalows. The result was nine cottage units and a garage that were completed in January of 1930. and named, at that point, the Cottages Among the Flowers. The intention? To house teachers, artists, and local families. Does that sound somewhat familiar to what we're doing today? The same issues existed 100 years ago, and they still continue to exist today. So I just wanted to give some context to what we're looking at here, even by today's standards. Now, the three units that we're looking at here, these are the physical photos of these three units. It's unit 314B, unit 312C, and unit 312B. The units, again, are highlighted in this phasing plan. And more importantly, you can see the area of work that's being focused on for this phase two. With that, I'll have Jason go into some of the detail for each of these units.

Thanks, Lucas, and thanks, commissioners. My name is Jason Herber. I'm the architect for this phase two of this project. Lucas, would you mind going back to the site plan real quick? Sorry about that. I'll just give a quick overview. So one thing I do want to mention first and foremost is that we are proposing to reduce the size of these units, but we're not changing the bedroom or bathroom counts of them. So we're not changing the main amenities of these. We're just making them a little smaller. So I'll just kind of give you a quick overview, starting with the north is to the right. So the east side, the one on the bottom, is Unit 312B. Let me give Lucas a minute to catch back up to the slideshow. Thank you. Yes, next slide, please. So this one is the one on the east side, it's Unit 312B. One thing to mention, this was what was previously approved, and so if you skip over to the next slide, you'll see our proposed new footprint, and then the red dashed line is the footprint of what was previously approved. So this one we're reducing what was approved at 956 square feet down to 700. Again, this is a two-bedroom, one-bath unit. I think one thing, if you kind of toggle back to the previous slide, we kind of lost the dining area on the right, and then we reduced the covered patio areas slightly from there. So then next few slides would be the exterior. And for all three of these projects, these are the previously approved exterior elevations. And so the next one is our approved. And it's kind of hard to go back and forth. We really did, in our redesign, what we tried to do was really embrace more kind of what was there. We were really doing our best to keep the gables and the ridge lines and all of the chimneys and fireplaces are existing. We are proposing the stone lower walls that were previously approved in the previous version as well. So then moving on to the next unit is 312C. And these next two units, this is what was previously approved. Their previous layouts that were approved are quite different. But in reality, 312C and the one following this 312B are very, very similar currently in their footprints. And what we're proposing is very similar as well with those two. So next slide, please. Two-bedroom, two-bath. Again, we're reducing the overall size and reducing the screen and patios slightly as well. So this one was previously approved at 1,092 square feet. Now we're at 722. Again, that's the footprint of what was previously approved, the red dashed line. And then the final unit is 314B. Sorry, this is the elevation of 312C. Again, we're doing our very best to keep the existing ridge lines intact and preserving as much of the exterior facades as we possibly can. So this is the approved version of 314B. This is the one that had the conflict with the drainage system to the west side of the property. So the next slide please this is what was proposed so much more compact this one's nearly identical to 312 C On foot on the floor plan and the exterior elevations And following the next few elevations again this is what was previously approved then finally what we're proposing and then last thing I'll mention this what didn't make it in the slideshow Lucas Lucas and I were emailing about this earlier but the the approved finishes the colors the paint colors haven't changed and we I think you did provide you a document that includes that so that I just want to note that we're proposed keeping the colors that were previously approved And then last thing I'll say is if you haven't had a chance to go by and check out phase one that's completed, I recommend you do that. The masons did a wonderful job with the stone, and they're really well built and look very nice. And we intend for the same quality for this phase two. I'd be more than happy to answer any questions you have, but that's kind of my general overview of the project. Thank you.

Yes, the information that Jason's referring to is on the dais for you to take a look at exactly. I also have extra copies in the front here if anybody's wanting an extra copy as well.

I have a question. Most of the parking, the covered parking, there are two parking buildings, one that's in phase one and the second, is that part of phase two at all or is the parking just parking spaces.

Good question. Lucas, you may have to help me recall. I know that our Samara units have new parking spaces.

Yes, that's true. The Samara units, which are a part of Phase 4, have surface parking. Here, we're not actually looking at any changes to the parking layout. So the parking, like for instance, for Phase 1, addresses... So look at it from this standpoint. The entire project as a whole covers parking for the entire project. But the phasing is a part of what the construction piece is. So when you're looking at phase one leading into phase two, phase two doesn't necessarily self-park. Neither does phase three or phase four. Instead, the entire project basically self-parks in terms of the parking spaces, surface, as well as cover.

Is that one parking place per unit?

I think it's a one-to-one ratio, but I also believe there was a variance that allowed for reduction in parking requirements.

I could see outside parking spaces for most of them. I couldn't see one for 314B, but everything's kind of torn up right now because of the... The buildings are on are up. Right.

So you're saying assigned parking that's being identified at the moment, correct?

Yeah, I was just kind of trying to get an idea of where they would park. Is there access on the other side?

Yeah, actually, there's three access points. One is off of Aliso. The second one is going to be part of phase three, which is off of Oak. And then you have kind of an emergency access piece that is also off Aliso just to the west.

Okay, that's just for emergency. It's not for daily use.

It's not really meant for daily use There's already gonna be a parking or I'm sorry access point. That is a part of Though basically the channel that was modified to allow for for vehicles to go across.

Okay, so Look somebody helpful, but I'll go back to the site plan that kind of shows what some of our oops Where the parking is proposed on the project the first slide

Was there any change to trees, canopy, plantings, or anything otherwise like that that would be negatively impacted here?

Not for this phase, but since this was approved, from what I understand, there was a little bit more encroachment from the canopies of the trees that were there. So the new reduced footprint kind of helps that a little bit more. But we're not altering or proposing any removal or changes to the landscape.

And if somebody said this is just kind of cost-cutting Rather than you know authentically trying to to make an adjustment here. How would you respond to that question?

I would refer to the first page of your agenda for tonight. It's really well written, I believe. So let me just read this, because this is as well as the responses I could form. When staking the addition to the west, it was identified that the portion of the expansion would be located within the existing storm drain channel located to the west. The developer contacted the community development staff related to this issue. After a site visit was conducted with the community development staff confirming the issue, the developer expressed an interest in reducing the size of the impacted units as well as the other two residential units associated with the second phase of this project. The reason for this reduction is to reduce the footprint of each unit in an effort to minimize impacts to existing landscape and maintain the small cottage style ambience of the project. Anyway, I think that's a good explanation for these changes.

The one unit that was encroaching on the waterway had to be reduced. The other two did not. It was a decision by the developer to do that. Did he give a reason other than what you just read?

That's the reason that I have. It's to maintain the cottage character that kind of exists there in the current configuration.

As these are market rate units, I would assume then that the price or rent will go down in proportion to the amount of decrease we've seen in size.

I'm not on the leasing side, but I would assume, I would make that assumption as well.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions before we open the public hearing I think I think I just have one more this Adjustment we would make this evening does not allow for some sort of later building up or another further adjustment in any way to the to the footprint of this building any any adjustments as you're seeing even for Tonight in terms of the request would have to come before this body.

Yep.

I

Okay, great. You didn't have to, I noticed they're raised right now, that's probably for new foundations, is it?

Yes, that's correct.

So you didn't have to move one of them for the drainage, right?

Right, we're trying to maintain their existing footprint as much as possible, but they do need to be shored up with a new foundation.

Okay, just trying to understand what I saw when I was there.

Yeah, one of them in particular just, it's probably something that you saw, like for instance, I think it's 312 or 314B. That one is actually up on cribbing right now as an elevated piece to ensure that the units itself, I think Jason can speak to this, and I think in talking with Jeff on site and the contractor, It was necessary in preparation for what they were anticipating to do next, which then realized they couldn't, not without significant.

Yeah, it's a lot of stonework to do.

Thank you, Jason.

Thank you very much.

Thanks.

I will open the public hearing now. So far we have one card, and that would be from Anita. Correct.

can't read the last name i should know it but i can't that's okay it's cram cram thank you i write sloppy too sometimes now now it looks like cram now that you say it so okay so um just uh one clarification phase two didn't just start it's been under construction for several several months Okay, so there are still some issues with the project and the staff report for today with resolution and also they all mentioned CEQA mitigated negative declaration and the project conditions of approval and the need to follow them. So I just want to read something that's kind of an outstanding issue with the conditions of approval and this is JCR-1 historic resources. If during the course of construction historical features are damaged or found to be deteriorated, they should be repaired rather than replaced. Where the severity of deterioration requires replacement, the new features shall match the old in design, color, texture, and other visual qualities. And where possible, materials replacement of missing materials shall be substantiated by documentary, physical, or pictorial evidence and accomplished in consultation with a qualified historic preservation professional. And this is mitigation because these cottages should be city, state, and national historic landmarks. And so this is supposed to be done due to loss of the historic resource of this. And so far as we can tell, this has not happened. And even the two that have been done, they're painted green. So they should be white with green trim. And that is stated in the previous documents, the voluminous previous documents from previous years. So it needs to be addressed, historic resources. They've made corrections on a lot of things, but that's a big one that has not. So I'd also like to mention that they've been opening the construction fence directly adjacent, and this is for phase two. They've been working on it for a long time, didn't just start. They've been opening the construction fence adjacent to where I live and where someone else lives and just using that now as... you know, part of their construction plan, and it's really dangerous. You know, people walk by there with dogs, kids, someone could run in there, a dog could run in there. The documents, volumious documents over the years also talk about sounds and vibrations, and it's significantly more disturbing when they just open up. It's just a section of the fence, and they just open up and decide to use it. So that's a big problem that I hope... you know, can be looked at. And parking, parking is lost in this. I just want to clarify that because 314B and 312B used to park where they now did the construction for 312 and 312A, and there's no longer space in what used to be a lot there. So parking is lost in this for two of the cottages. Um, and also, um, I think that, um, again, they should be white with green trim and, um, and that is part of the historic. And also, you know, I'm just not convinced this director's exemption from June 19th, 2025, that goes against the conditions of approval also. Thank you.

Thank you, Anita. Is there anyone else in the audience wishing to speak at this time? Sherry, is there anyone online?

No.

OK. In that case, we will close the public hearing and bring it back to the commission for discussion. Anybody want to start?

I guess the only general comment I would have is there's enough brought up in that that I think not having been engaged at the time many of this was decided, it would be good just to get up to speed on those comments and to listen and react to what's been stated in the meeting. Yeah.

Yeah, so just from a historical standpoint, the conditions I do believe say white with green trim. Jason, I'd ask you to respond to the color palette that you have in hand as to where that was drawn from. So I'll let Jason answer that one. In terms of the phase two construction fencing, she's correct. Anita's correct. The construction did start in preparation for phase two. And obviously, as part of that, you stake it out. And that's where in the cribbing, and then the demolition had started. So absolutely, it had started months before that. But before any walls could be removed, that's when they noted that there was an issue with the addition that was being proposed for 314B. So that piece was in transition to phase one's completion. As the phasing project moves forward, each phase needs to be complete before the next phase can start. The interesting thing about this project is because of the concerns that have been brought up regarding the number of conditions of approval, we actually hired basically a contract planner, a co-compliance planner, who has been monitoring not only this site but others as a conditions of approval compliance officer. And to Anita's point, a number of those issues have been resolved because of the regular review and kind of educational piece that's been provided to the contractor on site, the general contractor on site. There are still others that remain that need to be addressed, and we continue to work with them to address those. So it's a work in progress, I would say, to a certain degree as this project continues to move forward.

From your perspective, there's a regular channel or at least some sort of process to manage that communication at this time?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, our co-compliance officer, conditions for approval compliance officer is out there on the regular. I wouldn't say out there daily, but when he is in the office, he's going in there and checking in for sure. That didn't exist when this project first started, though. So there's a number of issues that came up. I mean, I've met with Anita on a number of occasions to start working on addressing some of these, but it was even beyond the time scope that I had, so that's why we brought somebody on.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I mean, that would be my only comment. If people can't weigh in, they don't buy in. And we have to have a process there somehow that does keep a regular communication channel because I know just for the people who are new to this topic a little bit, given the traffic, the number of conditions on it and everything, probably the best thing we can just do is just support the people who are directly impacted. Nobody likes to get woken up at 7 a.m. with a rush of strangers through the backyard. Yeah, and Anita is... Making sure there's a communication channel there so that people are aware, you know...

And she didn't state this specifically, but she is in the construction zone. I mean, the construction is happening. She's part of phase three. Yeah, phase three, correct? Yeah. Yeah. So she's part of phase three.

So even more important for us to listen. Correct. She's on site. Rather than tough luck, you're in the construction zone. Even more important for us, probably. Right. Yeah. That's all I had to say. Bruce?

Is there a response with a color palette or how that works?

Yeah, a couple things. My understanding, my involvement with this project started in around 22 or 23. And I believe there were three previous approvals, 07, 16, and 19. So it's my understanding that 2019 is when this new color palette was approved, this document. I didn't find it in the conditions. So I did see the off-white with light green trim is mentioned in there. But like Lucas said, maybe it requires a little bit further research to find out. But that's my understanding. And then in response to the construction that's happening, the channel that Lucas mentioned is a whole civil project in and of itself that's happening. And so that's why 314B had to be lifted. We had to remove the windows because you can't lift it with all the glass intact. So that's why there's some construction related to that unit. The other two have not been touched.

But there will be car access to 314B when you finish.

That I'm not 100% sure. The site plan shows parking throughout the site, but I believe that interior area close to those units is more of a pedestrian walkway is my understanding. There's no parking spots shown directly adjacent to those units.

Jason, is the material used, the siding that's green, is that innately green or was it painted green?

It's painted.

It's painted? Yes. Okay, thank you. Anything else?

Can I just, to Jason's point, the stuff from 2019 we can certainly take a look at because there are, because of the history of this project all the way through, I mean, obviously we'd be working with the conditions of approval compliance officer to ensure that they're using the right color palette. I mean, we're giving you the color palette as best we know at this point. But if there's a contradictory aspect to that, obviously we've got to take a look at that. Anita's bringing up a good point.

It's 2022 even that that color palette is mentioned, so it's way past 2019.

Yeah, we can take a look at that. Because the reality is, for instance, if the first two units that are closest to Aliso have been painted incorrectly, we're not signing off for final sign-off on the project until that's corrected.

Okay, thank you. Okay, well, you said that phase one was completed, and does that mean it's ready to move in?

There are already people occupying, like for instance, 312 West Aliso is occupied.

Good.

Which is the one that's closest to Aliso.

How about the ADUs above the garage?

So those require income qualifying units or income qualifying individuals. The way in which this project is required to move forward is it's offered up to the tenants that are in cottages as well as Mallory Way for income qualifying. So if they're interested in doing that, they can certainly submit the paperwork and go through the process. So we're actively working through that right now.

Thank you. I was glad to hear that the units that are being downsized are market rate units and not affordable units that are being downsized. I like the fact that the downsized units give a little more space, open space, landscape area to the units around them so that reduces the crowding feeling that could come from bigger units. They seem to me to be very efficient, compact, but very efficient, so I like the design that I saw. I like the color that I see on the unit. But if it's historically wrong, then I assume that that will get corrected one way or another. So I am very impressed with what I saw. I saw the completed phase one units although the ADUs were still under construction. But they seemed to me to be very well done. They're very attractive, and I assume that this phase will have a similar good feeling about them. That's really all I have to say about it. I have no problem with the downsizing as long as it's market rate. And that gets reflected in the price that's charged for them. I think it's fine. So based on that, I would be at this point ready to accept a motion to approve.

Yeah, and before I make the motion, I guess just the only other comment is you know we heard a little bit of like not listening behavior and then we also heard that you guys came to the city and said hey there's a problem here and I just want to acknowledge that side of the equation as well that I appreciate the developers actually reaching out when other people might have made a different choice and just built it and worried about it later I appreciate the developers reaching out as well and so that that's a positive piece that I want to call out and so WITH THAT, I WOULD MAKE A MOTION TO APPROVE THE REDUCTION IN SIZE AS WRITTEN. I WOULD SECOND THE MOTION.

SHERRY, ROLL CALL. HANSON.

YES.

STEWART.

YES.

MURPHY. YES.

OKAY.

Beautiful development.

It is. I really appreciate the fact that this is all being done with private money. They are not relying on state grants or any other public funding. And yet he has been, Mr. Becker has been willing to work cooperatively with the city and with the residents to produce a project that, as I said, I think is very Well done and nice looking. So, moving on. Welcome back to the dives. We are ready for discussion items.

Yes, future agenda, tentative agenda items. So, for the next agenda is July 15th. There are three items identified on there. Two of them are appeals, and one of them is what's being considered a pre-review. uh... for one of so the preview is for one of seven north ventura street it's his own change uh... general plan amendment i see it's listed as this is home change but it's his own change of one of them a conditional use for that and your peer design review permit so it's a mouthful of information uh... as a pre review not as a concept review okay so basically this falls into that twenty day review period it's required when you're doing a modification to uh... The zoning code so because we're doing the modification of the zoning code as a zone change It has to go through a 20-day public hearing review before it comes before this body. So the noticing Puts it into the factor of you'll be seeing it officially on the 5th You get a chance to kind of see the pre review unfold on the 15th in terms of the two appeals See Ah, one is for 304 South Ventura Street. Just to give the wiki leak on that, there was a protected valley oak that is proposed to be removed. It's identified as being healthy, but proposed to be removed. I identified a number of things that they need to do per code. they are disagreeing with those things so that's what we're gonna see the appeal the appeal for the for the tree ordinance requires the Planning Commission to hear appeals so that's why this body is seeing it and not necessarily City Council or another body the same thing is true for 14 201 North Ventura Street that doesn't sound right Sherry, is that the correct address for Katona? Yeah, it's Avenue, not Street. Oh, okay. That's the difference. Okay. So that one, a tree was removed, but it did not go through the full process. So a number of... What's the word I'm looking for? We issue citations and other things that they have to do as identified within the code. And they disagree with those things, so they've appealed it. And that, again, comes before this body. That is why you're going to be seeing both of these appeals. And that is scheduled for the 15th. And then for August 5th, there is the official review, which will include an official public hearing for 107 North Ventura Street, the Zone Change General Plan Amendment, Conditional Use Permit, and DRP. Oh, my gosh. Three appeals. Okay, so there's also another appeal for tenant protections for 1620 San Gabriel Street. You'll hear more about that. But, again, this is something that's somewhat outside of the zoning ordinance, but it's identified as the hearing body for the appeal is the Planning Commission. So that's why you will be hearing it. Well, it's a little unusual, but the Planning Commission has been charged with that review. So we'll unpack that as it comes forward. And then future agenda items, these are all either pending or deemed to be incomplete at this point. Some of them, I see one of them is in review at this point.

What is the difference between being in review and incomplete?

It typically means that information has been submitted. So if it's in review, that means that we have new information that's been submitted. However, with 710 Olive Street, I'm not aware of any new information that's been submitted aside from what was submitted almost four months ago. So that one is just pending at this point because there's no action that needs to be taken for that one. And then the incomplete is we've submitted an incomplete letter that there are items that need to be provided before we can schedule it for hearing. And then pending means that information has been submitted and we're currently reviewing it and looking to schedule it.

Thank you. Yep. We have a director's report next.

I do have one thing to mention, and I believe that I will turn my time over to Darren, our senior counsel, to speak to that.

Yes. So I want to say that this is my last planning commission. I have really appreciated and valued the opportunity and time I've had to work with his body and with staff. I will still be on the team, but I'm relocating in my personal life, moving to the Seattle area, so I will not be able to attend the meetings anymore. But my replacement is here, John Cardenas, if he wants to step up and introduce himself.

Thanks, Darren, and thank you for putting us on a good track and look forward to working with you all with the commission and supporting you as best I can. At the top, I just want to say happy birthday as well. Today is Darren's birthday, and he chose to spend it with the commission. My name's John Cardenas. I'm of counsel at Alleshire Winder and really looking forward to moving into the assistant city attorney role. I'm a resident of Dana Point, pretty far south, Orange County. So it's a bit of a haul coming up here, but I really think this is the best part of the job, driving into town. made me realize that it took so long for my first visit to Ojai, such a beautiful town. So I'm really looking forward to supporting you and working to make the best land use decisions possible to keep the city's priorities front and center. I have a bit of an unusual background. I have 23 years as a federal government lawyer in the Foreign Service. So you might not, it's not an easy connection to the land use law that we do here and the 23 years that I spent overseas in the Foreign Service, but actually a lot of my work in the Foreign Service was focused around infrastructure development at a subnational level. Of those 23 years, I spent 15 in the Middle East, so a range of different issues, Libya, Yemen, Iraq, but Coming back to Southern California, where I was born and raised, looking forward to reconnecting with the communities here and really helping us move forward all the important decisions that come before the commission. So let me leave it there, and I'll be joining you all at the next meeting in two weeks. Thank you so much.

Thank you, John. Welcome aboard. Hope we get to hear some of your really good stories.

I'll call them war stories in quotes, but it's not far from the actual truth.

Okay, thank you very much. And Darren, thank you for being a very kind advisor as we've needed a lot of advice in this new role of mine. So, good luck in Seattle.

Thank you.

We wish you well.

Chair, if I could, just my remaining time that I have, I just wanted to make one announcement, and kind of, it's a piece for this body, and I'll obviously share with John as well. As you know or maybe you don't know but I will inform you the the tree ordinance itself has gone through a number of workshops as well as kind of a concept review by the City Council where there's a lot of opportunity for community feedback staff is currently working through all of that information and putting together a kind of a dumbed-down version of the original red line that had quite a few changes. Hearing from the community, what we've seen is that maybe not as many changes need to be made. So we're looking to bring those forward to city council. But before that, we thought it was necessary and appropriate for this body to have an opportunity to provide some comments before it then gets forwarded to city council. So you should expect that. Probably in the next month obviously it's not identified with these next two meetings because I'm actively working on that at the moment so Okay, just know that that's coming forward It's not one that you've I've invited you to these meetings either before or after the meetings unfortunately for some of these workshops But you'll have an opportunity at this dais through public communication to provide some comments Review the information and ask questions obviously

Good.

All right. Thank you.

Are there any commission member reports? Okay. Hearing none, let's move on. We have Mayor Andy Gilman here. Okay. Well, in that case, I will adjourn the meeting at 6.50. 6.50. Whoa.