City Council — 2020-02-25

All the meeting of the Ojai City Council to order. Will the clerk please call roll?

Mayor Johnston,

here.

Mayor Pro Tem Blatz,

here.

Council Member Francina, here. Council Member Haney,

I think I'm here.

Council Member Weirich,

consent calendar and Jim Zellman are you in the audience? Hey come on down Jim.

Thank You Members of the Council It would be very brief. First of all, I just want to say that speaking for the whole committee we really appreciate the opportunity to really engage some of the questions and more importantly some of the severity of these potential impacts from environmental policy And also we're very conscious of the fact that many of the environmental impacts may occur, for example in counties policy and decisions not just those within Ojai. So while our group and our conversations are focused on the areas within Ojai where you have some jurisdiction, we also recognize that a great deal of our future vis-a-vis the climate is going to be affected by Ventura and the state, and entities beyond us.

We've come to appreciate in a very profound way that while if we did everything we could possibly do in Ojai, the actual quantitative impact on climate is pretty minuscule. On the other hand, Margaret Mead famously quoted as saying never underestimate the power of the individual or a small group of people to, to change the world. In fact, that's the only way it's ever happened.

And we recognize that the city council that you have a voice and it's a respected voice and it's a powerful voice and it's backed by an extraordinary community and that climate is one of those issues that kind of transcends differences politically ideologically philosophically in other ways. It's a, it's an umbrella within which we're all going to Thank you very much.

I want decisions and commitments that took a lot of courage to perhaps not go with what the fossil fuel industry would have wished, and had made some policies which we certainly endorsed and appreciated. And then we learned that the city, the county staff had effectively countered using some administrative technique Those policies and really basically undermine the decision of the city supervisor of the county supervisors And so in our in the council's willingness to write this letter And to take a stand, basically. A stand for the climate. A stand for what's right. A stand for empowering those who have the responsibility for our collective future is a courageous act on part of the council. So I'm here to say thank you on behalf of our committee but also thank you as a citizen of Ojai for really having the courage to necessarily speak out in the most powerful and direct Thank you.

Thank you, Jim.

Bill? I just want to, Jim, thank you personally and thank everyone on this dais also. Really a thank-you. It's such a well researched, well written letter that gets to the core of the issue of how you get from cup and lip and what can happen sometimes to sabotage that. And so I absolutely commend completely And the only reason I pulled it from the consent is, I don't want this just sent to the County Planning Department and members of the Board of Supervisors. I want it sent to every city in Ventura County and every City Council member in the county of Ventura because this is a county general plan and everybody's surrounded by unincorporated area. That would be my only suggestion is that we spread this more... We do a direct communication to each city in the county as well.

Well, I would certainly appreciate that and I think that reflects and echoes the commitment that you've already expressed to be a model. But but a model where you're putting your money where your mouth is in where you're really speaking action and not just simply giving lip service to good ideas.

That was my only comment.

Thank you.

And so staff will see to it that the letter is distributed in that fashion? Okay good okay Public hearing on animal keeping ordinance. So Mr. City Manager, you want to commence the process before I open the hearing? Yes

thank you we'll do a brief staff report and Lucas is actually going to present a couple of slides as an overview. The ordinance is dense so he'll try to focus on some of the key items but just as a little bit of background A few months back we notified council that a 2003 zoning update removed the animal keeping standards from the city code, which from all research we could find appeared to have been an oversight.

The council then asked the planning commission to take a look and review Other city noise ordinances and prepare a draft for consideration, which is what we have before us tonight. And with that Lucas will give a high level overview of that draft

Right, thank you. Thank you for that background and yes this did come to the Planning Commission as requested by this council and on three separate meetings the planning commission and staff really dove into the details of what you're seeing here tonight as a proposal for an ordinance there were no standards we do not have standards that currently exist all we have are use categories that identify where animal keeping could be located within the city So animal keeping, kind of the foundation of how you begin to understand that is really through the humane treatment of animals. Whether it be through proper shelter or food and water, daily care, all those are embedded within this draft ordinance that you see before you tonight.

We had broken it down into large, medium and small animals. By definition, in addition to that it's identified the different types of lots that would qualify for those types of animals ensuring that there is enough space for those types of animals.

If you don't mind, I just want to give some examples for people following along. Large animals tend to be horses, cows and other cleft-hoofed animals. Medium animals are sheeps, goats, swine and other animals of similar size. And small animals include chinchillas, pygmy goats, miniature pigs, potbellied pigs, mini horses and mini cows. And then there's also domestic animals such as dogs and cats.

Correct. From a zoning standpoint, all of those areas that have been identified within both of these tables in Title 10 Chapter 2 are unchanged. Those continue to be enforced there are no changes proposed with these two tables In addition to that, I think it's it's important to identify that the unaltered dogs and cats are already embedded within our code We're not touching any of that any of those regulations as well as the animal nuisances regarding barking dogs Threatening animals within those within those parameters or bees Correct. Bees are nothing. These are untouched already exist. Yep. Well the standards for that already Yes One wrinkle within this is the manure management, which is really kind of what brought the Planning Commission reviewing this.

So we've taken standards from Ventura County, folded those into the regulations here today and we see that as moving forward any sort of new situations that arise, we begin to deal with that through a process if you will that have been identified within this draft ordinance So with that, staff does recommend approval of the ordinance but certainly if the council has any questions.

I have

a couple and I know Councilman Haney has a couple. Philosophy as a person You know, approving legislation. I always look not for the center of gravity best possible interpretation but the most mischief someone could make if they want to get into the gray area and the confusion and things like that. That's how I look at it. And so I'll ask you just two or three questions at the most just to illustrate why I think this thing needs more crafting.

For example, exemption from provisions section 10-17.050. These regulations do not apply to animals used to assist the disabled or registered therapy animals.

Are you in attachment A?

Yeah, attachment A page three of six. Certainly understandable however could that be interpreted as meaning humane treatment required...

Wait wait where are you? Could

that be interpreted as meaning there's no standard of humane treatment required? under a blanket exemption.

And

so

you're saying, right? I could see how that

it's how it could be interpreted, right? I got a problem. You know,

there are animal cruelty laws independent.

I understand. Just want you to know. I'm just saying I'm within the only the corpus of this okay what's the definition of poisonous Is that if you eat it or some other, there's no definition of what poisonous

is. Okay so if we were to come up with a definition of poisonous that would...

Or have it be as determined at the discretion of the director for example because something just can't be defined precisely okay? And then the last question before others will ask questions, when The limit of eight dogs and cats in combination is defined as at any residence. We just had new state law dictating that there's at least two if not more residents required on any parcel, so we may be talking about a small parcel with 16 dogs and dogs can weigh up to 300 pounds I just think we need to think about this

a little bit. Just a minute, okay for matter of procedure should we not be going ahead and opening the hearing and hearing from the public before we get in? This is more of a deliberation. I have lots of comments but I thought we'd wait Okay, that's right and that is the normal procedure. I

have two questions that are direct just they're simple questions. One is pertaining to the number of eight how do we arrive at eight?

Right, so we started with four. That's where it started and really what that came from is looking at a couple other different cities and jurisdictions and it was really two in two. As the Planning Commission and staff looked and researched, it became this discussion of an evolution if you will where it became four on four and then eventually it became well why can't we just have The city have eight of either type if they choose or two and six

That's

just the background on that it was it started at 2 & 2 and then it just kind of morphed right there

Okay, and we'll come back to those items. Okay, so I'm gonna open the public hearing and I have the hearing is now open I have three cards Steve quillacy And Elizabeth, you're on deck. Silva?

Thank you Mayor, Council and staff. I wanted to assure you that the Planning Commission has done the best job it could over a matter of...over the course of several meetings And I think was that animal keeping had been defined as keeping animals for a commercial purpose. So we're talking riding academies or I guess kennels, right? That would certainly work.

Breeding is commercial.

Yeah but the animal keeping was non-commercial animal keeping so

Are you suggesting we call it non-commercial animal keeping ordinance? Or put that word somewhere in

there. I don't see that as necessary if it's a business then it will be regulated by other aspects of the municipal code as we go But thank you for your time, and I hope that you will pass this ordinance in some form at least resembling what we tried to put together for you. Thank you. Thanks, Dave. And thank

you for ... I was liaison on planning for a number of these meetings, and they spent a lot of time dealing with this, so thank you Chair Kloos for all your work on it. Okay,

Elizabeth Silva, you are out there, and David Silva, you're on deck.

Thank you very much to the council and to the planning commission for taking this up. As you know, this is something that affected not only myself and my husband but also the neighbors surrounding us on drown so we feel very strongly that we would like this passed in some form. I do feel that there are some things and you've already brought up a couple of things that are a little ambiguous And I think the ambiguity needs to be addressed because as you know in my own situation it was ambiguity that Prolonged the misery that we faced for the past three years when our now Thankfully moved neighbor was creating manure piles up to six and seven feet high and having that dry up and blow all towards all of our houses and affecting my health So, thank you so much for taking this seriously and for trying to address this and getting it back on the books like it once was.

And hopefully giving the enforcement tools that are needed to help when there's situations such as the ones that we faced and get them resolved quickly and create a more cohesive neighborhood or interaction between neighbors.

Thank you

David I just second what my wife says that

a ditto Okay Those are all the cards I have so Check with the clerk be sure Are those all the cards we have on this item? okay, and then I will call the The hearing is now closed and bring it back to council I cut Suze off. We'll go around again and we'll go to you next.

Well, I did attend all the Planning Commission meetings because I'm very interested in animal keeping and making sure that...I like the language of humane care of animals. I would say that the part that they struggled with the most is the number of adult dogs and cats and I feel I'm partly to blame my testimony for the increase And what I would recommend, so I'm referring now to item page attachment A, page 4.

Item a at the very top and I know that's going to be our concern So I thought we would address that first if that's okay My recommendation is that first of all, we separate? dogs and cats because Cats are one size in general you know whereas dogs go from Great Danes to Chihuahuas And so a simple solution just as a starting point would be just to eliminate the word, you know, no more than a total of four adult dogs and eliminate the word or.

And four cats, so that the total would still be eight but no more than four dogs or four cats. And that's just the beginning of what I want to say, okay? So I'm not done. Okay and then I would not include even the next part make that a separate letter there shall be no limit as to the number of other you know, I think that should just be B It doesn't really belong in that it's a whole different subject.

Okay, as we go through this if they're going to be changes should we take us kind of a straw vote? To see whether we've got an issue so we don't have to go over everything twice.

But I want to explain a little bit more about the number of animals.

Okay well like you've already given us the number let's go and then I'll come back to you. Randy.

So this whole ordinance is about health and safety of pets And then how that health and safety affects our community. So, that's I think the most important thing we need to recognize. This isn't about telling anyone how many dogs or how many cats or how many big cats or big dogs they can have. It's about what's a healthy environment and a safe environment for a pet?

And then how does that contribute to the community as a whole? So I just want to make sure we put that discussion. I believe that's where this discussion is. Regarding, just regarding this thing on...

I was cut off. I'm not done explaining the number part.

Okay

but it relates to what Randy said

Okay, and we'll come back. I want to give everybody an opportunity. So Randy has made a comment. Is there anything down at this end? If not, we will come back, Sousa.

I'm going to make an overriding. I absolutely agree with its intent, and we need to move forward on it. I just want to make sure we're careful crafting the language, and I think there's a lot that needs to be done to fix it. And I'll just mention two more comments, then I'll come back. For example, when we define domestic animal in the definition section you could be interpreted as saying it's got to be housed in a cage or a pen.

Domestic animal includes dogs etc., normally raised as a household pet and housed in a cage or a pen. I don't put my dog in a pen or a cage okay? Just little things that the language needs to be carefully looked at. Things like part N On attachment A, page 5 or 6, the maximum number of fowl must not exceed 18 per lot under single ownership. Well it's one thing if it's chickens, how about geese or turkey?

You ever been, I've been chased by a gaggle of geese. What I'm trying to say is I think maybe the best approach here is that we go, you know, I have no problems with the manure management part. I think it's really important. I think we gotta do some crafting of this language.

Okay, well it sounds like that there are major concerns or at least enough that we're not going to recraft the ordinance tonight. So Susie would you like to continue the matter and refer it to committee of you and Bill?

I think it's a good opportunity to air out a few more things Are you suggesting we have a committee, Bill and I? An

ad hoc. Well, I'm thinking if we're going to go through it with this kind of change that's a little bit more than just minor modification and approval. And it doesn't sound like we're ready to approve it so I didn't... No, I am

not ready to approve it. And I'm fully committed to whatever it takes to

get it

right. Yes. I'm 100% committed.

Okay, so we have... But

I wanted to add to the important comments that Randy made about the health and safety of the community. The other purpose of this, if we craft it correctly is so that we don't dump animals back into the system. And that is why the wording has to be very careful because there are members of the community that are animal rescuers, they foster animals and I... There has to be some way to express it if they have a big house in a large lot and the animals are well cared for and it's a temporary situation that they're not in violation of the law. And perhaps that sounds complicated but I believe there's a way to do that

It sounds like you're getting into kind of not necessarily commercial for profit but much more of a business activity there.

It's not a business, it's just that there are people that occasionally will have or there'll be a pregnant dog that they adopt and then there's puppies and there's no point in dumping these puppies to the Humane Society because they suddenly have more than four dogs. That's the point I'm trying to make.

Thank you Susan for bringing that point out. I guess one of the things that I looked at is in the event of something like that occurring, I was going to speak to having a permitting process for this type of ordinance so maybe we start out with the allocation if you want to call it or however we would choose to call it that were allowed two pets per residence per household and then if you choose to have more and you can state your reasons for that whether you're a rescue person or whether you're a cat or dog lover, maybe you're a parakeet lover. I don't know but whatever it is come in and file for a simple permit and that in turn will tell us what you have or what we have or if there is a concern from the neighbor or any other activity in the community at least we know so I think that there's a process that will do what you said as well as provide citizens with the rights to having pets so I think there's a balance here that can be achieved

I would like to add to that what you just said. We need to make it clear that this does not override rental agreements which already limit the number of pets, if you're a renter you still abide by the agreement But if you want to make the community mad, start telling them they can only have two dogs and two cats. That's all I can tell you. OK?

So there are already

average

in

Ojai is already four dogs and four

cats.

And that seems

right. Do you want to help me out here with a motion? No, I'm not going to wait a minute, Susan. You've had plenty of opportunity. We understand your concerns.

I have one comment. Yeah. I think that with how complicated and imperfect this law will always be there needs to be a catch-all that either resides with the one of the directors or maybe better at the city manager level yeah that says they have an override authority under any conditions to make sure The health and safety of the animals is number one. So that if there's a property with 40 pigs, and they have to go to the Humane Society, that could be dealt with in some other way if necessary. I would allow it if it's pigs. You know what? I actually randomly said that then thought oh God. Okay, so it's clear that we need a little more crafting on the ordinance and we've got two volunteers I believe And with that I'd make a motion that we continue this with the committee to look into some of those changes and bring it back with an ad hoc committee of Mr.

Wyrick. Well,

I'll agree with that as long as when it comes back that we have a full discussion on it. Of

course! We will, yes. We'll have another hearing on it by the way everything changes so...

That's what I mean. I'm fully committed however, whatever it takes because this

has to

last a long time.

So we have a motion do we have a second? Second. Okay moved and seconded is there any objection to the motion if not so ordered okay Do we have an idea of when you guys will bring this back so that it doesn't linger?

April meeting

That's how it's safe. If we could do it sooner, we will.

Well

I'm

thinking it's already March. We're still waiting from this committee for a letter regarding... I didn't want to bring that up but... No later than the last meeting in April. How about that?

Yeah, I would think we could do it soon.

No later than?

Yeah no later than but I think we can do it soon.

If it's ten days before that you got to get the agenda

in. Okay

so not later then but you guys will try to... You could have it on the next agenda if you want to get right after it. Okay great okay matters we are now on item number three Pickleball, sound mitigation options and yes. Oh pardon me you're right yeah before we go into that the public comment period is going to be here within a minute or two so I'm gonna go ahead and have public comments now so that we don't get into the others gonna take a little more time.

Brian Akins with Teal Row on deck

Hello Council and staff. Brian Akins, I have my museum hat on. Each time I'm coming...

We

need to get you

some actual hats so we just don't have to hear that every time. Just actually

wear the hat. I was wearing my Humane Society hat but I gave it to a dog that was being taken back. It looked

lonely. It'd be Brian's rack of hats.

I'll remember that though, sorry.

And they're taking your time up so go ahead.

It's a really short list. Okay go. So this is from Wendy our executive director she said this past weekend the museum had two free fun events one was Friday third Friday And by the way, third Fridays are fabulous having been on the desk there at the museum. The first time I'm like what? And then having done it several times is just wonderful to meet all of the people that don't get out until Friday night and all of the wonderful people with couples romantic ventures and families that come and enjoy our town and have a place to go to so kudos to them.

Anyway, we had music by Babette and Bob. Not sure who they are but 73 people came within the two hour event very nice Sunday was a family fun day that we're doing on a monthly basis that was from one to three featured for fast crafts for children in their adults. 83 people attended that. I remember when we used to have events on Sunday afternoon and the volunteers attended so that's a big step up. 83. 73 Friday night, 83 people Sunday night. The other big thing that's going on of course is our exhibit 22 miles Ojai Valley landscapes is up through April 19th somewhere about when you two are gonna finish your ad hoc meeting The beautiful exhibit is very well received by both locals and visitors. The paintings are by fine landscape artists from throughout Southern California who painted the valley specifically for this exhibition, so keep that in mind all of these people from fabulous cities throughout the central part, southern part of California came and painted our town and its environment including the skate park interesting Interesting to see how they see the wonderful valley that we have and How they see the richness enjoy that maybe we're not taking the time to to enjoy.

So thank you all very much Appreciate your support to the Ojai Valley Museum.

Thank You Brian. Okay Teal, you're up and Sherry Ann Cade you're on deck

Hello council I thank you for your service Welcome chief This is not a tourist go home talk, and I've been batting back and forth with myself. Do I do this? Do I not? Do I do this? Do i not? And I'm here because I'm a concerned citizen. I live in the county and North Signal Street on the weekends is beyond believable and Again, this is not a complaint. It's a concern the cars go down both sides of the street almost halfway down signal and If something were to happen Let me just take you on a little ride You're from someplace else And you want to go into the mountains and it's beautiful And you're on your phone, a GPS. How to get to Ojai? You go up signal, dog leg, jag up to the left, head up the hill.

Now there's cars on both sides of the street halfway up the hill so you're looking for Pratt Foothill Trailhead in the county no problem take a left at the sign, go down to the trailhead, there's no place to park all the parking places are filled There's also guys on, I want to say radioactive cars but they're called radio controlled trucks that the guys do down there in the Trailside. So there's tracks all the time on the trail and so you're still on your GPS because you're wondering my parking place at the trailheads taken?

So okay we'll go up to the shelf road gate take a left Dang there's cars all the way both sides of the street even in the part that is no parking in front of the residences Try to turn around at the gate Make a four five six point turn at the gate looking at the phone wondering where to go Go halfway down signal Park and walk up now. I forgot to mention the baby strollers the dogs Yeah, I forgot to mention I'm wrenching the tracks the little radio-controlled trucks there's people on bikes and there's a lot of people and it's not I'm not complaining, I'm just concerned because if something were to happen it wouldn't be a good thing.

I took a picture on Valentine's Day. There are two tour buses here and the truck in the middle is my truck and I'll send them to you in email because they're easier to see. There's also a bicyclist Only got one picture. I'm not doing statistics of every weekend taking pictures or anything because I don't have that time But I could and I know that our neighbors would too, and I also noticed a lot of our neighbors are moving away So thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it

Is there a particular time that it's the worst so if

someone wanted to go sample it? It's weird because I said on Sunday, a friend was coming up. I said tell me give me feedback on what you think 10 o'clock Sunday she was up there and I went out and there were no cars out there but then I went out at 1 and the cars were halfway down signal on both sides so it's like hit-and-miss

I can verify that what she says is no exaggeration whatsoever. It's become a nightmare up there.

And I didn't get signatures from neighbors because I didn't have time and if it, I would take another two weeks to get signatures from neighbors and I didn't want to take the time because it just felt like I said batting back and forth do I go and mention? Do I not? Do or don't I? And I had to be here tonight so... Yeah

you're doing a public service

Thank you so much for listening. 55 that I

know. I know but it is North State tour buses are parking

Okay, they I thought if you want to know asked Jerry Jacobs at the Lamb Conservancy He so he ended up talking to the people that were on the bus what they did this year It was much much better last year on President's Day in It was a fiasco on North signal, but this year Asking the resident at that house. She said it was so much better this year because well for one thing they sold their house and They unloaded on Gridley and Picked up on On signal on that and she said the only thing that was horrible was they were idle those buses idled for half an hour But she said everybody was lined up single file, like they had it all together. They had been probably warned or something. I don't know what goes on behind the scenes but they were single file with a megaphone get on the bus and they just got on the bus and left rather than unloading and picnicking in the whole thing.

I don't want to put you on the spot if you're uncomfortable But you haven't asked for anything. You've made us aware of something but It's a trailhead are you saying

it's not the trailer that I'm talking about? I'm talking about the city street of signal

Okay, so what I'm saying is so what I'm hearing is there's not enough parking Is that is that the concern?

My concern, my request if I were to make a request and please forgive me those neighbors of mine that are watching. I would request a red line all the way down one side of signal. One side for parking, the other side for whatever you have going. Horses too, horses are being ridden too. It's like there is a lot of stuff that goes on and at least if something were to happen and the cars were parked on one side The cops or the fire guys or something could come up and also have a turnaround up at the end somehow. At shelf, it's like a five-point turn.

Why I'm asking that is... James? Is that county property or is that our property?

The Signal Street portion is ours.

I understand that, I'm talking about at the top. It's

ours.

All of that is ours so we've created this issue that first of all if a fire truck had to get up there a fire truck could

not turn around. You can ask any of my neighbors they could not get up and turn around

Not with the parking. Okay

guys, we're

not going to

solve it

tonight.

We'll

get this on the agenda. The

city manager is now tuned in he'll work with the Public Works Department and then come back and let us know what possible...

Why I ask that question Mayor is because everything at a certain point was county. Then we took them to that spot and then county maintained or had jurisdiction but if it's ours we need to rectify

it. Sherry Ann Cate, you are up. And Christine Golden, you are on

deck.

So I'm here representing OCCA which is Ojai Citizens for Clean Air. It was founded by Dr. Steve Colomay, Michael Shapiro, myself and about six or seven other people. We have quite a few more members now We want to thank you again for passing the gas-powered small engine ordinance and especially thank our city manager, James Vega. I'm very impressed with the outreach that you're already taking care of So everybody gets on the same page about this We're already noticing a lot of battery-powered machines in in our neighborhoods. Thank goodness, so We're we're really pleased about this The other thing that we want to thank you for is the letter I think it was consent calendar letter I That you sent to the county regarding the deficiencies in the general plan So, we're all about air quality.

Ojai citizens for clean air. We're not going away just because this ban on the machines was passed. We intend to stay active and continue to stand up for our air quality in the Ojai Valley. So thank you again very much for what you've done.

Thank you. Christine?

Greetings and salutations to all of you. I'm here to make an announcement from the Arts Commission, and it's a very exciting announcement. We have launched our first ever public art-funded art project throughout the city, and it's for Ojai Valley artists, and we call it The Paint Box Project. And we have identified four utility boxes that belong to the city of Ojai. And we worked with Public Works, with Greg Grant and with everyone else that we needed to work with and came up with an application and a process. So this has gone out it's on our website anyone watching can just go to www.artsojai.org And you'll find the application and you'll find a project description.

The proposals from artists are due March 23rd, 2020. Then there will be as according to the Public Art Ordinance, a public art jury which has been selected by the Arts Commission that will review the applications And pick the winners, the proposal winners if any to paint those boxes and turn those utility boxes into works of art. So I was hoping that Jeremy would be able to get our flyer up on the screen but probably that isn't going to work. I have a feeling he's over there struggling with it.

But at any rate, this flyer is all over town and it announces the project. And so we've just like put a couple hundred copies here there and everywhere including right here at City Hall and also it's posted on the website. Any questions?

Any questions?

Thank you for listening. Appreciate it.

Thank you, Christine. Okay that is the end of the public comment period and we will now go to agenda item number three which is the pickleball sound mitigation options. Mr. Vega

Thank you. I just have a brief staff report, just to kind of summarize the issue. In December of last year, the city paved, cleaned up and revitalized the damaged and existing tennis court at the Libbey Park campus directly behind City Hall which is just outside our back door here. The city repaved the courts and had plans to install temporary nets and start play while we are waiting on striping, which will take place during the spring.