Historic Preservation Commission Regular Meeting

Okay, I'm calling to order the regular meeting of the City of Ojai Historic Preservation Commission January 8th 2026 Thursday at 6 p.m Members of the public wishing to address the historic preservation commission on items appearing on the agenda are requested to complete a speaker's card if in person and file it with the secretary Cards are available in the lobby and speakers should state their name for the record and limit your comments to three minutes or less.

Okay, the public wishing to roll call? Oh, I was just. OK. Roll call and roll call please.

Hello everyone, my name is Connor Riley I am the new city beat reporter at Ojai Valley news and I just wanted to introduce myself I'll be at these meetings. And yeah glad to meet you all

Thank you. Thank you for coming Okay, is anybody in the other on line? Anybody out there in the... No. No? Okay. All right, so I'm going to close public comment and now we're going to go to a museum report. Do

you have anything? If I could interrupt real fast. Sure. I'm thinking maybe we could take this time to introduce our new commissioner, Kate Neeson. She joins us here. She's an archaeologist, works at Rincon Consultants. And I think I'll let you introduce yourself, say a couple of things if you'd like.

Yeah, hey everybody nice to meet you. I'm happy to be here excited to get involved. I grew up in Ojai and Miner's Oaks and I went to Oak Grove for high school UCSB for college And yeah now I work in archaeology For an environmental consulting firm so I have some experience But I'm excited to get more and thank you.

Thank you for being here being our number seven. Thank you Now museum

report

Yes, so we have a very interesting exhibit that's coming up that should be even more interesting to those of us on the commission. From Wendy I got a text message that says Women of the Ojai Valley 100 Years of History opens next week Reception during 3rd Friday from 5 to 7 p.m.. On January 16th, there'll be three town talks with the exhibit February 1st February 22nd and March 15th I've been marginally involved in this, but in some ways very involved in this. So much of the... Part of the information that's being used within this goes to oral history reports that we began with the...

I began with when working mainly with Joyce Robinson clear back in 2012. So when they're like okay where is a copy of this video? But they've been working very hard on that. They've digitized some of the items and then transcribed some of the oral history reports, so I'm very excited to see it happen. So good thing.

Is your microphone on? Sorry about that. Consent item for the minutes of December 11th meeting, do we have any changes?

Anyone? I move that we accept the minutes as is. Do we have a second?

I'll second.

All right roll call please

Hold on Moore Yes, Sasha.

Yes,

Tim's McCattin yes Walker. Yes, Neeson abstained Akins.

Yes

Now

we're

gonna Go into our discussion items number one

Number one or yes number two the first discussion item is Continued this evening. This was the consideration of revised plans for a minor work permit for a project located at 700 San Antonio, and this has been continued to the February 12th meeting due to the fact that the plans weren't in on time to get them into the packet I

Okay, do we need to do anything official or is that that's it? That's it just an acknowledgement. Okay,

permit So this is an amendment to a major work permit 25-008, and it's regarding a previously approved renovation at 102 North Signal Street. The current request includes amending the approval related to the transom above the entry. The previous approval included replacement of the existing storefront with a wood frame system proposed to be flushed with the exterior wall with the door opening inward. And the new transom was approved to be installed Storefront replacing an existing stucco panel the request for an amendment includes repairing the existing stucco above The existing storefront system and not installing that new transom Because the contractor discovered that while in the process of removing the existing stucco In order to do it to to create what was approved would be detrimental to the integrity of the structural framing.

So, the amendment results in less of a change from the existing facade included on your plans however not noticed but in your plans so it's... The notices aren't specifically detailed with every little detail in the plan because that just wouldn't be possible Anyway, there are also light fixtures that are proposed that are on your plan and those are called Troy lights and they are turn-of-the-century Oxidized metal finish their iron.

And so those are all those are also part of your discussion this evening

Okay Anybody like to, do

we have any? Oh I'm sorry and we have the applicant here. Jeff if you'd like to step up and state your name and add to anything I missed or left out.

Good evening commission members back here again on the 102 signal storefront so during the construction there we had our rock guy out who was going to add rock to that surround which was approved Of course, we ran into a roughly 30 inch by 30 inch gray beam that surrounds the storefront. In order to get the rock flush with the existing wall, we would have had to jack hammer into it which didn't seem like a great idea to me.

So that is the impetus for our request to modify it. So in essence, we put the whole woods door front end. The transom is in there. It's just a little bit lower So there's a transom appearance there which matched what the plans were, but we didn't touch the gray beam because it's a structural gray beam. And then we plastered that and basically plastered it and cleaned up the finish so that's kind of the off-white color.

So that is in. It's the paint colors are the paint colors that we had Designated. And then we had two light fixtures that we added, one just centered above the entry which there was an existing electrical box there they just didn't have a line on it and then we actually did replace the light fixture above the tortilla factory with a matching Troy lighting as the manufacturer And it's an oxidized iron metal finish So it it's it's pretty low-key. It kind of disappears during the day doesn't take really much of The look away from the storefront or the or the rock That's that's what we have.

Thank you. Does anybody have any questions for the applicant?

Microphone

Still had it on And so my question is did we need to do disclosures on this?

Yes, thank you.

Okay I only say that because I've toured the facility with Mr. Becker

right so

explain to me

So just what this means Commissioner Neeson is that if you visited the site and or discussed with property owner or someone at the site then you want to disclose that when it comes around to you

Okay, thank you. So yeah I did get a tour, I did look at it with Mr. Becker and I thought it turned out very nicely, very nicely.

Can we go around the dais then please since we're doing these disclosures right now?

Yeah, I didn't visit the site just drove by and I can't remember Did you

remove? Can we just can we just do the disclosures now since we missed that part of it We miss that on the agenda. And then then let's get back to where we are right now. So So Kate did you visit the site? I Did not visit. Okay. Thank you and Commissioner Walker. You did not okay Just a drive-by

I've been there three times in the last week

No discussions, just visit.

I did a drive by a couple of days ago, but that's it?

No. OK, thanks. So now go back to asking questions of the applicant and then you can get into your discussion.

Mr. Walker,

I just wondered if you'd added or subtracted any of the stones that were coming down from the top

Yeah, they added about five small stones to try to level the edge of the plaster on top. I don't know if you remember, but it kind of went sort of wonky we'll say on the, I guess that would be the south elevation on the top end. And those stones they put in there's about five of them very small though. So it's more even along the top? It's even now yeah. Yeah that's good. It still has that keystone that was there. I don't know if you remember that but there's kind of a keystone and then this was off to the right of it.

It was kind of, I don't know if that happened when they put the gray beam in. They probably removed some rocks or some fell out but now it's pretty even. It's really hard to tell that they were missing to be honest with you.

Yeah because that one kind of stuck out like a sore thumb

coming down. And there was some concrete that we cleaned too. There must have been some sort of maybe an awning or something before. There was like a small line of concrete. Clean that up as well and clean the

stones I

Have a couple questions about the lights or are you required by the city to have some kind of lighting out there? Is that why you put it there is it just an embellishment? Oh

Well, it's now an entry so you know there that that's kind of sort of mandatory to have an entry line and because there's no vestibule or undercarriage there to put a You know like a hidden fixture or something. So

it's kind of like a porch light in a way, right? And also, so this Troy light is that like a copy of something historic or is it like a facsimile or an idea of his historic lamp?

Yeah, the Troy Lighting series that they picked from is a historic series. I've used them on some other buildings actually including the Bard Hospital building down in Ventura and so they're pretty heavy-duty metal but that's actually why I like them. They're really solid fixtures but it is from their historic lighting and it's kind of I'd say a turn-of-the-century style and it also you know, we also have the dark sky. So this has got a kind of a rounded shield

Well, that's what I was kind of trying to get to like like is it like an interpretation Of something or is it? Is it an actual? copy of a historic light fixture Do you know?

I'm not sure. Yeah, I'm not sure. It's definitely an old-style looking fixture but I'm not sure if they copied a previous fixture.

Okay, thank you.

Where was Edward Levy from? Where was his glass shop? Do you remember, does anybody know that by heart? It's in Ohio. Edward Levy's glass store, you know is his facilities it's what it's in Ohio right? Do you know where in Ohio?

Toledo.

It's just funny because that's what it's called, the Toledo Collection. So I was just wondering because I thought that was a little bonus nod because it's...

Yeah. No, it's a nice fixture. It has like an oxidized metal, iron metal finish so it is a nice fixture.

Anybody? Yes. Well, just as a point of me understanding how things work not about anything else I don't understand why we didn't see this before you installed it so that we could have had an opinion about the light both the lights

of the fixtures

And it doesn't I mean, I'm no electrician but I went I've looked at this three times now It looks terrible the way it's been installed. Have you looked at it?

Yeah Yeah, the issue is the original box because of the rock it's sort of a weird setup because you got the original rock so the electrician we kind of wanted normally that's like

Yeah, it's set in.

Right, set in and so they wanted to start chiseling that in to inset it. So they have played around with it twice

Can they put like a flange around it to,

that

could be

just stuck to the? So they ordered some what they call you know flat pancake boxes which are a little shallower so my and those are actually they have them in we just they're gonna do it on Monday but those are not as deep. So my hope is that the base with those smaller skinnier Kind of boxes will kind of hide it because I'm just I know what you're talking about I've had them there a couple times. I actually was up on a ladder Just trying to figure out if we could chisel into the rock.

Is it waterproof?

Yeah, it is yeah, yeah, yeah, I had him put them, you know a gasket on the existing box but Yeah, it's a little bit of a weird install. I don't know if you saw that. Did you leave the one on the tortilla?

Yes, I did.

In

fact, it was not on tonight but the one the one on 102 was on

tonight. It's the same picture. Yeah. Yeah. That other fixture that they had was very McIvered. You know it was definitely funky so yeah.

So to

answer they might be able to chisel in a little bit you know but I wanted to get the boxes first, the skinnier box we'll call it. It's not as deep so it won't be as obvious but yeah it's you know all that it's not a flat surface that's a that's a big problem. Yeah it's definitely a weird you know it's just an older rock building so it's a little tricky

Can you possibly answer the other part of her question about why it was installed before it came here?

We had already ordered them and it was on the plan. So, honestly we had the new tenant coming in and there was no light so... Yeah

but that's no excuse for doing

something to a historic building. I'm guilty. We could have just put a bulb on it but I wanted to see how the fixture looked too.

Okay, does anybody else have anything they'd like to add I Think there's one thing that we want to discuss but I think as a commission not with you maybe in a future agenda item is Working on the paint colors. So there's not a discrepancy of What I'm seeing on my screen what I'm seeing here then what we see on the building and and so there's no There's no question. So

So what you're seeing so I was actually wondering about opening that up this evening just a tiny bit because it's not on the agenda to talk about but So what you're seeing on the screen is probably accurate as opposed to on the plan. So there was a question to me by a commissioner and I've already discussed it with Jeff about the colors on the building and so we're having Color swatches ordered from Sherwin-Williams, or actually Jeff has them himself to compare what the name you know what was approved as to what's out there.

I think it just would be helpful that, eventually as a future agenda item maybe work to where we have swatches again so we don't have

to- So for future items absolutely.

Understood. Does anybody have any other questions for the applicant? Okay thank you. Want to

close the public hearing and and

Discuss do we have anybody want to speak to this item? That's out open to public comment No, and out in the internet no. No. Okay. Let's close public comment and now us I

I'm sorry, if you could fill out a blue card and hand it to me and then stand up at the podium. That would be great. And at the podium, you'll say your first and last name. I guess he could have done that first and then filled out the

card. Yeah, I was so I met Jacob yesterday afternoon. He attended the Planning Commission meeting last night. So we kind of walked through steps last night on the different things today's writing solo.

So Jacob, if you want to just state your name and you can hand me the blue card after. And

his comment is about, this is about 102 Signal? It's about this item?

So if he has the issue of doing something wrong, he should have at least like a 40-second walkthrough video to send as like a text message in order for you guys to see it like as fast as possible. Because maybe he could have fixed this slab and then reinstalled the light differently if he had that video and then had the information oh this is like this, this isn't, this and that So like a form that would say who you are, what you're doing, where you're from, when are you doing this and why it's about is an idea that I thought to fix the discrepancy.

Thank you. Thanks. Thank you. And

public comment is closed. Do you have anything that would you like to discuss about this before we take it to a vote?

Well as much as I like the idea of filling in with those rocks, I really appreciate the willingness to back off and say you know we don't want to cause any damage so we're not going to take that route. And I think it's okay in this situation because Neither that back doorway nor those front windows were Historic to the actual garage that was there originally and it was part more part of a redo on the building in 1927 So I think that having the back door match those front windows a little bit is a good feature so I would I Would be in favor of approving it

Anybody then for that to be your motion

I'll make a motion to approve the request.

I'll second

that. OK, roll call

please. Moore Yes, Sasha yes Sims yes McCattin yes Walker yes Neeson yes Aikens yes

alright thank you so much. Thank you Jeff. All right. We're going to go on to our next item, which is item number four, and it's for our joint council meeting on February 8th. Do we have a staff report?

Yes. So the tentatively scheduled meeting is actually for February 24th.

Meeting date the 8th, but I see it says the 24th there. So it's just an error on that Yeah, because

today's date is January 8th and that says February. That's true. So that's their problem so today is January 8th but the tentative meeting date for a joint meeting with the council is on February 24th and This is a time for the commissioners to discuss what they'd like to put on that agenda For that joint meeting and we've just included a couple items here where budget request and training But really it's open to to you to decide what you'd like to to bring to that discussion

Can I start I think that Some of the things that are still left over from last year that we're working on. I would like to have a discussion with council one is making sure that these survey the contracts get signed and they get started and we are working efficiently toward adoption and Just want to update Council on that in And I'd like to so I'd like that to be something that is a hopefully quick But just I think it's important that we bring that back up

So, I'm sorry the You want to bring do you want to talk about the survey with the council? The contracts just so you know, the contracts are just but so the contracts are between the city and the Consultant they don't have to go back to the council right and the contracts have been prepared. Um So I just don't know how I

just

um,

I think it's just a refresh that this is what we are working on in 2026 and Just to kind of you know Make sure that they know that that is a high priority of what we're doing and then the train Please remind me. What did we decided to call it?

The railroad heritage trail? Oh

Thank you. And to update them on that, do you know if it's going to be on the agenda for next week?

At the City Council? No, to my knowledge it's not on that agenda.

Okay. It was gonna be on the 13th.

Okay, and then we wanted to also We had a tentative plan for 2025 to have an ad hoc with two members of council which is Councilman Meng and Councilwoman Leslie, and I was hoping that we would be done by 2025 but we are still in the thick of it. Every everything that we start to talk about becomes this kind of blooms out. So I just want we wanted to Just get permission from Council again to continue that through, you know until we can finish it the council The two council people are on board to continue and to get this finished so I And Craig and myself are willing to keep it going. So we just, I know that ad hocs usually have a start and finish date and we were hoping to have it at the end of 25 so we just want to extend it until we can get it done.

So that's another thing that we wanted to talk about.

Chair, question before you move on?

Yes.

So which ad hoc are you talking about?

This is the one that we're working on our procedures and we want to have like a flow chart of when something comes to us, when it doesn't, why it does and how. What is the document? I'm sorry, I'm really jet lagged right now. It's a flowchart? No, the one that we've been working on, the A to O procedures. Yes, the functions and powers document so we've been trying to hit a few of them every time we meet and Working trying to understand is this when we read this what does it mean to us? And what does it mean to counsel? and if we Understand that. This is our meaning then we are trying to get this kind of list that then goes to Maura and to Lucas to try and possibly to the attorneys to To see if we all are in agreement that, that is our functions and powers.

This is why something and when something comes to us because we were kind of hitting our head against the wall in 24 and 25 trying to We felt like we were playing chasing some of the items after they had already happened Like the Lavender Inn and you know just ones that kind of hit Around us and so we wanted to stop the frustration and even if it comes out Eventually that it's not in the right order that we want it. Maybe we don't We can't see things in the way that we want to At least we know and we understand it and we're all in agreement And we'll have this so it's just been a quite a journey, and I thank you Kim has been just amazing Thank you so much for your patience And so I just wanted to get that on there too as far as making sure the council knows we need more time with that.

We know that now that we have our plaque, we have our downtown historic district that is everyone knows it exists. But we just want to have more education about it, education too. We want the community to learn more about why the arcade looks the way it looks, why the downtown Grew the way that it grew and you know, there's so much to be thankful for and proud of when you talk about our downtown and It's so much bigger than one sandwich board or one orange bench or a You know, whatever you see people talk about online or just get frustrated with. And it started a whole kind of way of being in compliance was through a complaint.

And I just really feel strongly that is not ever a good way to do things, that we need to be think of it as a whole. It's not one store, it's a district and We're all in this together to protect it and to have our stores be strong and flourish, and we need to work together and educate what we do so we can help. And I think the best way—we talked about our pop-up that we did at Ojai Day that may be doing that a couple of times a year, maybe trying to find opportunities to go over understanding the design guidelines and what they mean and why they're in place. And so if you look at what our functions and powers are, it really does come back to us for compliance as well too.

One thing I don't like to be is the bad guy but I think this is the time when it's really important that the HPC together It just kind of educates everyone of why the arcade looks the way it has looked for a hundred years and why it's important, why the plaza is important. And so we want to talk about education reach out to our shopkeepers, our property owners, our stakeholders, their community And just give them opportunities to learn about it. So that was something that I think that we all really felt strongly about how, you know, we're not sure how exactly and when but in what would be the best ways but we want to be able to work on that. So I don't know if anybody else has anything that they wanna include in our joint council or if you don't think we should be talking about this stuff?

Anybody?

Well, I just would like to reiterate what you were saying about the design guidelines for the arcade in the downtown. I noticed there was someone that was an arcade store owner who was called out by the city for having an inappropriate sign and The letter was posted on social media, and the responses of the people that were responding to that letter kindly asking that maybe they change the sign to meet the guidelines.

It showed me that there was a lot of misunderstanding about Need for education, like you were saying. So I think it would be worthwhile to include at least a little conversation with the council about what can we do? Because it's one thing to have a design guideline to preserve and protect your historic buildings. And they're only so good as you can enforce them in the end that the public understands them and wants to support them as well. So, um, I think that would be worthwhile.

Is the Commission aware that we've already discussed with the City Council having a workshop or a forum that's in the planning stages right now, and that's to have a public meeting. It's already been talked about with City Council And we've gotten the blessing to invite property owners, tenants and the public for the arcade and arcade plaza. And it would be regarding signage, outdoor dining and outdoor displays. And so it's a forum or workshop to educate everyone before going from this reactive to more of a proactive approach. It wouldn't be appropriate to really go out there and do a sweep.

We want to make sure everybody is educated as to what the design guidelines are, as well as the municipal code. But mostly the design guidelines when it comes to the arcade, right? And we're not going to do the entire downtown area. We're going to stick with the arcade because it is specific. And then and then give like a grace period. And and then start to help people and become more proactive.

But again, we're not going just go out there and do a sweep. We need to educate people first. So you're both talking about that. So I just wanted to make sure that you know that this is in the works. Just so now you know it's in the works and it's been blessed by council. And it's something that is in the planning stages.

Because I think a lot of people don't understand that there's a difference between like the Arcade Plaza design guidelines, the East End of Ojai Design Guidelines and the guidelines that are specific to a landmark or a historic district. They're completely different kettle of fish and I don't think a lot of people really understand that And so they think, well you can allow neon signs if we say you can allow neon signs in the arcade. But there's a whole structure of our historic ordinance that has a little different path that those guidelines take from the ones like the Arcade Plaza or other areas of the city.

And that's what we want to educate people on and just so, so

anyway. Will Gina be a part of those?

Right well you um when we had talked uh you had asked if maybe we could put on a presentation

So the details of this workshop, I'm going to call it a workshop or forum. It's...I can't discuss them right now just because it's not on the agenda and again it's in the planning stages. We've just gotten the blessing from City Council and so when we start to roll that out or the planning then we can have more conversations.

So maybe what we ask council is that we are included in that

I don't know if you need to ask council. We've already had a blessing to move forward with this and so let's just, we need to move forward with it and if it's something that you want to put on your discussion with the council that's fine but again it's already been blessed. It's just that we have to get to it okay? Right. And as far as the details of it, I don' know that we want to get into that right now because again that specific topic is not on the agenda.

Exactly, but Once we go back to our functions and powers and when we talk with our council people Some a lot of times the HPC We're like right there. And all of a sudden kind of you know, here's the HPC it's like It keeps going. It's like we want to make sure that That Our talent, our passion, our education that we have spent so long to develop here until we have something to offer is appreciated in a way that when these things come up, when you're planning something that is an education Function regarding a downtown district that's historic that we aren't It's like oh, we've got it. It's like That's why I want to talk to council just to make sure that I know you've got it But we'd like to make sure that it's written in there somewhere in these planning stages That the HPC is as part of the education So I'm not sure how to do that.

And I think that's asking council to just, you know, when there's an education opportunity for historic preservation, that the Historic Preservation Commission is included. Yes, Brian.

So I have an item I was going to bring it up either under future agenda items or under Historic Preservation Commission meeting schedule but in looking at this and listening to what you were just saying you said well we have a plaque And we have a downtown historic district. Well, we don't really have a downtown historic district. We have a state historic district. We do not have a local historic district and when things changed on January 9th of last year there was the thought or the discussion that once we hit Ojai Day that we would then go back to a local downtown historic district I don't see a local downtown historic district mentioned anywhere in these documents or in the discussion that you took, just shared with us. So I'd really like to know what's going on because I have boxes that are sitting there

waiting

to know what's gonna happen to them.

When I came on to the commission and I took those classes at USC, the first starter classes. And I asked the dean there what would be the best thing that we could do? And she said a local district. And that's when I brought it to you, and you were the vice chair at the time, and to Darwin about possibly doing a downtown historic district. It's been such a driving force of what I wanted to do from the very beginning.

And then COVID hit and, you know, we kept the three, you and me and Craig worked on it for such a long time. But somewhere along the way it got stuck in the mud. And the only reason that I'm not mentioning it now is because of that education function. It's like I just want to take, you know, I want to put the horse in front of the carriage, not the carriage. And I'm happy to talk about the local district however you want to. I just want to educate people first because I feel like there's so much misinformation about what we do—just how upset when we talk about something so low-hanging fruit like the structures of merit and it's just like We have so much of a strange reaction to something that can be so helpful. So much of what we are capable of doing is helpful, but somehow our message is that we just create problems and get stuck in the mud with people.

And so I feel like our first part of 2026 has got to be this reach out and education of what we do so when we come To you know when we have this survey and it's adopted and we're able to look at that and Understand like what the structures of merit should be in and what the local district should be in all of these things We have more public buy-in because they're part of it They have been included and they've been educated and they have we have their questions answered so we don't we're not so oh no, and this person in this 50 plus one and then and it was just I don't, it's too important to fail because that right now we are, we got really lucky with the state district and it covers that area of downtown. It's the Libby story but the story that our local district told was from the Rancho era to the mid-century.

It tells a much more complete picture of the growth of Ojai It's important that we look at that story, but we can't fail at it. We have to make sure that we're doing it right and I don't know exactly how that is except that we need public buy-in more so they understand Why it's important and why we all want to be here in Ojai, and what this feeling that we all get here.

We need to make it more tangible and have people understand what we can do to help. So it's just like that last component before a local district is, and while of course the survey is going on, The it's just I don't know. It's like a PR tour, you know to explain what we do Yes,

I was gonna say too. I think that the professional survey that we're doing this next year this year will help to clarify a lot of What is and what what should be included in the downtown historic district? I think that will really help and will also help in the education not only of us but the community as well. So, I think that we kind of decided to do that with the structures of merit is to let the survey play out and let it help us to define how we want to approach those two things and I think that's not a bad move to do. I think having all that professional input will be a big help for us.

It's just, you know, patience. And that's something where it's hard when the three of us have put in so many months and work and time. And it's hard to have that sort of patience but it's too important to not get it right.

Okay, so let me comment. I was the one person who has contacted all of the business owners that are downtown which means I've talked to probably more people downtown than all of you combined. We did a concerted effort as goes on this effort, not generally. I know you all know a lot of people and that's why you're on the commission. So we did a concerted effort in going through and having the commission work and coming up with the questions We're putting the information out to people.