Planning Commission Regular Meeting

It is six o'clock and I am calling the meeting to order of the Planning Commission on March 18th, 2026. Sherry could we have the roll call?

and the republic for which it stands,

one nation under God,

indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank

you. We have Lucas online tonight. And Lucas are there any changes to the agenda?

No changes to the agenda tonight.

Thank you. We have public communications next, which is time set aside during the Planning Commission meeting for members of the public to address the Planning Commission on items of city business other than the regularly scheduled items. Matters met at this time may be briefly discussed but will generally be referred to staff and placed on a subsequent agenda.

Under state law, other than for emergency items no action on them can be taken at this time. So I am opening public communications and my first card is from Craig Walker. Okay City Hall master plan. OK, is there anyone online?

No,

no. OK then I am closing public communications. We will move to the consent calendar and the minutes of the regular meeting of the Planning Commission March 4th. Are there any corrections to the minutes? Hearing none, could I have a motion?

Make a motion to pass the minutes as written.

I second.

Thank you. Could we have a roll call? Murphy? I'm sorry. Murphy? Yes. Chesley?

Yes.

Reich-Smith? Yes Stewart?

Okay. Next we have disclosure of site visits and ex parte contacts. Would you start please,

Brad? None on my part, no.

None.

Jonathan?

I visited the site. No ex parte contacts.

I had no ex parte contacts and I visited the campus, the city hall campus.

The same here, I had no ex parte contacts but I did visit the city hall complex. Okay moving on

Yes yes I will recuse myself from this issue.

Could we have the report on this, please?

Yes. Director Seibert will be giving the report. Thank you.

Thanks, Chair. Thanks, Mara. So this item that you have before you is a culmination of the conversation that happened at the last meeting. At that point we had discussed coming back with a proper resolution that is before this body that encompasses the denial that the commission had acted on two weeks ago. So that denial resolution's before you for discussion I see it as a public hearing item, so you will need to open it up for comment from the community to go through the standard public hearing process. So ask questions, open it up for public communication and then close it and then discuss and then act on the resolution itself.

OK, thank you. We will open it to the public at this time and I have a card from Craig Walker

Good evening Craig Walker. I live in Miramonte I'm a member of the HPC, but I'm speaking as an individual and I really want to address the whole issue of the freezer. I wasn't quite sure how all that wound up by In the discussion because it got kind of mixed up with with the expansion of the seating area But I really want to urge the Planning Commission to do whatever it can do to get that relocated because for a number of reasons that I've expressed in several letters and communications with the commission, I think it's a big mistake to have that out on the plaza. And I think it needs to find a new home either inside the building or maybe at a different location And my hope would be that the back of the building, which I call the Raddock Building because that's who built it back in 1906.

So 120 years ago that building was constructed. And it's back facade has is an important part of the the plaza area The whole thing has been covered by a huge electrical panel and blocked by fencing and I think it's really important that that get repaired and not only the back facade but also the part of the Plaza that the bricks were pulled up that everything gets put back the way it was and there's even now been a change Up on the roofline with big duct work coming out of the top of it so that the roof line looks different So anyway, I think the sooner we can get that all repaired the better. I appreciate it Thank you.

Thank You Craig is there anyone online wishing to address this issue? No, thank you Okay Do we have any more from staff on this at this time?

I think at this point, we're just looking for action. You already taken action on this item two weeks ago. This is this resolution that you're seeing here in terms of the denial and in two different areas deficient within the findings is basically taking the information that was provided at that meeting, the action that was taken and then kind of putting it into a written format for what had happened two weeks ago.

Is the refrigerator on or off the table?

For right now, it's off the table. OK.

So we are being asked to confirm our denial from two weeks ago. Do you have questions or comments Then I would entertain a motion on this DRP.

I recommend that the Planning Commission adopt or make a motion that the Planning Commission adopt resolution which is attached attachment A and associated findings confirming denial of the proposed modifications to the outdoor dining area located at 242 East Ojai Avenue.

I second

any further discussion? Hearing none, could we have the vote please? Murphy?

Yes. Chesley?

Yes.

Rice-Schmidt?

Yes

Okay, we are now

Yes, thank you. Good to see you all good to be here I'm gonna repeat what you said if I don't if you don't mind This is a request for a concept review. It's for the City Hall master campus or excuse me master plan For landscaping project on the city hall property which is yes historic landmark number 23 this miss Hobson Smith Hobson house located at 401 South Ventura and Street and the Planning Commission tonight is to provide the applicant with comments and feedback on the proposed concept plan No, just no decisions we made this evening so for a little bit of background The Historic Preservation Commission reviewed this concept plan and provided comments on November 13th 2025 Comments were positive and included a desire that the entire property be conveyed as historic And it was emphasized that all elements should be maintained or rebuilt I have a brief description of the project details and See I have a brief description, however once I'm finished we have the applicant here to give a better description than I or a deeper one and also here to answer questions.

So the campus includes approximately eight acres of open space. In 2022, the Ojai Green Coalition began developing this master plan and the land currently consists of a former ecological demonstration area and a restored creekside natural habitat and long neglected open spaces. I'm going through some photos here of the site So the plan specifically excludes elements and structures that are permanent and that are included in the historic landmark. The elements requested for feedback are proposed to either remain, be modified, relocated or removed.

And the list is in your staff report however I'll note them here. So to be removed, I believe is the shed on the south side of Kent Hall. To remain without improvements is the oak tree house. There's walkway fencing memorial garden signage and a wood sign for removal as though wedding arbor recommended for removal also is concrete miniature golf and pond For resurfacing or replacing would be the badminton court.

There's a wood arbor recommended to be, the wood would be recommended for repurposing if possible. There are existing footpaths to remain but there's a recommendation to have them widened and to meet ADA requirements. There's a planter on the west side of City Hall at the parking lot, ingress-egress and that would remain and potentially be redesigned. And a carriage house request has been made to the city manager for an analysis, a structural analysis for this building.

Let me see if there are continued photos. 85% of the trees on site are found to be native. There are 329 native trees other than oaks, there are willows, holly leaf cherry, elderberry and California bay laurel trees that are also native. That are also native and I'd like to turn the rest over to Kathy Nolan, who is a representative for the project. And if you have questions for me, of course, you can ask them. But I would like to turn this over to Kathy.

Good evening, Kathy.

Hi, Commissioner Murphy, fellow commissioners and staff. Thank you for having me here tonight once again, Kathy Nolan. I'm representing the Ojai Valley Green Coalition and I saw just a quick overview. I don't want to duplicate or replicate what Maura had just shared, but yeah we the Green Coalition received Community Service Grant 2022-2023 where we did the community engagement portion of this master plan project and basically went out to the community and did a series of workshops online surveys and site tours and gathered information and basically asked, you know, what would you want?

What do we need here? What would you like to do here? And I'm just generalizing. But those were the gist of it. And basically what came back to us in that first year was a nature-based park A place for education and information, a place for learning. And a place for honoring and respecting the native habitat. The Middle Stewart Creek Canyon Restoration Project happens to be on that parcel as well.

And then of course take a look at the existing landmarked items that were part of the original estate which more actually listed some of them. Some of them are newer but not as protected so to speak. So we gathered all that information and then we came back to the city in 2024, and we ended up getting a contract at the end of 2024 to actually do further work and complete the master plan. And that work included thorough site analysis so you know we were looking at traffic, plant species, what had been here in the past history, and what have you.

And I want to say, by the way, I have all that information posted on the Ojai Valley Green Coalition website. It would be listed in the October 25th open house so there's a lot more background information than you will be seeing tonight but if you're interested and of course I'd be happy to talk with you later but you could go there. So basically we did get the contract at the end of 2024 and it will be completed May 31st of this year, 2026. So a couple months to go.

For this year, what we did was we did further stakeholder engagement coming to the commissions with staff, more community input. Once again going out and doing a thorough site analysis and then putting all that information in coming together What you're seeing tonight is a conceptual plan, which is the plan before the master plan. So it's very similar to what the final product will be, but it's a progress plan.

And what I can do is if you want, I could kind of walk you through it. Unfortunately, I can't use a pointer, I believe on that screen. Or can we? Do you have one? I have

the cursor moving around. Oh,

a cursor. OK. And I

can see the numbers.

OK and you can see the numbers? For me, I'm going to read them but I have really good distance learning. But I don't have shorts on them. My glasses aren't going to work but I'll do my best. But yeah, I could look that way. Thank you. That was easy enough.

I can also go through them and read them if you'd like.

Yeah. Actually, you know what? That might be fine if you wanted to do that. Just read through the legend quickly and then I'll kind of point out after that where they're located and why.

So when you say go through the legend, you'd like me to go through the fact that for instance number one is a flex play space.

Yeah. And actually, you know what? I could read if I turn my head if you prefer it. No, I don't mind doing that at all. Okay yeah. I think just read down the red numbers and then I'll go into more information.

So flex play spaces in this area. We have an amphitheater And you know what? It might be good if you did some of this later because oh, yeah So you're right cuz the numbers are all over the place. Okay, so there are flex play spaces amphitheater event lawn existing formal gardens Flex area picnic Existing Badminton Court, Rain Gardens, Demonstration Gardens, Flex Area, Oak Tree Seating Area, Proposed Garden House, Option A, View Terrace, New Shed, there are two locations, Hedge Screening, Existing Compost Area, Bike Rack, ADA Path 6 feet wide.

Entry node, a bioswale. Entry node and maintenance path for vehicles. Parking incorporated or sorry parking including ADA spaces. Bench seat, restroom, orchard with picnic tables, community garden beds, picnic table, restoration signage, viewpoint with bench, pollinator gardens, shaded area, creek crossing, restoration trail and a new crosswalk. Okay, good. And I am able to locate these when you talk about them if you'd like.

Okay, good. So just a little background so how did we arrive at all of this? Once again back to the input, the community engagement and stakeholder engagement and I had mentioned earlier a nature-based park but basically based on education, a place to learn and have workshops and what have you And respecting the natural environment. So what we generally looked at was of course, we had the existing restoration area along Middle Stewart Creek and So what we came up with was for our demonstration garden there is an existing demonstration garden that was put in I think it was 93 actually worked on that upstream over the exact year but he was 9394 but it's in its Not in the best shape. It needs to be redone, so where she's got the cursor is generally that area but what we would be doing there is featuring California native plants and firescape landscaping So, predominantly we would be using native plants but in the area of behind City Hall which I call kind of the historic garden area.

Pretty much leaving all that plant material there unless it's something that would be invasive or if we needed to fill in a little bit but predominantly staying there and then what we have done is created a series of what we call flex spaces where you could have workshops they could be picnic areas etc And then we do have, I think what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna start on Ventura Street which would end down at the south east corner right there.

And I'm gonna start there and I'm just gonna do a little walkthrough tour just so I think that'll help explain it a little bit better. You'll see some parking stalls there. We have more than we're actually going to put but we're proposing to put some ADA parking there. There's presently a compost area On the, actually it would be the south side of the property line. I think it's number 14 possibly or 13 one of those two right in there maybe 16.

I'm sorry about me not being able to read well I guess I could turn my head again. I'll talk to the screen. But anyway, what we're looking at doing is, why don't I point? Do you guys mind if I point? I think that's probably better. And I might have reached the top. But basically here's the parking and then here this would be one of the main primary nodes or entry nodes so you could actually drive in a small vehicle. Can you hear me?

OK, then I'll stay back here. No, that's OK. That's all right. I'll kind of point and hopefully it'll be good. So anyway, so it would be a major entry noter access. So you could actually pull in a small vehicle there. Reason being right now the public works department drops off waste for the compost area which we're proposing to remain And then also if you were going to do an event within the space, if you wanted to bring in tables and chairs or catering or what have you. Or even for maintenance, you could actually drive into a certain portion. And then what we're doing is we're proposing like an ADA or accessible pathway Pretty much from Ventura Street and then taking it all the way up to the Carriage House, which is up at the top left. Number one in Carriage House is labeled up there so that basically somebody could actually come in and access the whole site for classes or just for touring or what have you.

Also back over to that entry area, there's a number 11 and 12 We're actually proposing a new building on the site. Approximately, to be determined, but about 1200 square feet which is kind of the size of Kent Hall just to give you a reference and that would be a place to have lectures workshops labs films community members could meet there it could be rented out for special events We're also proposing a small about 300 square foot commercial kitchen. That was one of the requests we Reoccurring in our engagement questionnaire and possibly even a restroom And then number 12 is kind of a viewing Terrace or a terrace where you could actually have an event or work out and do outside? And then we'd also be encompassing the area right below that So we think that's a real asset I also wanted to mention we did a Survey where we did to what I would call schematic layouts for different elements and We had that number 11 building closer to the pickleball court And then the one you're seeing tonight, and the one were you seeing it tonight actually?

Scored the most points probably because it's a little bit quieter Pickleball is not happening all the time. But when it is there's a little bit noise and We think that was a better choice And then walking along the path, you go right into the middle. There's number 24 and 25. That is a community garden so a small orchard and beds, growing beds. And whether or not it would be you know people would pay to rent a space or not we haven't that's to be determined but we are proposing to have that there. Number 20 whoops if you go back oh yeah you're showing the kitchen okay number 23 which is right next to that orchard area Post-public restroom, there is no public restroom on the site outside. So considering the fact that we have pickleball and then hopefully all this will happen, there'll be many more users it would be a smart decision to have a restroom there.

And then there's a path that heads towards the west. We would have, for instance, a pollinator gardens there. There are some fabulous views. Number 28 shows some key points or places where there would be benches for viewing. And then as you wrap up and head up to the upper left where the carriage house is, we're proposing that building become A nature museum for children and a flex workspace, but once again it Would need to be looked at by a structural engineer to make sure that it's sound Structurally and if we needed to do anything what is it? You know, is it doable but so far we've gotten a you know a nod of approval from staff and from City Council in the HPC That potentially, that could happen.

And then that would be also kind of a children's garden workspaces number two is a small little amphitheater don't think big it's very small and mostly for kids or adults could use it too but for storytelling you know acoustic guitar playing or something but whatever called more passive use And then I think what I'm gonna do next is I wanted to say the parking lot that is where our Ojai tent town is presently located would remain so we'd have parking and then if you cut all the way across to City Hall, Number 18, there is a present gravel driveway there that goes under the Portico Share. We're proposing to leave it but that would be also another entry node to get into the space.

And then as you come down towards the pickleball court, we're hoping we started looking at the grades that we may be able to make that accessible. So it would be wheelchair-accessible. And then pretty much the gardens that are there with a small pond and plantings that were part of the original estate would remain. There is a structure there, a pergola that's existing, but it's rotted in a lot of places. So we're hoping that we'd have to look at it further, but if we could reuse the wood and rebuild a structure there. Go ahead. Which one is that? Is that the structure next to Pickleball Court? Did you know where the children's garden is? There's a boxwood-lined garden.

Basically, it's right to the west of the Pickleball Court. Yeah. It's hard to see it, but it's kind of between Kent Hall Little House and the Pickleball Court. Pretty much center.

It's

never

really been used. That's the wood arbor you're talking about? Yes. OK. What about the wedding arbor? Is that the arched arbor? Where is that one? So basically right now

if you go to there's an existing deck right outside of Kent Hall And I'm just going to point real quick. It's right in there, and it's a white wood arbor painted white with a climbing rose on it. And it was built later at a later date. It wasn't part of the original estate. But it's got rod as well, and it's kind of in an odd location. So we're proposing to take it, to remove it. But what we are doing is creating a lot of different areas where potentially if you wanted to have a wedding, because City Hall actually has and does conduct weddings occasionally, you could or some other event.

So there's that. Let me see as I'm going on my tour. All right, so back up by City Hall. I also wanted to say right in the corner of Ventura and Santa Ana, so across from the police station, there's a lawn area with a big canary island date palm existing And with a little bit of modification, that could actually be a little small event area. Put it to good use. So we're not... It's got a Bermuda grass lawn which normally I would say get rid of it or I wouldn't plant one but because it's there, it's low water use and with like I said minor modifications, it could be a really nice entry node potential use area.

Then I wanted to actually now go down to the restoration area which happens to be This whole area, and as I mentioned earlier the city partnered with PAX Environmental. The crew, I think the Land Conservancy provided some of the plant material But that creek area was restored and basically they took out predominantly invasive species, eucalyptus and palms. And originally it was kind of a fire hazard. A fire actually did start there right after the Thomas Fire during that period.

But they were removed, and the water was not running there. And the water's running there now. I was there in the heat of August this last summer, and it's running. The plants that they've planted which were very small cuttings or what have you are full grown mature. Wildlife has come back this year. I know the December bird count was taken there, and they've got more birds than they've had in the past. So it's quite successful. And so what we're proposing is to actually expand the restoration area and to put a bridge in, and then actually maximize on the area that's across the creek and up the hill.

Sorry, I keep forgetting it you won't hear me but a bridge there. Yeah That's a little more complicated because you have to go through a lot of agencies. I've talked to staff about that So there's there is general interest in doing it so we've got it on the plan and then I also wanted to mention up on the Hill, I'm calling at the hill but the sloped area There's actually fabulous views from up there, and there's an endemic grass species that they've really only found there within the Ojai area. So it's something that we want to protect probably cordon off if people could come take a look at it. And then of course adds some trail systems.

throughout that upper area and other portions of the park. I had earlier mentioned a big emphasis was on education, and we're proposing a signage system so informational In key areas, you know for the probably even a historical one something about you know the compost area the demonstration garden of course the The edible area and then of course the the restoration area and then directional signage Let me see what else I'm sure I'm missing something else but generally speaking I Think I've walked through Oh one other thing that I forgot I wanted to say that there's very good drainage on this site. Everything drains down to the creek, but there's also an opportunity to slow the water down when it does rain and in our site analysis we looked at the back of City Hall on the east side of Kent House and Little House Possibly even at the oak tree house and maybe even off the carriage house where you have roof runoff.

And if you go there in the winter, it's boggy and there's a little bit of erosion. It's nothing major but it's an opportunity to slow the water down with a bioswale or a rain garden. And then once again have signage that explains like what it is and why we're doing it and what the plant material is that we would be doing. And so eventually that water goes into a depression, so to speak.

Infiltrates back into the soil and yes it eventually would probably go back down to the creek but it helps reduce irrigation water because now the ground is wetter because we've slowed it down and captured it. So those are probably double checking I would say the highlights of what we're proposing And then, would you mind forwarding the? Yeah. So I also wanted to say this is the slide or PowerPoint that I showed to city council last week.

And these are just what I would call photo imagery, so images of kind of what we're proposing not that it would look exactly like this but the structure that I talked about we've been affectionately calling the garden house because everything else we have the oak tree house and little house and what have you already on the property But we are looking at, and it would be to code, but doing some alternative construction that you don't typically see.

For instance, straw bale with a cob exterior finish, the solar orientation, probably solar panels. And it would also be an opportunity to do kind of what I would call like a barn raising. Of course you'd have a general contractor, you'd have your plans approved by building and safety but it's an opportunity for people to come in learn about oh there's other ways of construction so those are just some samples up there On the bottom, we just have dyed on the terrace. So if there was an event outside of the garden house on one of those terraces something like that and then a small community kitchen. And then in that garden house, we would put creative events because there's so many different things that you could use the building for.

Here are some of the existing site structures that we talked about and imagery. The existing carriage house is up on the upper left The existing arbor, or I was calling it a pergola interchangeably is shown in the top middle. And then the restroom that's just a sample of what the restroom could look like. Of course we're going to want to complement the City Hall architecture I'm Once again, imagery or possibilities. And then on the bottom right parking Bioswale, I talked about a bioswale collecting water off of Ventura Avenue and let's see what else we have next please.

Some more imagery demonstration gardens with signage There could be pop-up events. There's another good example of possible signage on the upper right. This is something I didn't mention before, we did a study... Let me step back. We actually had a local arborist donated an assessment of all the trees on the site. So if you go out there, you'll see a tree tag with a number on the trees And he evaluated them and some of them, a lot of them are natives.

You read off the numbers earlier but a lot of them are invasive species. A lot of different eucalyptus for instance And we're proposing, and we have a plan and I can refer you again to where that would be on our website if you'd like to look at that. But to repurpose any trees that we do take out, and the reason we want to take out a lot of the invasives is well number one, that was the goal of the restoration project.

So if you leave invasive species close by, you're just reintroducing a seed base that could start growing and you'd be in constant maintenance issue. So we are proposing to take out some of the eucalyptus. There are some oaks. Three of them unfortunately had to be taken out recently. We're not sure what the exact cause was yet. Hopefully we'll be looking into that But that we would repurpose or reuse any of the trees that we have to take out, to the best that we can.

So for instance, some of the eucalyptus which is a very hard wood could be used on the interior of the building and structurally. A lot of the lumber if you look in the middle it says nature play logs and mulch. We're hoping to have a lot of what I would call nature based play areas for children so we're not putting in a swing set or play equipment these are areas where you can climb on rocks Hop on logs, sit something like this casually.

Play with timbers and build something. Dig for bugs and smell the roses. No, no roses, excuse me. Smell the pollinating plants. So there's that, and of course mulch is a logical. And we're also proposing in the orchard area to do a process called hugelkultur. And that is where you actually bury wood like scrap wood that would be from trees that you took down and then you bury it with soil but what happens and I'm just giving you the encapsulated version of this It basically starts rotting damage, starts adding organic matter into the soil and it actually helps to capture stormwater runoff too. So it's a really way to repurpose something but build the soil as well and increase the water retention so there's that and then there's also what I would call you know primitive site furnishings like bench seating So that's in the works as well.

And then let me see what else? Oh, this is just a timeline that we shared with City Council. This is just projected, it's not actual. But basically you can see on the upper left we had our community and stakeholder engagement and the master plan in May 2026. We are hoping to get council approval, be completed but then we would be getting into looking at engineered reports, the tree removal, further design development of RFPs for consultants And then ideally in January 27, you know, could start construction documents, RFP for contractors and project management. And then potentially June 2027, construction starts. Now of course we need approval and funding.

The two big things but I just wanted to share that with you as well. And I think we have one last slide Yeah and this just basically shows a little more detail about what the next steps would be after the master plan phase. I think that was maybe in your packet, I'm not sure but it's pretty self-explanatory and then I guess after this I'm happy to answer any questions.

Do we need to take public comment before or shall we do questions of Kathy and then public comment?

So you would take public comments now and then do questions. OK,

I have one card and that would be Craig Walker.

Good evening. My name is Craig Walker, I'm a member of the HPC but I'm here speaking on my own behalf. And I just want to say that I really appreciate everything that Kathy and the Green Coalition are doing. I think they've got a lot of great ideas and I think a lot of those ideas will be real assets to the community and to the location. However, the property also is a City of Ojai landmark and as such it is historic. When it was landmarked the city debated whether just to landmark the building here or to landmark the whole property because it was an estate and they did decide to landmark the whole property Just because a particular item on the property isn't called out in the landmarking agreement that you'll notice it calls out some but not others Doesn't mean that those things aren't his store.

Excuse me historic or or can just be demolished or moved or eliminated at will, they're still considered to be historic and have to be reviewed. And in fact because it's a landmark the HPC will have to review it for a work permit and issue a work permit and also it should be reviewed under CEQA because CEQAs wants to make sure that we review everything that might affect the environment and historic buildings are considered part of Part of the environment so The but when you do the review it doesn't mean that you can't decide to eliminate something if it's found to be insignificant or not really that impactful they can be Eliminated, but it does need to go through that review.

So it kind of puts us in the position of supporting the project within We've had several tours, we've had visits and oftentimes we hear well we might that rose trellis, we might demolish it, we might move it. And we don't know what's going to go there when we do that, but we're not really certain. Well for us that's very hard to make a decision around that. We really need a project this is what we're gonna do and then we can look at it decide if it's appropriate and then make a decision on it.

And I just want to remind this commission, I don't know how many of you were here when the city did its Libbey Park master plan. And it was quite an interesting process because the person, the company that did that master plan was determined to get rid of the jail. They said the jail represented a bad view of Ojai history, it was negative and it should be gone.

And after a council meeting where several local residents who were prominent individuals spoke about the evening they spent in the jail and a little bit about why they thought it was important to know Ojai's history, the council reversed that and not only reversed eliminating the jail but they made it a landmark And today, I have to tell you that's one of Ojai's most beloved landmarks. Every Ojai Day kids line up and they all want to hear the stories of the jail and what went on with the jail.

So it's really proved to be beneficial so I think we really need to give it some Real thought and study before we take these things that are left from 100 years ago by the Smith-Hobson family. They're historic, they're from that period. The Smith-Hobson family used a lot of these items for their own life. They represent a different time in Ojai's history. These include the wall along Ventura Street that has little seats for the bus stop I guess. I'm not really sure what they've finally decided But at one point that seemed to be up for a possible removal The garden area where the Memorial Garden is located. That's part of the original house The structures around the pickleball courts that are done in mission revival architecture were also All built, the whole renovation of this building was done by Robert Winfield who built the arcade and the post office in the pergola.

And so we'd hate to see those go without a review. That trellis I know that it doesn't look that great but One of our commissioners went and looked at it and said it could very easily be restored, and could carry vines of roses. It just looked beautiful. I gave you a picture of that in a packet I sent. I'm going to talk a little bit about what we're doing here. We've got a couple of things that I want to talk to you about it, the carriage house, the badminton court. I mean when you think about it, the pickleball people have revitalized the original tennis court and have made it active. And why couldn't that be done with a badminton court? Have it be renovated and therefore picnickers I took a picture of it and put it into AI and said, can you restore this?

And it came out to look beautiful. So I know that it can be done if we wanted to. Most of the areas that we're really concerned about or Haven't really been given a definite name when you look at the numbers They're like badminton court their flex area picnic areas. They're formal gardens There's nothing that's planned for that area that couldn't benefit from having some historic items from the era there for people to see and to even use So anyway, I hope that you'll keep that in mind before you Approve any changes that might impact the historic nature of the building. Thank

thank you Craig Is there anyone online wishing to speak?

No

Okay in that case we will close the public comment period and turn it over to the Commission for questions and comments Anyone

care to

start

I do okay. I Was just wondering if staff was aware of the Libbey Park master plan because It's dated 1993 and it includes the City Hall property in it there is

We we are aware and as a matter of fact the PowerPoint that I was referring to earlier has a whole section on past history, including the Libbey Park Master Plan from 1993. And I know there was one in 1973 and our final master plan document remember this is a progress presentation tonight concept will be including all those documents as reference or appendix material.

Okay, because I think our staff report should have referenced this document Because it we have a master plan in place that includes City Hall Unless and I haven't been around for a long time Maybe it was repealed. I don't think so. I don't know. It's a good question. Yeah So anyway that I mean That's more of a process thing that some analysis should have been done based on the existing master plan at hand I think Well, I was looking through all the recommendations of the 1993 master plan and it looks like everything is copacetic. Everything is in alignment, I believe. But I think we can't forget that we have existing documents already and we should reference them so we all know.