Planning OKs Los Arboles
by Cheryl Gilman

Although many came to support the Los Arboles project at Wednesday night's Planning Commission meeting, once again the Citizens to Preserve the Ojai and the Environmental Coalition came to protest.
The main item on the agenda was the architectural review of the Los Arboles condominium project at 203-307 South Montgomery Street. Those residents whose homes abut the proposed housing applauded the work of architects Marc Whitman and Tom Bostrom, and developer Lance Smigel.
Whitman and Bostrom gave a slide presentation showing the history of the site from when it was the Evergreen Cottages, through the various plans for the Los Arboles condominiums and the current architectural and landscape design."
Whitman said, "The intention is to bring the downtown architecture to South Montgomery Street. There will be two-piece ceramic tiles, stucco, decorated iron plaster tiles, ceramic tile fountains, and many trees and lush landscaping."
Bostrom added, "The trees that had been removed and were not diseased will be transplanted back into the same area. We are also adding 108 new trees; the buildings will be very well screened."
Smigel's plans are for a 23-unit, market-rate townhouse development on the vacant 3.13-acre site at South Montgomery. Previously, there were 29 single-family and cottage units, four of which were demolished within the last four years, the others had been razed in 1995. This area had been considered blighted and a safety hazard. It had been decided that the tenants shouldn't be evicted, but would leave through attrition and their units not re-rented.
Fifteen of the planned units are to be constructed on the west side of the street and include duplexes and triplexes. Eight units are proposed on the east side of the street, in two four-plexes. Living space for each townhouse ranges from 1,515 to 2,855 square feet.
Public access is intended to be provided to Libbey park by a pedestrian bridge from the Ojai Art Center located north of the site.
In his report. Interim Community Development Director Doug Hooper said, "The project is in the heart of the original redevelopment plan area. This, no doubt, was reflected by the dilapidated blighted cottages that previously existed on the site. As the cottages declined, transients and deviants increasingly occupied this area. Numerous police calls were made to the cottages for disturbance of the peace."
Resident Jean Smart said, "I live a stone's throw from this beautiful project. It will be a definite benefit to our community. Before work began on this property we had derelicts urinating there. I'm in favor of this project and seeing something we can be proud of."
Tree advocate John Christiansen said, "The proposed bridge construction will adversely affect too many trees, as the grading will sever feeder roots of these trees. An alternative mode of telephone-pole-like construction would have much less negative impacts on those trees and would be less likely to turn them into hazardous trees." He asked that the developers consider this in the construction method approach.
Ivor Benci-Woodward, President of the CPO said, "The CPO has been an organization in this valley for 40 years. We're here tonight because of a lawsuit we had against you and won on this very same issue."
Chairman Paul Blatz interrupted Benci-Woodward and said, "We're not here to consider the validity of a lawsuit - either present or future - which has nothing to do with the merit of our decision this evening."
Richard Keit, a Montgomery Street resident said, "It's a shame that the CPO can't get over their paranoid, vindictive, and ad hominem attacks on everyone that supports this project."
William Dorsey of Montgomery Street said, "I'm a second generation commercial artist in Ojai. I love having the commercial district opened up to South Montgomery Street."
Ojai resident Barbara Bowman, owner of Barbara Bowman and True West on Ojai Ave. said, "Marc Whitman is basically turning Ojai into a beautiful place. There are not many developers who are coming to Ojai to invest the kind of money that Lance Smigel has invested. We're talking about Ojai people doing a stunning project!"
Commissioner Joe MacAllister said, "It seems to me that people who live in the city want the project, and people who live outside, don't."
Blatz added, "This project has come back to fit in with what this area of town needs. The adding of trees will be exceptional. It's in the village mixed-use area which should be dense. The architects have done an outstanding job with their design and with saving the trees."
The motion to approve the architectural design for the Los Arboles project passed unanimously.

© 2002 The Ojai Valley News

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