Chain Ordinance Passes Planners

Council to now consider measure aimed at formula fast-food and ‘big box’ retail stores

By Nao Braverman
After two strikes, city staff finally brought forth an ordinance to protect Ojai from the proliferation of chain stores that was accepted by the Planning Commission at Wednesday night’s meeting. With the rejections of two previous ordinance drafts behind them, all seven of the Planning Commissioners agreed to recommend the new ordinance to the council, as written.
Though not quite as radical as the emergency moratorium currently in effect, which temporarily bans chains altogether, the new ordinance would put Ojai on the map as a city that rejects formula fast-food and big box chains. Similar to San Francisco’s and Sausalito’s ordinance it also requires that any incoming chain business have a public hearing, where locals would be invited to comment.
Though vocal members of the public have voiced increasingly divided opinions aboutsuch an ordinance, the newly proposed draft appeared to be an even compromise. As it amended the definition of “formula retail” to a business that maintains ten or more locations with three or more standardized characteristics, increasing the standardized characteristics from two to three, it dropped many formula services from the “formula business” category entirely, quieting the concerns of local residents who were afraid of keeping out Ojai’s much-needed services. Some services such as insurance companies and banks, they argued are almost invariably chains.
While Scott Eicher, chief executive officer of the Ojai Valley Chamber of Commerce, and local developer Ron Polito both cautioned that creating a 10,000-square-foot cap on formula business might be a problem if existing buildings with a larger square footage such as Starr Market or Rains were to close, planning commissioners and other community members said they were confident that both chains and locals could find ways to fill those spaces.
A chain grocery store, for example, could lower its standardized features, change its sign and omit uniforms for Ojai, so that they would no longer fall into the formula retail category, said Planning Commissioner Susan Weaver.
Even if that fell through, city attorney Monte Widders confirmed that the City Council could call for a text amendment extending the 10,000square-foot cap to something larger if so needed.
Some community members thought the ordinance should be stronger but accepted staff’s recommendation nonetheless.
“I think what we have in front of us tonight is a reasonable compromise,” said a local resident and author of a recent ballot initiative regarding chain stores.
Local resident Marika Natalie added that that keeping as many corporations out of Ojai as possible has broader implications.
“We have the first generation of children whose life expectancy is shorter than their parents.” she said, referring to the ban on fast food chains. “that is because mass corporations find any way they can to make money with out any intimate connection with their customers. ... Ojai has a foothold, there is no reason to give that up.”
With a relatively brief discussion, the Planning Commission unanimously agreed to recommend the ordinance.
“This is a great opportunity for us to use our creativity and make Ojai what we want it to be so I would recommend that the city pass this,” said Planning Chair Tucker Adams.
In other planning news, commissioners continued the discussion on the Ojai Valley Community Hospital’s proposal to build a prefabricated metal building to be used for storage purposes.
Many nearby residents came forward with noise complaints and other building code violations regarding the hospital and argued that the storage facility was ugly and would reduce their property value.
Hospital representatives Mary Jo Garrett and Joe Panushka said that building a cement block wall, though it might reduce noise problems, would be too costly and might hinder their plans to expand their emergency room for which they were already behind schedule.
Planning Commissioner Troy Becker suggested that hospital representatives meet privately with nearby residents to discuss the matter before returning to the next planning meeting with a proposal.