INSIDE CITY HALL Here are a few...

INSIDE CITY HALL

Here are a few of the items the council considered Tuesday.

CITY APPEALS PROCESS

The council considered whether aspects of the city’s appeals

process needed to be tweaked. It considered the overall appeals

process, where residents or applicants who disagree with decisions on

development projects appeal them directly to the council.

The council also considered the development appeals process, where

projects are appealed from a city planner to the zoning administrator

or from the zoning administrator to the Planning Commission.

The council opted not to change the appeals process at all.

WHAT IT MEANS

The appeals process doesn’t change.

WHAT WAS SAID

“I will be the first to admit I have had concerns about some

appeals brought forward that have complied with everything, but some

of the alternatives, in my opinion, won’t really fix the problem, so

we’re going to leave it as is,” Councilman Allan Mansoor said.

PERMIT APPEAL

The council postponed deciding on an appeal of the Planning

Commission’s denial of a request to change a permit for a business at

1045 El Camino Drive to discontinue a car wash and gasoline sales and

become solely an automotive-repair facility. The appeal was made by

Daniel Carlton, representing Jack Sakzlyan, owner of Your

Neighborhood Service Station, and property owner El Camino Partners.

The commission felt the proposed change in use was incompatible

with the property’s zoning, which was changed to medium-density

residential housing to enable housing to be developed on this

property.

Councilman Mike Scheafer abstained from voting since he wasn’t

sure if he had a conflict of interest since, as an insurance agent,

he insures some significant properties close to this property.

With only four council members voting, the council deadlocked on

two votes -- one to uphold the commission’s decision and schedule a

hearing to revoke Sakzlyan’s permit, because it no longer complies

with zoning. The other deadlocked vote was to uphold the commission’s

decision. The item was continued to the commission’s Oct. 18 meeting

to give Scheafer a chance to investigate whether his situation poses

a conflict of interest.

WHAT IT MEANS

The council will reconsider the item on Oct. 18.

WHAT WAS SAID

“We’ve tried much too hard to fix something that’s not broken,”

Mayor Gary Monahan said. “I think we need to back off.”

FAIRGROUNDS RESOLUTION

The council adopted a resolution opposing the findings of the

California Performance Review, which described the Orange County

Fairgrounds as “underutilized.”

It also adopted a position, as a matter of council policy,

opposing the closure and/or relocation of the fairgrounds and

reaffirmed the city’s general plan designation for the property as

fairgrounds and its zoning as institutional/recreational.

WHAT IT MEANS

Not much, since the city has no authority over whether the state

decides to sell the fairgrounds.

WHAT WAS SAID

“We’re always talking to the state and telling and retelling and

retelling them how we feel,” Monahan said.