County fire personnel give report on ‘Water Wheel Building’ blaze at beginning of May
During its regular meeting on Monday, May 12, the Solvang City Council discussed the viability of the Design Review Committee in the building permit process before ultimately deciding that the DRC should remain as a city committee.
Councilmember Elizabeth Orona was absent from the meeting.
The DRC was formed by the City Council in early 2021 as a successor committee to the Branding and Design Committee (BDC), and the Board of Architectural Review (BAR), which was disbanded in 2020.
However, in its Sept. 9, 2024, meeting, the council voted 3-2 to put a discussion item on a future meeting agenda on the possible elimination of the DRC. No reason was given, although some applicants had expressed to city staff that the DRC process was cumbersome and time-consuming.
In his report on the item, Solvang Planning and Building Manager Rafael Castillo stated that since the September meeting, changes in the city zoning ordinance had streamlined the application process and modified the role of the RDC. Among those changes were the codification of objective standards and elimination of subjectivity, establishment of a pre-application reviews to give the DRC flexibility, and the elimination of the requirement for DRC to review residential projects for consistency with adopted Housing Element policies.
Also in late 2023, changes to the application process introduced checklists that outlined minimum requirements for applications, helping alleviate the adversarial atmosphere between applicants and the DRC when the paperwork is incomplete.
Castillo said with these changes, DRC has been able to give clear direction to applicants, and “highly” recommended that the committee be retained.
When Councilmember Claudia Orona asked Castillo about recent feedback on the application process, Castillo said the checklist bring a “certainty” to the process with each side knowing what’s required.
Mayor David Brown stated he was one of the councilmembers in September who wanted the discussion on the RDC.
“I wanted to document the relevance, because the complaint came from a developer with difficulties in the process,” he said. “Now we’ve baked in codes, I’m for the DRC. It maintains our brand of why we’re the Best Little City in the West. I back keeping DRC.”
In public comment, Dennis Beebe wondered if, “with the state sticking its nose into our business,” the city shouldn’tgive even more influence in design decision and touched on Brown’s “Best Little City in the West” reference.
“Do you think Solvang would have won that ‘Best in the West’ award if not for the decisions of the DRC?” he stated.
DRC Chair Esther Jacobson Bates spoke to advocate for the role of her committee and complimented Castillo and his staff for objectifying and making clear the elements of design.
“With that clarification, we don’t have that adversarial role that Rafael described earlier,” she said.
After public comment, councilmembers all voiced support for keeping the RDC. As Orona put it, “If it isn’t broke, don’tfix it.”
Infanti moved for the RDC to not be eliminated, with Orona seconding. The motion passed 4-0.
In other business:
During his Manager’s Report, City Manager Randy Murphy introduced Santa Barbara County Fire Battalion Chief Tom Himmelrich and Station 30 Capt. Andrew Weddle to brief council on the May 2 fire at the “Water Wheel Building” on 2nd Street and Molle Way.
Himmelrich said the “Molle Incident” was first reported at 5:29 a.m. that morning when two callers reported smelling smoke in downtown Solvang. Station 30, located in the same building on Oak Street as the Council Chambersresponded to the incident and arrived with the building in flames.
Himmelrich then said more engines were called, and four engines and one battalion chief answered the call. Answering questions from Infanti and Brown, he said the fire was currently under investigation and the building was a total loss.
Brown praised the firefighters for their efforts: “Thank you and your team for an awesome response and efforts to prevent damage to other buildings.”
After the item on the RDC, council voted to receive and file the Solvang Entitlement and Building Checklist.
Council unanimously passed a motion to change the name of the Measure U Citizens’ Oversight Committee to the Revenue Measures Oversight Committee.
Council agreed to table the discussion item on the city camping ordinance. The ordinance was amended in 2023 due to related court decisions in Idaho and Oregon, but those decisions have now been overturned. Brown suggested councilpostpone the item until they could properly review some “11th-hour feedback” from the county.”
With the fourth Monday of May being Memorial Day, the City Council will next meet on Tuesday, May 27, at 6:30 p.m.
