Ojai planners deny Ojai Mountain Farm expansion as freezer, CEQA and plaza impacts loom

The Ojai Planning Commission on the evening’s first public hearing moved to deny Ojai Mountain Farm’s proposed outdoor dining expansion and asked staff to return a written resolution of denial at the next available meeting. Commissioners cited a walk‑in freezer that staff says is a nonconforming use, questions about the earlier zone‑clearance process that approved the unit, and public concerns about CEQA and plaza impacts.

Lucas Seibert, the city of Ojai’s community development director, told the commission the freezer had been previously approved through a zone clearance that legal review later determined was not the appropriate land‑use process. “That zone clearance…was not an appropriate land use process,” Seibert said, and he identified the freezer as a nonconforming use that cannot simply be resolved through the current discretionary review of an outdoor dining expansion.

Why it matters: The expansion would add removable fencing and…