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Ojai HPC proposes 'buddy' inspections for city landmarks and a City Beautiful award program
Summary
Commissioners agreed on an informal 'buddy' system to monitor city-owned landmarks through monthly walk-throughs and MyOHAI reporting, and advanced a proposal for a new City Beautiful awards program to recognize civic beautification separate from historic awards.
The Historic Preservation Commission on July 9 informally adopted a volunteer "buddy" oversight plan for city-owned landmarks and discussed a separate "Ojai City Beautiful" awards program intended to recognize civic beautification distinct from the commission's annual historic-preservation awards.
Under the oversight approach, commissioners volunteered to monitor specific city-owned landmarks (the Arcade, Libby Courts, the Ojai Jail, museum properties, and other places) and to report maintenance issues through MyOHAI, the city's online reporting portal. Staff explained that MyOHAI entries are routed to the correct city department (code compliance, public works, etc.) and become confidential once a code case is opened. Commissioners emphasized that the buddy system is an informal, ad hoc mechanism to create more frequent eyes on landmark properties and to document concerns.
"Everything that's put onto MyOHAI is addressed," staff said, while acknowledging resource constraints: "we are transitioning from reactive to proactive" but do not currently have the staff to patrol every historic property. Several commissioners volunteered to check particular properties and to return monthly updates to the commission so the group can track whether MyOHAI submissions receive timely responses.
Separately, a commissioner proposed a City Beautiful awards program to honor civic beautification (public art, architecture, landscape improvements) that deliberately avoids overlap with the historic-preservation awards. The commission discussed possible award types (bronze plaques, certificates, calendars) and categories (architecture, public art, community beautification, cultural education). The committee suggested the HPC could act as a focal point to vet nominations and asked staff to refine a concise presentation to bring to council during commissioner comments or to place on a future council agenda.
Next steps: Commissioners will make MyOHAI submissions when they observe maintenance needs, and staff will compile assignment lists so volunteers know which properties to monitor. For the City Beautiful award the subcommittee will slim the proposal into a concise packet for presentation to city council and return to HPC for finalization.
