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Art Center that they really love, and then submitted the plan to staff, who informed them that there they needed to have a historical survey of the existing house before they could do anything with their proposal. She noted that they spent several thousand dollars getting the survey done, resubmitted the plans, and were then told that staff missed line item 4 on page 67 of the Downtown Specific Plan that demolition of primary buildings located in the Ray Street/Spring Street Neighborhood is prohibited, regardless of whether the home has been determined to be historically significant or not. She mentioned, incidentally, that the survey indicated the house had no historical or architectural significance whatsoever. Ms. Ladd stated that at that point, they did not know what to do, so they worked a lot with staff and came up with many different versions of plans to meet whatever staff considered to be a remodel. She added that they made a lot of compromises that they were not that happy with but were willing to make because they were going broke and needed to move forward. She continued that then the side yard setback issue came up, and staff required a five-foot sideyard setback instead of the three feet that their plan showed. She explained that their lot is long and narrow, and their house was also already long and narrow; but they had to take two feet off the side of the house, thereby skewing the whole floor plan because they were trying to keep the front door where it was so they could maintain the porch and keep it as a remodel. Ms. Ladd stated that at this point, they did not know what to do, and they threw their hands up in the air and felt pretty defeated. She indicated that they were left with the options that their project was either a remodel, a demolition subject to a modification of the Downtown Specific Plan, or something infeasible. Ms. Ladd indicated that they were before the Commission tonight to talk about two things: (1) They believe a case can be made that this project is a remodel, and they would like to present their rationale for that; and (2) They have had some time because the project has taken so long; she has not been able to discuss the wood columns and river rock design elements with her husband, and while she had indicated to staff that they would consider this, she would like to present some theories on why these design elements were not appropriate. remodel issue, Ms. Ladd stated that she did some research on what policy was for determining whether a project is a remodel or a demolition, and because she found nothing, she deferred to the dictionary and found the : to do away with indicated that she did not feel this described what they are doing as they are not completely tearing it down, they are not doing away with it completely, they are not picking it up and putting it somewhere else, and they are saving as much as they can. She noted that they would were saving a lot more until they had to pick the whole house up and move it over by two feet to accommodate the setbacks. She added that if this project were considered a PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, September 14, 2011 Page 19 of 28