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attorney's letter to the Planning Commission. And, unlike here, the difference there is <br />the Scottish Right's organization had stopped using the facility. They weren't using it for <br />their Scottish Right's activities. They stopped using it in 1993 or some years back. They <br />weren't using it at all and they were just renting it out. So here, it's my understanding, <br />and I could be wrong, that the Masons still hold functions there and also rent it out. So <br />there's a mix that's common and allowed. <br />Commissioner O'Connor: But is it the same organization having those meetings and <br />they've lost their non - profit status and they're not really acting as a lodge? I know <br />you're saying that you don't verify that, but if I came to you and said I'm a such and <br />such lodge and I want to open up the building and I want to have commercial activities, <br />would you allow me in an RM -2,500 zone without verifying what I'm telling you? <br />Harryman: That's a difficult question to answer and it's just being raised now. My <br />understanding is the Masons have been the Masons acting as a lodge and maybe <br />hopefully someone's here from the Masons that can talk more to what they're doing <br />there. I can't say whether in 1977 we checked if they submitted their paperwork to the <br />State or not. I think at some point we might be concerned, but my understanding is, and <br />again, I'm hoping the Masons are here, is that they have been acting as Masons <br />whether they have their paperwork, tax returns properly filed and all that, I can't speak <br />to that. That's not necessarily our focus but I suppose that after a certain amount of time <br />if they were just venturing into commercial and they said they weren't who they said <br />they were and it had changed then maybe at some point in time we may look at that. <br />Commissioner Balch: Could I jump on that? So if you get an entitlement to operate a <br />commercial business at a location and then you decide that you're going to change your <br />business operations to something else and not that type of use, your entitlement doesn't <br />go with you, and theoretically the process to ask is that you would come back to the <br />Planning Commission to get an additional entitlement for that area or that location for <br />what your operations are, correct? <br />Harryman: Generally speaking I would say yes. One thing we talked about is that I don't <br />know why the language in the code says "non- commercial lodge, religious facilities ". I <br />don't know why they're non - commercial. I don't know what kind of a lodge other than <br />lodging would be a commercial lodge, so I'm not sure why. One thing we talked about is <br />cleaning that up in the ominous bill is to remove the commercial part because if you <br />read it in context, it's that type of lodge and religious institutions; I don't think we use <br />religious institutions there, but churches, etc., so I don't know why that language is in <br />there. <br />Commissioner Balch: But the premise is that if you're operating a business and then <br />you start to operate a church that has an assembly of people in the same location, that <br />is not going to be an entitlement you're allowed. You've got to come back through the <br />process. <br />Harryman: Yes, and if tomorrow the Masons stopped using the facility altogether like the <br />Scottish Rights folks did down in Los Angeles, then that would be a problem. If it was <br />purely commercial and they weren't having Mason functions there as an accessory use <br />or ancillary use, then yes, that would be a problem. <br />EXCERPT: PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, June 22, 2016 Page 3 of 52 <br />