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Mr. Dolan stated that fundamentally, this agreement is about whether the Perrys could <br />take the money and do something else to alleviate the impact to their home. He added <br />that staff did not envision that it would be controversial since the Lopezes were going to <br />be paying out $2,500 as provided in the condition. He compared it to something similar <br />to a car insurance where, if a claim if filed and payment is made by the insurance <br />company, there is no obligation to fix the damage, and the claimant may choose to live <br />with the damage and keep the money. He recognized that reasonable people can <br />disagree about the language as written and about what is the appropriate intent. <br />Mr. Dolan stated that the question in front of the Commission now is whether the <br />Commission agrees with staff or whether it believes as the Lopezes do that they should <br />not have to pay any money unless the Perrys actually get a skylight installed. He <br />indicated that this has continued to be a difficult situation between the neighbors and <br />that he hoped the Commissioners would not hear about a lot of other issues that are not <br />germane to this specific question. He advised the Commission to disregard these <br />statements should they arise as the issue at hand stands on its own. He reiterated that <br />staff needs the Commission's decision on staff's interpretation of the condition, and if <br />the Commission interprets it differently, staff has provided some alternative language, <br />which is included in the staff report, that varies a little bit from what the Lopezes are <br />proposing but makes the condition crystal clear. <br />Commissioner Blank asked staff to explain the origination of the skylight and if it came <br />out of the mediation process. <br />Mr. Dolan replied that it is his recollection that this became part of the discussion and <br />was actually something the Lopezes proposed when they were trying to do things to <br />change their project or to make their project more palatable. He indicated that it was <br />something the Lopezes offered as the project moved forward to Council, and staff felt <br />comfortable making that a condition and something that would offset the impact of the <br />second -floor addition. <br />Commissioner Blank stated that he noticed in the City Council Minutes that <br />Councilmember Cook- Kallio asked a couple questions about it in terms of modifying that <br />condition, but the City Council accepted it as proposed by staff. He asked if mediators <br />typically take notes for themselves during the mediation sessions. <br />Mr. Dolan replied that he did not think there were a lot of notes. He stated that he was <br />at every single one of the mediation sessions and kept notes until it was over; however, <br />he no longer has those notes as the building permit had been issued, and he had no <br />idea something like this would come up. He added that the mechanics of that issue <br />were not discussed during mediation and that, in fact, the mediator did not have <br />anything to do with the writing of the condition as it went to Council. He indicated that <br />the result of the mediation was that an agreement was not reached. <br />PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES, January 25, 2012 Page 5 of 19 <br />