The Santa Paula Planning Commission upheld a decision Tuesday night that may have stopped a corporation's efforts to develop 144 residential units at 220 W. Santa Barbara St.

Commissioners voted 3-0 to deny an appeal from Cabrillo Economic Development Corp. to reverse a decision made in October by Planning Director Janna Minsk.

Minsk deemed the application "incomplete" and "untimely" for several reasons, including her contention that the proposal was "substantially similar" to a Cabrillo project the City Council denied in August.

After an application is denied or revoked, a new one cannot be accepted within one year, according to the Santa Paula Municipal Code. A new application can be accepted within a year only if the planning director concludes that the project has "sufficiently changed."

The one-year time frame exists to prevent one project from taking all of the city staff's time for review, according to city planning officials.

The commission upheld the decision because the municipal code requires an application to reflect "substantial" structural and physical changes, including alterations in traffic patterns and land use, Chairman Gary Nasalroad said Wednesday. Commissioner Mike Sommer was absent. Jesse Ornelas, who works for Cabrillo, abstained.

"It boiled down to a very small issue: whether (there were) enough changes in this project to merit a" reconsideration, Nasalroad said. "Essentially it was the same-looking project."

Barbara Macri-Ortiz, an attorney who represented Cabrillo at the meeting, said she believes the commission "misinterpreted their ordinance just as their planning director (did)."

The application, she said, was "significantly different" from the earlier Plaza Amistad for several reasons. The organization did not apply for a zoning change as it did with Amistad, but instead applied for concessions under California's density-bonus law.

Also, all the units in this project were rentals and, in contrast to Amistad, had no market-rate homes proposed, Macri-Ortiz said.

City planning officials, though, contend that both of the projects are the same in terms of private open space and building height and similar in the units proposed, among other things.

Macri-Ortiz could not comment on whether Cabrillo would appeal the commission's decision to the council. She referred questions to Cabrillo officials, who did not respond to two telephone calls and an e-mail.

Cabrillo, based in Ventura, filed a lawsuit against the city in late October after the council denied the Amistad project.