BACKGROUND
In the year 2000, a formal Design Review Board (DRB) was established in the City’s Municipal Code to review residential and commercial projects involving new construction or major alterations, which did not involve other land use entitlements. The DRB consisted of five resident-members, with varied backgrounds in things such as architecture, landscaping, construction, art, and construction. The role of the DRB was to review development projects that fell under their purview, and ensure compliance with the City’s Design Guidelines. Projects which included land use matters along with design review (e.g.: Use Permit, Variance, etc.) did not go to the DRB, but rather went to the Planning Commission. In July of 2009, the DRB was dissolved by Ordinance 2009-07 (Attachment 1) and their duties were combined with those of the City’s Planning Commission. One of the recitals from the ordinance states that the merger would “create more consistency for applicants in design review decisions made by the City and will result in a reduced workload for City staff”. The July 2009 staff report (Attachment 2) went into more detail about the reasons for merging the DRB and Planning Commission back together, which included: 1) A high vacancy rate in the village creating a diminished pool of qualified board members; 2) Reducing the workload of staff by having one less board to manage noticing, reports, agenda, and meetings for; 3) Increasing consistency of decision making by having a single review authority due to a concern that the DRB and Planning Commission interpreted the Design Guidelines differently, and; 4) Decrease in revenue from building permits.
Over the last year, as part of the Design Traditions 1.5 Project (DT-1.5), interest has been expressed by not only the community, but also the City Council to consider reinstating the DRB to shift authority for design review from the Planning Commission to the DRB once again. If the City chooses to move in this direction, it would require amendments to the Municipal Code and Local Coastal Program (LCP), which could be done as part of the Zoning Code amendments taking place as part of the DT-1.5 project. It is expected that the updated Design Guidelines and relevant Zoning Code amendments will be brought before Council in early to mid-summer, 2023 before being transmitted to the Coastal Commission for certification. This means, if the City wishes to move forward with reinstating the DRB, the necessary Municipal Code amendments should begin being drafted in the near future in order to be part of the package brought to the Council for consideration with the DT-1.5 project.
Staff is seeking early policy guidance from Council on the potential re-establishment of the DRB and shifting design review authority away from the Planning Commission. Examples of policy issues to be considered could include but are certainly not limited to things like:
- Whether the DRB is an approving body or just a recommending body to the Planning Commission?
- How to divide duties between the DRB and Planning Commission?
- How would the establishment of a DRB impact the number of steps in the development application process, which sometimes also includes the Forest and Beach Commission, Historic Resources Board?
- What should the DRB appointment criteria look like?
- If most design review shifts away from Planning Commission, what do future commission meetings look like?
To help with the policy discussion, sections from the previous Municipal Code have been attached to this report which:
- Created the DRB (Attachment 3 - Chapter 2.30);
- Established the duties and powers of the DRB (Attachment 4 - Section 17.52.050)
- Laid out the procedures for Design Review by the DRB (Attachment 5 – Chapter 17.58)