The Brentwood City Council voted to extend an urgency ordinance to allow the city time to complete final objective design standards for all new housing developments in compliance with state law.
The action is the second and final extension, which will last for the period of one year. The interim urgency ordinance was first adopted in June 2023 and later extended in August 2023.
During the April 23 council meeting, senior planner Jennifer Hagen noted that various state laws, such as Senate Bill 330, prevent jurisdictions from enforcing subjective design standards on housing projects.
These laws were created in response to California’s housing crisis and enacted to bolster the Housing Accountability Act, which limits the ability of local governments to delay or reject housing for arbitrary reasons. For example, a city can’t reject a development project for being perceived as “ugly” — a subjective term — if it adheres to the city’s objective design rules.
Hagen further explained that objective design standards are quantifiable in contrast to subjective guidelines, which could come down to a matter of opinion.
An example of an objective design standard could be a requirement that all front yards must have a 4-foot setback; a subjective design standard could be a guideline that states front yards must be consistent with the neighborhood character. In other words, the city must identify measurable design criteria that would apply to all future development in Brentwood.
Hagen said the current residential design guidelines were adopted in 2006, but many were open to interpretation, thus rendering them subjective and not legally enforceable.
“While the guidelines have helped to articulate the community’s vision in the past, since they were adopted to provide guidance and not as development standards, they are currently difficult to enforce,” she said.
Honing its architectural vision
A public survey process is currently underway to obtain feedback on architectural preferences as the city develops its final draft of its objective design standard for City Council consideration.
According to the California Office of the Attorney General, an interim urgency ordinance is a procedural tool to expeditiously adopt local regulations pending a city’s contemplated plan adoption or zoning ordinance. After the passage of Senate Bill 9, many municipalities enacted urgency ordinances while working to develop standards in compliance with state law.
Erik Nolthenius, city planning manager in Brentwood, explained that the city needed two extensions because public engagement and the development of objective design standards could not be achieved prior to July 1, 2023, when Assembly Bill 2011 and Senate Bill 6 went into effect. Both laws facilitated by-right development of housing projects on sites zoned for commercial uses that will rely heavily on adopted objective design standards.
“With these new laws and procedures in place, and expecting the emphasis on objective design standards to continue in future legislation, it was in the city’s interest to adopt a robust group of objective residential design and development standards to ensure that projects deliver high-quality design, appropriate site planning, and amenities, and are compatible with surrounding neighborhoods and the community,” Nolthenius said. “The city elected to adopt an urgency ordinance in order to achieve immediate preservation of the public peace, health, and safety.”