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Home My WebLink About2024 PC 29-24 OBJECTIVE DESIGN STANDARDSORDINANCE OBJECTIVE DESIGN STANDARDS RESOLUTION NO. PC 29-24 A RESOLUTION OF THE PLANNING COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF ORANGE RECOMMENDING THAT THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ORANGE ADOPT OBJECTIVE DESIGN STANDARDS FOR QUALIFIED HOUSING PROJECTS APPLICANT: CITY OF ORANGE WHEREAS, the State of California has adopted numerous bills, including, but not limited to, Senate Bill 9 ("SB 9"), Senate Bill 35 ("SB 35"), Senate Bill 330 ("SB 330") and Assembly Bill2162 ("AB 2162"), which limit or restrict discretionary review of certain qualifuing residential projects; and WHEREAS, State Housing Law continues to evolve, multi-family housing projects with affordable components are required to be ministerially approved; and WHEREAS, cities are permitted to apply only "objective design standards," which are intended to provide concise, quantifiable, objective standards for those qualifuing projects; and WHEREAS, the City's Orange Municipal Code (OMC) has objective development standards but has very few objective designs standards. The City can no longer rely on subjective design guidelines and a discretionary design review process to determine the adequacy and contextual appropriateness of project design for qualifring housing projects; and WHEREAS, the City's Adopted 2021-2029 Housing Element contains Housing Policy Action 2E: Facilitate Infill Construction which includes the need to adopt objective design standards to accommodate a streamlined ministerial review process for qualified housing projects ; and WHEREAS, the City applied for and received a Senate Bill2 ("SB 2") grant, which was utilized to engage the services of a consultant with special expertise in the creation of objective design standards; and WHEREAS, on or about March 20, 2024, the Design Review Committee had an opportunity to review and comment upon draft objective design standards; and WHEREAS, comments received from the Design Review Committee and the public were factored in a revised draft ofthe objective design standards; and Resolution No. PC 29-24 Page 2 of3 WHEREAS, on or about October 21, 2024, the Planning Commission reviewed the objective design standards and considered public any comments; and WHEREAS, the proposed ordinance adds Sections 17.10.095, 17.14.285, and 17.19.230, and amends Sections 17 .14.250, and 17 .17 .060 to Title l7 of the OMC with the pulpose of creating objective design standards for streamlining qualified housing projects; and WHEREAS, regulations are as set forth in the proposed Ordinance and attached City of Orange Objective Design Standards (ODS) included as Attachment 1 to this Resolution; and NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Planning Commission recommends that the City Council approve an ordinance adopting the attached ODS, attached hereto, based on the following finding: SECTION 1. FINDINGS The proposed ordinance adds provisions to the OMC in support of the goals and policies outlined in the General Plan. General Plan goal and policy-related accomplishments of the ODS include: facilitating residential infill development, balancing economic gains from new development while preserving the character and densities of residential neighborhoods, minimizing effects of new development on the character of surrounding neighborhoods, preserving historic resources, both individual and cumulatively in neighborhoods, and ensuring contextually appropriate infill development that contributes positively to the quality of the surrounding neighborhood. SECTION 2-ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW This Ordinance is not a project under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) per State CEQA Guidelines Section 15378, because it involves administrative activities of the City that will not result in direct or indirect physical changes in the environment. For this reason, no further CEQA documentation is required. ADOPTED this 2l't day of October,2024. David Y azquez, Planning Chair Resolution No. PC 29-24 Page 3 of3 I hereby certiff that the foregoing Resolution was adopted by the Planning Commission of the City of Orange at a regular meeting thereof held on the 21't day of October, 2024, by the following vote: AYES: NOES: ABSENT: Yazquez, Vejar, Martinez, Tucker, McCormack, Leslie None Maldonado Pehoushek, FAICP Assistant Community Development Director Attachment I ORDINANCE NO. ><]{-24 AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ORANGE ADOPTING OBJECTIVE DESIGN STAIIDARDS BY REFERENCE IN TITLE 17 FOR QUALIFIED HOUSING PROJECTS WHEREAS, the State of Califomia has adopted numerous bills, including, but not limited to, Senate Bill 9 ("SB 9"), Senate Bill 35 ("SB 35"), Senate Bill 330 ("SB 330") and Assembly Bill2l62 ("AB 2162"), which limit or restrict discretionary review of certain qualiffing residential projects; and WHEREAS, State Housing Law continues to evolve, multi-family housing projects with affordable components are required to be ministerially approved; and WHEREAS, cities are permitted to apply only "objective design standards," which are intended to provide concise, quantifiable, objective standards for those qualifying projects; and WHEREAS, the City applied for and received a Senate Bill 2 ("SB 2") grant, which was utilized to engage the services of a consultant with special expertise in the creation of objective design standards; and WHEREAS, on or about April25, 2023, the City entered into an agreement with AECOM to provide these services and, from May 2023 to March 2024, worked with AECOM to create objective design standards for qualifying projects; and WHEREAS, the City's Adopted 2021-2029 Housing Element indicates adopting objective design standards to provide a ministerial process of future qualiffing projects in compliance with Housing Policy Action 2E: Facilitate Infill Construction; and WHEREAS, on or about March 20, 2024, the Design Review Committee had an opportunity to review and comment upon objective design standards prepared by AECOM on behalf of the City; and WHEREAS, comments received from the Design Review Committee and the public were factored in a revised draft ofthe objective design standards; and WHEREAS, on or about October 21, 2024, the Planning Commission reviewed the objective design standards and considered any public comments; and NOW, THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF ORANGE DOES HEREBY ORDAIN AS FOLLOWS: SECTION I: This Ordinance is not a project under the Califomia Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) per State CEQA Guidelines Section 15378, because it involves administrative activities of the City that will not result in direct or indirect physical changes in the environment. For this reason, no frrther CEQA documentation is required. SECTION II: A new Section 17.10.095 shall be added to read as follows: 17.10.095 Objective Design Standards for Qualifying Projects A. Objective design standards are. as defined in State law. Objective design standards involve no personal or subjective judgnrent by a public official and are uniformly verifiable by reference to an extemal and uniform benchmark. B. Objective design standards adopted by the City shall apply to all projects where, upon applicant request and demonstration ofeligibility, state law limits the city's enforcement of design standards to objective standards or where state law or the Orange Municipal Code requires a ministerial approval process. C. Objective design standards shall serve to supplement the development standards of the Zoning Ordinance and further the goals, policies, and actions of the Orange General Plan, which encourages high quality design and the quality of life that an enhanced built environment fosters. D. Notwithstanding any other provision ofthe Zoning Ordinance, ministerial design review for qualifuing housing projects shall be performed administratively, without a public hearing, and shall be based only on upon objective design standards, unless an applicant seeks to deviate from, or not comply with, adopted objective design standards, or an applicant voluntarily agrees to additional review or standards, in either case the applicable discretionary review process shall be followed and any and all subjective design review criteria shall be required. E. As part of the ministerial design review process, staff may impose conditions of approval as deerned necessary to ensure that the proposal conforms to the general plan and other applicable plans or policies adopted by the City Council and to ensure that the development meets the requirements of the zoning district where the project is located, as well as any other applicable provisions ofZoning Ordinance; and, to ensure the proposal complies with the objective desigrr standards as adopted by reference in the Zoning Ordinance. SECTION III: Section 17.14.250 is hereby amended to read as follows: 17.14.250 Old Towne Design Standards. 2 Developments within Old Towne shall conform to the Historic Preservation Design Standards for Old Towne Orange or, as applicable to qualifring multi-family housing projects, the Historic Preservation Objective Design Standards, as may be adopted and amended by resolution of the City Council and incorporated into this Zoning Ordinance by reference. Refer to Section 17.17.030 for delineation of the limits of the Old Towne District. Qualifoing multi-family housing projects shall conform to the City of Orange's Multifamily Objective Design Standards, which shall be adopted, and amended, by resolution of the City Council, and incorporated into this Zoning Ordinance by reference. SECTION V: Section I 7.17.060 shall be amended to read as follows: 17.17.060 DevelopmentStandards. A historic district zone includes additional regulations and uses over base zoning of a particular area to encourage historic preservation and complementary new development. To promote orderly development and preservation within historic districts the following standards and their amendments shall apply: Historic Preservation Design Standards for Old Towne Orange, Historic Preservation Objective Design Standards (as applicable to qualifzing multi-family housing projects), the Southwest Project Area Design Standards, the Orange Eichler Desigrr Standards, the General Plan's Historic Preservation Element sample guidelines including the Secretary of the Interior's Standards and Guidelines for Rehabilitation. SECTION VI: A new Section 17.19.235 shall be added to read as follows: 17.19.235 Objective Design Standards for Mixed-Use Projects Qualifoing multi-family housing projects shall conform to the City of Orange's Multifamily Objective Design Standards, which shall be adopted, and amended, by resolution of the City Council, and incorporated into this Zoning Ordinance by reference. SECTION VII: If any section, subdivision, paragraph, sentence, clause or phrase of this Ordinance is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this Ordinance. The City Council hereby declares that it would have passed 3 SECTION IV: A new Section 17 .14.290 shall be added to read as follows: 17.14.290 Objective Design Standards for Residential Projects this Ordinance, and each section, subdivision, paragraph, sentence, clause and phrase thereof, irrespective of the fact that any one (or more) section, subdivision, paragraph, sentence, clause or phrase had been declared invalid or unconstitutional. SECTION VIII: The City Clerk is hereby directed to certiff the adoption of this Ordinance and cause a summary of the same to be published as required by law. This Ordinance shall take effect thirty (30) days from and after the date of its final passage. ADOPTED this _ day of 2024. Daniel R. Slater, Mayor, City of Orange ATTEST: Pamela Coleman, City Clerk, City of Orange APPROVED AS TO FORM: Mike Vigliotta, City Attorney STATE OF CALIFORNIA ) couNTY oF ORANGE ) crTY oF ORANGE ) I, PAMELA COLEMAN, City Clerk of the City of Orange, Califomia, do hereby certiff that the foregoing Ordinance was introduced at the regular meeting of the City Council held on the _ day of 2024, and thereafter at the regular meeting of said City Council duly held on the _ day of to wit: 2024 was duly passed and adopted by the following vote, AYES: NOES: ABSENT: ABSTAIN COLINCILMEMBERS: COLINCILMEMBERS: COI.INCILMEMBERS: COUNCILMEMBERS: Pamela Coleman, City Clerk, City of Orange 4 City of Orange Multi-Family Objective Design Standards September 2024 t)City ofrallgc E@M Contents ll. Multi-Family Frontages............ Open Space........ Site Planning and G1ossary.............. Form & Scale...... Operation ........13 ........17 2 3 I 12 1