TO: Chair and Members of the Design Review Committee
THRU: Anna Pehoushek, Assistant Community Development Director
FROM: Robert Garcia, Senior Planner
1. SUBJECT
title
Review of Objective Design Standards.
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2. SUMMARY
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An amendment to Chapter 17.14 and 17.19 of the Orange Municipal Code to incorporate objective residential Design standards for certain multifamily housing projects to implement State Housing Law.
3. RECOMMENDED ACTION
recommendation
Provide feedback in the draft Objective Design Standards.
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5. DISCUSSION AND BACKGROUND
As State Housing Law continues to evolve, multi-family housing projects with affordable components are required to be ministerially approved. Specific state laws include, but are not limited to, Senate Bill (SB) 35, that requires the availability of a streamlined ministerial approval process for developments in localities that have not yet made sufficient progress towards their allocation of the Regional Housing Need Assessment (RHNA) fair share. Assembly Bill (AB) 2162 requires that supportive housing be a use that is permitted by right in zones where multifamily and mixed-use development is permitted. SB 4 applies to faith-based institutions and non-profit colleges to build affordable, multi-family homes by streamlining the permitting process and overriding local zoning restrictions. AB 2011 allows for ministerial, by-right approval for affordable housing on commercially zoned lands, and also allows such approvals for mixed-income housing along commercial corridors, as long as the projects meet specified affordability, labor, and environmental criteria. Despite the ministerial approval requirement, state law does allow the City to apply adopted objective design standards (ODS) to a project before it can proceed to building permits.
The City's Orange Municipal Code (OMC) has objective development standards but has very few ODS. The City regularly relies on subjective design guidelines and a discret...
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