TO: HONORABLE CHAIR AND MEMBERS OF THE PLANNING
COMMISSION
FROM: Carl Stiehl, City Planner
PREPARED BY: Dennis Watts, Senior Planner
SUBJECT:
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Workshop - Residential Objective Design Standards Update
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RECOMMENDATION
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Receive a workshop presentation by staff regarding the current draft of the City’s grant-funded Residential Objective Design Standards Update, provide input, comments, and/or ask questions of staff and the consultant team, and accept public comments.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Planning Division is initiating its first update to the City’s Residential Objective Design Standards (“ODS”) (Adopted September 2023) to also include Single Family, Accessory Dwelling Unit, and Duplex/Triplex design standards, and to amend various existing Multi-Family design standards. The update is in response to annual changes in state legislation to facilitate residential housing, identifying current gaps in the ODS, and input from the development community. The City is utilizing a state funded grant program (REAP 2.0) to have a professional design consultant, Placeworks, assist with the update at no cost to the City.
BACKGROUND
Over the past five years, the State has been amending state law to accelerate residential development by removing city discretion over design review. Cities only retain local control over housing project design through the adoption of objective design standards for residential development. On September 5, 2023, the City Council adopted Ordinance 595-23, which adopted the Multi-Family Residential and Mixed Use Residential Objective Design Standards (ODS). The City benefited from a grant by the State (LEAP Grant) to hire a consultant, Placeworks, to prepare the ODS and corresponding code amendments, at no cost the City at the time.
As the State continues to pass more legislation amending state laws to help facilitate housing development, staff is initiating the first update of the City’s ODS and will benefit from a grant provided by the State. SCAG’s Regional Early Action Planning (REAP) Grants of 2021 or (REAP 2.0) is a $560 million program administered by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), in collaboration with the governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR), the Strategic Growth Council (SCG), and the California Air Resources Board (CARB). REAP 2.0 is designed to accelerate progress toward California housing and climate goals through strengthened partnerships with local governments (Source: SCAG REAP 2.0 Fact Sheet). Western Riverside Council of Governments (WRCOG) assists SCAG in distributing and implementing REAP funding and goals. WRCOG has several professional consultants on contract to provide services to member jurisdictions.
To keep up with amendments to state law and to take advantage of state grant programs, the City entered into an agreement with WRCOG to receive professional consultant assistance, which will be paid for by the grant. As part of this assistance, SCAG/WRCOG has approved a scope of work to update the City’s ODS by Placeworks in the amount of $98,200. The costs are paid by WRCOG through the REAP 2.0 Grant Program and the City incurs no costs.
The Scope of Work for updating the City’s ODS is to:
1. Create design standards for single-family structures/development. There are no Single-Family design standards in the adopted ODS and this update will include standards in a format similar to the current ODS.
2. Create design standards for duplex and triplex housing product types. Over the past three years of implementing the current ODS, the development community and staff have experienced challenges with the ODS for projects that are proposing duplex and triplex housing products. This update will incorporate new standards that address these specific types of development to provide more clarity and direction for both staff and the development community.
3. Create design standards for Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs). There are currently no standards for ADUs in the City’s zoning code other than referring to state laws for ADUs. This update will incorporate standards to assist the community with design expectations.
4. Amend the existing ODS based on the development community's feedback and modify areas where staff are currently experiencing challenges. The development community has identified various standards that are difficult to implement. For example, there is a standard that requires a ten-foot separation between buildings on the same lot. This requirement makes it difficult to situate units within a project site and meet the density requirements on higher-density sites with a less dense development type, such as a duplex or triplex design.
For more background and reference on the existing ODS, the Planning Commission can find the current standards here: <https://www.murrietaca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/10650/MultiFamily-and-MixedUse-Residential-Objective-Design-Standards>
NEXT STEPS
Staff and the consultant team from Placeworks are drafting updated Residential ODS that will incorporate the above scope of work. The draft standards are tentatively planned to be presented to the Planning Commission May 13, 2026 and to the City Council on June 2, 2026.
ATTACHMENTS
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