DEVELOPMENT REVIEW & PROJECT DESIGN PROCESS

The City’s Development Review & Project Design Process was established as a means to implement the goals and policies of the General Plan.

The City enjoys its “Small Town” character and seeks high quality development that properly implements the City’s vision with respect to design, method of construction, aesthetics, and sensitivity to the physical, social, and economic environment.

The intent of the Development Review & Design Review Process is to ensure that the physical design of new development and changes in existing development meets the following objectives:

A.    To protect the public health, safety, and general welfare where it is related to a land use or to the design of development.

B.    To accommodate the aesthetic quality of the city as a whole, especially where the development will be visible from gateways to the city, and scenic corridors.

C.    To ensure that development is compatible with, and is not detrimental to, surrounding land uses and improvements by requiring that the design be one that is visually appropriate and that mitigates (to the extent feasible) and environmental and social impacts (e.g. privacy).

D.    To ensure that development is compatible with existing scenic, environmental and cultural resources – such as hillsides, stream courses, oak trees, vistas, historic buildings and structures.

E.    To ensure that the development of individual properties contributes to the orderly development of the city as a whole.

There are three (3) types of Development Review Applications: Major, Minor, and Staff Review.  Consideration of these Applications is a discretionary act and specific findings need to be made by the City before any of these types of Applications are approved with or without conditions. In some cases, a development project may require more than one type of application approval simultaneously; i.e. a Planned Development, a Conditional Use Permit, and a Parcel Map, for a new commercial development in the PD overlay district involving a lot split and a conditionally permitted use.