The city is creating objective design standards for multifamily housing and mixed-use projects to help the city retain some control over new development and streamline the city’s permitting process to comply with new state laws. The city will take existing design standards, which are subjective and open to interpretation, and turn them into objective design standards that are more specific and measurable so they can be uniformly applied without involving personal or subjective judgment by public officials or decision makers.

This will help developers, design professionals, applicants, residents, property owners, city staff and decision makers have clear and consistent direction for future multifamily and mixed-use residential development projects.

This project will not change existing design standards such as building heights, density or setbacks. 

The city is creating the objective design standards through two separate but concurrent efforts:

• Citywide Objective Design Standards for future multifamily and mixed-use projects outside the Village and Barrio Master Plan areas
• Village & Barrio Objective Design Standards, including standards for architectural styles, for multifamily and mixed-use projects within the Village and Barrio Master Plan area 

According to state law, objective design standards are standards or guidelines that can be uniformly applied without involving personal or subjective judgement by public officials or decision makers. The guidelines should be published in advance and known by both developers and public officials.

Examples of subjective design standards and guidelines could include the following:

• "Doors, porches, balconies and walkways should face the streets, to the extent possible, to promote social interaction along the streetscape."
• "Special care should be taken to break down a building's mass wherever possible through variation in height. Varied floor plans can be designed in such a way so that less long runs of side wall can be paired with plans that have longer runs."

In each of these cases above, the word in bold text provides subjective or flexible direction and therefore more detail and/or specificity would be needed so the standard can be uniformly applied, without relying on the subjective judgement of decision makers.

Subjective design standards 

• Provide design preferences and flexibility for when and how to apply the development standards/guidelines. 
• Provide poorly defined, ambiguous, and unmeasurable direction for when and how to apply development requirements. 
• Involves personal judgement by a public official or decision maker due to the lack specificity in direction provided.

Objective design standards 

• Provide measurable and specific direction for when and how to apply development requirements. 
• Utilizes photographs and graphics, where needed, to clarify standards.
• Involves no personal judgment by a public official or decision maker. 

Examples of an existing Village and Barrio Master Plan subjective design guidelines and sample objective design standards are provided below. Note: There can be one or more objective design standards that can be used to replace one subjective design guideline as needed to meet its intent.

Due to new state housing laws and a shortage of housing in California, the state requires cities to streamline the approval process for multifamily and mixed-use projects. The city is creating objective standards and a streamlined permitting process for multifamily and mixed-use projects to comply with new state laws. A breakdown of new state laws are below.

• CA Senate Bill 330 established Gov. Code § 66300
  • Commonly referred to as the Housing Crisis Act of 2019, which became effective on Jan. 1, 2020. 
  • The HCA affects the city’s review and approval of eligible housing developments, including a requirement that only objective design standards can be applied to eligible housing development projects. Development standards that are subject to interpretation and subjective in nature cannot be applied to the project. 
• CA Senate Bill 35, Gov. Code § 65913.4
  • Adopted several provisions related to housing, including a streamlined ministerial review process for eligible multifamily housing developments under Gov. Code § 65913.4, which became effective Jan. 1, 2018.  
  • The streamlined review and approval process does not allow public hearings. The process for future development projects must involve little or no personal judgment by the public official or decision maker and strictly focus on assessing a project’s compliance with objective design standards and criteria. 

The creation of the new objective design standards and a streamlined review process for multifamily and mixed-use development projects within the Village and Barrio Master Plan area will clarify when and if existing design guidelines can be used for those types of projects. Existing design guidelines will continue to be used for single-family and duplex housing, along with commercial and industrial projects.

• All future multifamily housing projects (condos and apartments). The city defines multifamily housing as a building containing three or more dwelling units within one building.  
• All future mixed-use projects (multifamily housing in combination with non-residential uses in the same development)
• The objective design standards will not apply to single-family, two-family residential, commercial or industrial development.
• The project will not change existing design standards such as building heights, density or setbacks.

The City Council voted to separate the two projects so Carlsbad’s two oldest neighborhoods located within the Village and Barrio Master Plan area could receive special attention.

Specifically, the City Council requested that the city form a Design Review Committee made up of Village and Barrio community members to assist the city in creating a new palette of architectural styles to incorporate into the Village and Barrio objective design standards.  

The citywide objective design standards project on the other hand will have more flexibility in what architectural styles the multifamily and mixed-use project developers can choose from since no palette of architectural styles will be developed for this project.

The project to create the Village and Barrio objective design standards is funded through a special grant from the state.

In 2021, the city obtained a Local Early Action Planning grant award from the state in the amount of $500,000, of which $160,000 was awarded to prepare objective design standards and a streamlined permitting process for multifamily housing and mixed-use development projects within the Village and Barrio Master Plan area. The remaining portions of that grant will fund other programs that assist in expediting housing development.  

• The city’s Village and Barrio Master Plan contains development standards that regulate building height, setbacks, density, intensity and various other development elements within the Village and Barrio that are already objective in their application.  
  • The new objective design standards will not replace existing objective development standards found within the zoning ordinance or Village and Barrio Master Plan. 
  • Standards related to building height, setbacks, density/intensity, and others that are already objective in their application will not change. 

• The new objective design standards will modify existing subjective guidelines and standards found in the Village and Barrio Master Plan for multifamily and mixed-use development projects.
  • These new objective design standards will provide clear and measurable criteria and specific direction for project design, such as site layout, building orientation, building design, pedestrian connections and more.

In Dec. 10, 2019, the City Council passed a minute motion to form an ad hoc design review committee to help develop new objective design standards for the Village and Barrio Master Plan area including a new palette of architectural styles.

On Oct. 19, 2021, the City Council approved a charter for the design review committee.  The charter states the committee’s mission is to assist the city in developing new Village and Barrio objective design standards and a new palette of architectural styles.  

“The distinguishing characteristics of a building that results from climate, availability of materials, and/or available building technology of its time.” – Neal Payton, Torti Gallas