Santa Cruz planners kick off community process to shape voluntary multifamily design guidelines

Planning staff and council members opened a community meeting hosted by the Santa Cruz Planning Commission to solicit public input on voluntary design guidelines for multifamily housing. Council member Susie O'Hara said the effort follows a design professionals roundtable and a downtown walking tour and is intended to broaden conversation about the city's character as new multifamily projects are built. "We are very optimistic that we're gonna have a conversation around design guidelines and, quite frankly, the character that we're trying to move forward," O'Hara said.

Senior planner Akana Jayawadna told the meeting the guidelines are nonbinding, intended to be available early in project design, and designed to supplement objective standards that the city already enforces. "The state density bonus law grants incentives or concessions and waivers to developments that are offer affordable housing," Jayawadna said, explaining why many projects deviate from local objective requirements and why voluntary guidelines may help communicate community priorities. Staff outlined a timeline that includes a public input survey and subsequent work with the planning commission and architectural review committee before returning to council later in the year.

The meeting framed six draft themes for public discussion — how buildings meet sidewalks, intentionally designed commercial spaces, integrated public art, neighborhood transitions, high-quality materials and color, and form and articulation — and explained the breakout format that would let residents allocate priorities at six stations. Staff emphasized the guidelines are voluntary and that questions about incentives or changes to mandatory code were out of scope for the night but could be explored later.