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Lafayette begins Phase 2 of objective design standards, consultants seek detailed design input
Summary
City planning staff and consultants launched Phase 2 of Lafayette’s objective design standards project, presenting goals, timeline and key design topics and asking the Planning Commission, Design Review Commission and council for guidance on building massing, street front design and where rules should be prescriptive versus flexible.
Lafayette city staff and consultants opened the public kickoff for Phase 2 of the city’s objective design standards on Monday, outlining a plan to translate design preferences and the city’s existing checklist into objective, ministerial development standards required by state law.
The project aims to create a new chapter in the Lafayette development code with objective design standards that apply citywide to multifamily and residential mixed-use projects. City Senior Planner Stephanie Cervantes said the standards are intended to produce a ministerial pathway so housing applicants can pursue a predictable, objective review consistent with SB 330 and recent state guidance while preserving a discretionary path for applicants who seek a different approach.
The meeting matters because the standards will shape how higher-density projects allowed under Lafayette’s updated zoning — including new zones that permit up to 60 dwelling units per acre — appear on the street. Consultants from Lisa Wise Consulting and city staff emphasized the goal of balancing predictable, objective rules against allowing design flexibility so the city does not foreclose creative and context-sensitive projects.
Consultant Monica Sidlik described objective design standards as “standards that involve no personal or subjective judgment by a public official and are uniformly verifiable by reference to an external and uniform benchmark.” She told commissioners and the council that the Phase 2 work will start from the downtown checklist and prior code work, expand it to cover citywide multifamily and mixed-use sites, and produce standards that reflect expected new building heights and densities.
Staff and consultants laid out topics they expect the standards to address: building massing and scale (including upper-story stepbacks and daylight planes), corner treatments, street-wall and plate heights, facade articulation, roof design, entries and permeability, parking configuration and pedestrian circulation, open space, balconies and visibility, ground-floor elevation, windows and doors, and site materials such as paving and landscaping. The consultants said deliverables will include code-format text and illustrative diagrams rather than aspirational images.
Commissioners and Design Review Commission (DRC) members pressed for practical, concrete examples and direct comparisons to show how choices would look in Lafayette. Councilmember McCormick asked about timing and whether the city would meet the stated goal to complete the standards by the end of the year; consultants confirmed a schedule that targets adoption hearings by the end of the year and implementation in January following adoption.
Multiple commission members urged staff to bring the DRC into the process early and to provide more concrete visual examples and “palette” options for the council and public to evaluate. DRC members and planning commissioners emphasized an early working session with those commissions so experts who regularly review proposals can shape priorities — especially street-front relationships, where many speakers said the public will judge projects most strongly.
Design review commissioners told the consultants that a points-based checklist the city used previously did not reliably produce high-quality outcomes; DRC members recommended replacing a numerical points system with clearer required features and multiple optional pathways. Commissioners said the standards should protect the pedestrian experience and ensure upper-story massing steps back from the street, and they asked consultants to craft objective measures that will preserve street-level character while allowing taller buildings behind a moderated street wall.
Several commissioners and members of the public said the city should be cautious about drafting rules so prescriptive that projects “all look the same” over time. Consultants responded that the community must choose how prescriptive to be and that more constraints increase the risk that future buildings will reflect a particular regulatory era. Staff and consultants said outreach will include an online questionnaire, an open house, and public hearings; they also said staff will consider an additional joint hearing with DRC and the Planning Commission before adoption.
The consultants and staff invited public comment and said they will return with draft standards for review. The city’s stated next steps are to collect community input this summer, prepare draft objective standards, hold an open house and hearings, and bring a proposed code chapter back for Planning Commission and City Council consideration later in the year.
The discussion continued through public comment and extensive commissioner feedback; no formal action or vote was taken at Monday’s meeting. Staff said they will incorporate the commissions’ suggestions when preparing draft objective standards for future hearings.
Looking ahead, the city is seeking public participation in a questionnaire and public workshops; staff and consultants indicated draft code language will be accompanied by diagrams illustrating how standards apply to building form and massing.
