Cupertino planning commission reviews objective design standards for multifamily and mixed‑use housing

Cupertino Planning Commission members on May 13 held a study session on developing objective design standards (ODS) for multifamily and residential mixed‑use projects, hearing a technical presentation from PlaceWorks and offering early direction on design priorities, outreach and timing.

The discussion centered on how California housing law requires “objective, quantifiable” standards for ministerial approval of eligible multifamily projects — a change that compels cities to convert traditional, subjective design guidelines into measurable rules if they want design criteria to apply to fast‑tracked housing. Greg Goodfellow, a PlaceWorks consultant, told the commission the project aims to translate local design priorities into ODS that preserve as much local control as possible while meeting state streamlining requirements.

Why it matters: State statutes and recent housing laws (including SB 35 and SB 330 among others) limit the use of subjective review criteria for projects seeking streamlined approvals. That has prompted cities across the Bay Area to convert design guidance into objective standards that can be checked by staff and used consistently in ministerial reviews. Commission members said Cupertino should protect neighborhood privacy and the city’s character while creating standards developers can use without indefinite discretionary review delays.

PlaceWorks presentation and key points

PlaceWorks summarized the ODS concept and legal context, saying objective standards are “standards that involve no personal or subjective judgment by a public official and that are uniformly verifiable by reference to an external and uniform benchmark or criterion,” and illustrating how common guidance language (for example, “sensitive to the neighborhood”) might be rewritten to specify numeric or measurable requirements. Goodfellow said ODS can take many forms: measurable dimensions, required materials, checklists, scored options, or tables tied to building types, and showed examples from other Bay Area cities.

The consultant described the project’s scope as covering “all multifamily residential projects” (two or more units) and mixed‑use buildings where at least 30% of the floor area is residential, and he listed a range of typical topics to be included in ODS: site design (entries, driveways, pedestrian access), building form and massing, ground‑floor activation, open space and landscaping, parking location and screening, lighting, trash/service area standards, and townhome‑specific rules.

Community outreach and early findings

PlaceWorks said a community workshop in February produced a small but substantive set of comments (the consultant reported roughly 13–15 participants, and post‑it note exercise results). Examples cited by the consultant included a frequently‑noted comment board quote, “Driveways with just garages do not create communities,” and written remarks on ground‑floor design (for example, requests to limit glare from reflective glass and to avoid double‑height ground floors when they reduce net housing area). Participants also raised resiliency and bird‑safe design as topics to consider.

Commission feedback and staff timeline

Commissioners asked about outreach breadth and the consultant’s approach to stakeholder input. Several commissioners urged PlaceWorks and staff to expand outreach beyond the small workshop sample to include developers, townhome builders and other professional stakeholders so the standards address feasibility and market realities as well as neighborhood priorities. Goodfellow said developers have participated in some past projects but interest has varied; staff said additional, targeted outreach could be done informally as the draft is prepared.

Multiple commissioners emphasized that townhomes are currently a dominant product type in Cupertino and asked that the ODS explicitly include a separate chapter or tailored standards for duplexes, triplexes and townhome typologies. Privacy protections (window offsets, landscape buffers), ground‑floor activation, and avoiding “concrete‑jungle” results through street trees and open space standards were repeatedly highlighted.

Exemptions, waivers and limits of local authority

Commissioners pressed how ODS would interact with state incentives and waivers. The consultant and staff noted that density bonus provisions and other state or local incentives often allow applicants to seek waivers of objective standards, and that certain incentives (for example density bonus concessions or an inclusionary housing incentive) can result in design standards being waived. The consultant warned the commission that many state laws tilt toward approval and that ODS do not eliminate all waivers; the standards instead aim to give staff a clear, ministerial checklist for review when the standards apply.

Process, next steps and schedule

Staff and the consultant said the commission should expect to see a draft ODS in a later phase of the project; both staff and the consultant suggested fall 2025 as a likely timeframe for a draft return to the commission, followed by at least one commission review and then City Council study sessions. No formal action or vote was taken at the May 13 study session.

Quotes

“We’re here for a planning commission study session about multifamily and mixed use objective design standards,” PlaceWorks consultant Greg Goodfellow told commissioners at the start of his presentation. He later summarized the consultant team’s goal: “Let’s go through it all first from 1982 onward… and highlight the relevant standards and do our best to transform those into objective standards.”

Commissioners voiced repeated concerns about outreach and housing types. Commissioner Paul said, “I think that...townhouses are being built now. I hope that we can think beyond that in terms of how we put together a set of objectives and standards.” Commissioner Lindscott urged stronger attention to walkability, street trees and “place‑making” that would make new projects feel like part of Cupertino.

Ending

Staff and the consultant will take the commission’s verbal guidance into account and return with a written draft ODS for further commission review and public comment. Commissioners asked staff to expand stakeholder outreach, especially to developers and townhome builders, and to provide at least one additional review opportunity before the package goes to City Council.