City staff review draft landscape maintenance standards aimed at speeding approvals

Baxter Miller, a landscape architect with the firm BMLA, presented a draft revision of the city’s landscape maintenance and design standards Tuesday, saying the project’s goal is to streamline the application, review and inspection process rather than change substantive requirements.

“The whole goal of this particular process was not to change fundamentally the standards, but to really coalesce the standards in a process by which people can use it to quickly get a set of plans approved,” Miller said during the Parks and Recreation Commission meeting.

Miller described a single-package approach that collects existing city specifications, plant lists and irrigation details into downloadable templates and AutoCAD files so applicants can submit consistent construction drawings. He said the materials include a new “maintenance exhibit” that would require applicants to map the exact limits and type of public landscape early in the design process so the city can estimate ongoing maintenance needs before final plans are prepared.

Commission staff said the packet is designed to guide applicants from concept through plan check and inspection, with checklists and standard drawing sizes to reduce avoidable re-submissions. Miller told commissioners the intent is to reduce the time a plan spends in review by having common details, forms and digital files available from one place on the city website.

Laurie Tamura of Urban Planning Concepts, who addressed the commission during public comment, asked whether the draft would be peer reviewed by local landscape professionals and contractors and whether the standards include formulas and reporting for maintenance calculations. Commissioners and staff said the draft will be posted for a 30-day public comment period and provided an email for comments; the packet will be revised based on comments and brought back to staff for finalization.

Commissioners also raised a procedural question about how the document will be adopted. Miller and staff said the existing standards are currently reflected in an ordinance; the draft is a reformatting and consolidation of those standards. Staff committed to consult the city attorney and the finance/council process to determine whether the revised packet requires formal council adoption or can be finalized by the department director.

The next steps outlined by staff: post the draft packet as “draft” on the city website, accept public comments for 30 days (comments to trees@cityofsantamaria.org or a designated staff extension), compile revisions, and then follow up with the city attorney and department director on adoption. Miller estimated a typical plan check once a complete submittal is in the system would take roughly 60 to 90 days; larger master-plan-scale projects can take up to a year from concept to construction completion.

Commissioners and staff emphasized the packet does not change the city’s substantive technical specifications. It centralizes and formats existing requirements (plant lists, irrigation standards, inspection sequences, and preferred materials) to reduce the burden on applicants and on plan reviewers.

The commission did not take formal action during the meeting. Staff said they will return with a revised draft after the public comment period and consultation with the city attorney’s office.