Encinitas staff introduce draft ordinance and objective design standards to implement AB 2011, SB 6

City of Encinitas planning staff and consultants on the evening of a public workshop introduced a project to draft a local ordinance and objective design standards to implement California Assembly Bill 2011 and Senate Bill 6, laws that allow multifamily residential development in commercial zones.

City planners said the work is intended to give developers, residents and staff a clear, verifiable set of standards that can be applied consistently in the Downtown Encinitas Specific Plan area and the North 101 Corridor Specific Plan area.

Planners said the bills, which took effect July 1, 2023, allow residential development on land where office, retail and parking are the principally permitted uses and therefore can override local zoning that otherwise prohibits residential in those commercial zones. “Both are in effect today, and someone could come in now and use these bills,” said Matt Gilpin, a senior urban planner with project consultant Ascent Environmental. The city has started preparing a draft ordinance and objective design standards to guide how eligible projects will be reviewed and built.

Matt Gilpin, Sarah Padona and Patty Andrews described the main technical distinctions between the two state laws and the kinds of local standards the city plans to create. AB 2011 requires certain affordability levels for some project pathways and includes a ministerial, streamlined approval path and CEQA streamlining for qualifying projects; SB 6 does not impose affordability requirements and does not itself include the same CEQA or ministerial streamlining. City staff also noted that SB 6 can sometimes be…