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Solvang moves toward a visual design handbook and village color palette to guide storefronts
Summary
Design reviewers and planning staff supported creating a new design handbook to replace 1990s guidelines, produce illustrations and checklists, and adopt a village color palette as an immediate first deliverable to give applicants clearer, more objective guidance.
Members of Solvang’s Design Review Committee, planning staff, and business representatives used a workshop to push for a modern design handbook and an adoptable village color palette that would give applicants objective starting points and reduce subjective, inconsistent decisions.
Rafael, the planning staff presenter, told the committee that the town’s existing design guidelines date to the 1980s–1990s and are “pretty rudimentary.” He said the handbook would include illustrations, a functional color palette, and graphical checklists to help property owners and designers understand the city’s expectations. “We don’t have a color palette for the village,” Rafael said. “Our design guidelines just simply say, needs to be consistent with character.”
Committee members repeatedly urged moving quickly on a color palette as a practical, near-term deliverable. One commissioner said adopting a palette could help staff and the DRC avoid repeated, subjective debates about colors that slow projects down. Tracy, representing the Solvang Chamber of Commerce, urged that visual examples be included: “If we wanna be European, they are. There’s a way to do it,” she said, arguing courtyard businesses especially need clearer wayfinding and sign guidance.
What the handbook would do
- Provide objective starting points (materials, roof pitches, window proportions) and checklists that staff and applicants can use before DRC review.
- Include an illustrated color palette based on historic “old-world” Danish character but adapted to modern paint availability; several speakers suggested using Danish palette references as a beginning point.
- Offer templates and examples for storefronts, signs, and awnings to reduce subjective outcomes at DRC meetings.
Scope and process
Staff indicated the handbook would cover both Village Design Districts (DD1 — the Danish village core — and DD2 — the Mission Design District) but noted DD1 is the priority because it has the most active projects. Commissioners and staff said they plan a multi-step collaborative process with public workshops, iterative drafts, and review by local architects, business owners and the DRC.
Next steps
Staff volunteers signaled they would draft sections and bring successive drafts to the DRC for feedback. Several committee members asked for an early workshop focused solely on color to produce a usable palette before the full handbook is finished. No formal action was taken: the meeting provided direction for staff to prepare materials for further public review.
