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Council hears Design Traditions 1.5 update; asks staff and steering committee to finalize photo‑ready comparative drafts
Summary
Council received an update on the Design Traditions 1.5 project and public comment urged tighter integration with wildfire rules and clearer, user‑friendly guidance. Council directed staff to produce comparative, illustrated drafts (steering‑committee revision vs. consultant draft), send them to the Planning Commission for input and return to council in March.
The council received a progress report and public comment on the Design Traditions 1.5 update on Jan. 13 and directed staff to prepare comparative, illustrated drafts for Planning Commission review and return to council with recommendations.
Staff outlined project history (work beginning in 2022), steering committee activity and the rationale behind calling the update “1.5” — an update rather than a complete rewrite. Two versions were in the packet: a consultant draft (longer, detailed) and a steering‑committee revised draft organized around six core principles and condensed to improve accessibility.
Public commenters and council members praised some elements (clearer core principles, historic context, and the steering committee’s appendix and planting lists) while urging improvements: stronger integration of wildfire/home‑hardening guidance, a shorter homeowner‑facing guide alongside a detailed technical manual for staff and commissioners, clearer cross‑references to the municipal code and landscape guidelines, and more objective checklists or decision aids for applicants.
Council members and the steering committee representative agreed on a path forward: staff will dedicate resources for roughly a month to prepare two comparable, picture‑ready drafts (the consultant’s technical draft and the steering‑committee user‑focused draft), make the planning commission the immediate reviewer, and return to council in March with the commission’s recommendation and a proposed adoption timeline. Council asked staff to make the documents hyperlinked, user‑friendly and to preserve the steering committee’s core principles as an organizing framework.
