Cathedral City commissioners weigh how to structure objective design standards, debate color rules and murals

Cathedral City — At a special meeting on April 22, the Planning Commission continued its review of proposed Division 3 objective design standards, focusing discussion on how the standards should be organized, how prescriptive color rules should be, and whether murals should be treated as objective standards.

Staff opened the session by framing the goal: the draft aims to make design rules measurable and objective so qualifying projects can be processed ministerially under state streamlining rules. A staff member summarized the intent as “to try to make the standards measurable and objective and to remove stylistic references,” and said the team is reorganizing Division 3 to reflect commission input.

A consultant leading the presentation described the tool and its scope, saying these standards “provide a minimum set of design standards for your multifamily projects, new mixed‑use projects, and then commercial projects” and that the intent is to reduce subjective guideline language that can slow discretionary review.

Commissioners debated two alternative organizational approaches: keep Division 3 organized by elements (parking, landscaping, lighting, shade) so standards are citywide, or reorganize so each…