Murrieta staff seek citywide Objective Design Standards update, cite grant deadline and ADU guidance

Murrieta planning staff presented a proposed, citywide update to the Objective Design Standards (ODS) at the Planning Commission’s April 22 workshop, saying the changes are needed to align local rules with recent state housing law and to give developers clearer design direction for emerging product types such as lane‑court clusters, duplex airspace lots and accessory dwelling units (ADUs).

“Tonight we’ll be providing you a workshop presentation and it’s our first update to the city's objective design standards,” said Dennis Watts, senior planner with the city planning division. Watts and city planner Carl Steele walked commissioners through the ODS structure, current geographic map and the types of projects staff are seeing in the field.

The ODS document, Watts said, currently applies to the downtown specific plan, the Transit‑Oriented Development overlay and multifamily/mixed‑use zones. Staff propose removing the limited applicability map and expanding the standards to cover single‑family zones, duplexes and ADUs so that the city can apply consistent, ministerial design rules to any project that state law now allows.

“The state's looking for ministerial approval,” Watts told the commission, describing how recent state statutes have increased the number of projects eligible for ministerial (non‑public‑hearing) review. “Objective standards tend to create more development certainty,” he said.

Staff flagged a handful of focused changes: clarifying standards for duplexes and lane‑court or airspace lots (where units share common open space and owners typically own only their building and a small backyard), revising separation/setback formulas that make density targets difficult to achieve, and adding an illustrated ADU section with examples for detached, attached and upper‑story units and guidance on entry and stair placement.

“Most of the ADU technical rules are state law,” Steele said, noting that the proposed ODS ADU section is intended to give applicants and staff design‑level examples and reduce inconsistent plan submissions.

Commissioners asked about where certain architectural styles should be allowed. Staff recommended keeping the more modern architectural style largely limited to TOD and commercial/innovation areas, a compromise staff said would reflect community preferences while still giving designers options where taller or contemporary buildings are likely.

The presentation noted practical drivers of the update: projects in high‑fire severity zones are producing compact, owner‑occupied lane‑court and airspace products because apartment construction is difficult or prohibitively expensive there; and several near‑term projects are already using ODS guidance. Watts said two recent complexes referenced the ODS during design — Monomos Apartments (Los Alamos Road) and Oak View Ranch (Adams Avenue) — and that more pipeline projects will test the standards as they go vertical.

Staff also described grant funding and an urgent schedule. The Southern California Association of Governments / WRCOG offered a REAP (regional early action planning) grant to fund the update, but the grant requires the work be finished by July 1. Staff plan to return to the commission with a draft on May 13 and hope for council hearings in June to meet the deadline.

Commissioners raised broader concerns about state laws that allow residential uses in zones previously designated commercial or office, and about potential impacts on the city’s sales‑tax base and public safety workloads. “The state basically hijacked our ability to to basically have local control,” one commissioner said, urging staff and the commission to use the ODS to protect neighborhood character where possible.

Staff answered policy questions about specific plans and project economics, saying specific plans can adopt their own design rules and that many larger residential projects are being built on sites that were previously zoned for residential uses; conversely, conversion of active commercial corridors to housing is less likely where infrastructure and market conditions do not support it. Staff also said they will explore incentives commissioners suggested for 55+ (senior) housing types, but cautioned that incentives tied exclusively to for‑sale status can raise legal and implementation complications.

The workshop was informational; there were no agenda‑item votes on the ODS amendments. Staff closed the meeting by saying they will return in three weeks with a draft update and the PlaceWorks consultant team. No members of the public spoke during the comment period.

What’s next: staff will provide a draft ODS for commission review on May 13 and expect to seek City Council consideration in June to comply with the REAP grant schedule.