The city's Design Guidelines provide a framework to evaluate new development projects against the city’s adopted vision. The Design Guidelines are intended to reflect the city’s desires relating to land planning, individual site design, and architecture.

The guidelines and standards set forth in Chapter 2 of the Design Guidelines are applicable to all project types and cover a wide range of topics from general circulation and project signage to landscaping and sustainable development. The subsequent chapters provide additional provisions that are applicable to unique project types. The checklists in Appendix B are intended for use by applicants or designers, staff and decision makers in the preparation, review and action of individual projects. The summary language included within the checklists is designed as a reference to the provisions within the document and are not meant to substitute for the actual language of the guidelines.

• Full Design Guidelines (17 MB)
• Cover and Table of Contents (330 KB)
• Chapter 1 Introduction (466 KB)
• Chapter 2 Community Design (4.71 MB)
• Chapter 3 Commercial and Commercial Mixed Use (1.77 MB)
• Chapter 4 Office and Office Mixed Use (1.39 MB)
• Chapter 5 Residential (3.18 MB)
• Chapter 6 Community Facilities (1.82 MB)
• Chapter 7 Industrial (1.27 MB)
• Appendix A Glossary (315 KB)
• Appendix B Checklist (624 KB)
• Appendix C Street Furniture Design Concepts (1.83 MB)

Streamlined Multifamily Design Review

In August 2021, the City Council approved a new Streamlined Multifamily Design Review Process. This process allows multifamily housing development projects to receive design review approval in as little as 30 or 60 days. Projects must check for eligibility in the city’s Municipal Code Chapter 23.137 and use the appropriate set of design guidelines or standards below:

• The Multifamily Design Guidelines may be used for multifamily and mixed-use development projects and provide a minimum standard that will assure that new development embodies a high architectural and urban design standard, while simultaneously streamlining the approval process. This checklist may be used to assist as a reference for the design guidelines requirements.
• Chapter 23.707 contains the objective design standards for projects meeting Government Code Section 65913.4 (SB 35 projects), including prevailing wages.

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