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San Ramon City Council Adopts Objective Design and Development Standards
Posted on 11/21/2024

At the November 12, 2024 City Council meeting, the City Council adopted Objective Design and Development Standards for the Review of Qualifying Multi-Family and Residential Mixed-Use Developments (ODDS).

Objective standards allow applicants to know what City design and development criteria apply to their project before they begin their design.

Why does the City need to adopt the ODDS?

In 2023, the City approved the Housing Element and the General Plan (GP 2040) Update, which included updates to various policy documents and standards. Housing Element Implementing Policy 11.5.2-7 identifies that San Ramon should establish objective standards—which apply to areas such as design, mass, and scale—for housing to be compatible with the character of the surrounding neighborhood.

What is the ODDS?

To address the housing shortage, State legislation (including Senate Bills (SB) 35, SB 330, SB 9, and the Housing Accountability Act) requires residential projects to be reviewed only against objective design and development standards. According to the California Government Code, objective development standards “involve no personal or subjective judgment by a public official and are uniformly verifiable by reference to an external and uniform benchmark or criterion available and knowable” by development applicants and public officials before submittal of a project application.

In other words, objective standards allow applicants to know the requirements that will apply to a proposed project so that they can design a project that meets those standards. These objective development standards can therefore make outcomes more predictable for all stakeholders, including decision making bodies, City staff, applicants, and members of the public.

The standards in the ODDS will dictate the form and style of development using specific, objective standards for circulation, access, parking, building form, massing, and architectural form.  Standards that are easy to understand and effective will make developing high-quality affordable and market-rate housing more transparent for existing and future residents of San Ramon. The standards in the ODDS will work as a baseline, creating Citywide standards that apply to all multi-family and mixed-use residential projects. The standards in the ODDS will work in tandem with other City standards such as the Zoning Ordinance and Subdivision Ordinance already in place.

What does the ODDS applicability to projects?

The ODDS will apply to all new qualifying residential and mixed-use development projects, specifically where State law limits the City’s enforcement of design standards to objective standards only, or where the City code requires a ministerial approval process.

If a project’s design does not conform with the City’s ODDS, the project would be subject to a discretionary Architectural Review process. The review authority may restrict or deny a proposed residential Architectural Review application if it determines that the design is not consistent with the City’s ODDS.

> View Objective Design and Development Standards

Questions?
Please email PlanningPublic@sanramon.ca.gov or call 925-973-2560.