We are pleased to share with the membership that a revised set of Citywide Design Guidelines for Sacramento was approved at the June 4th City Council meeting, and will become effective July 5, 2019.
______________________________________________________________________________
In concise terms: As part of a standard intake process, residential projects will be taken in at staff level. If after staff review, they do not comply with the Design Principal (noted below) they will be reviewed as to neighborhood context and suitability of a design response, and a determination as to the acceptability and rational of the design will be made, perhaps with a meeting with the design team. If the determination is made by staff that the project design is in conformance with the Principal it will be reviewed without a determination of a need for a deviation. If the determination is made that it is a deviation from the Principal and the applicant does not want to modify their design, the project will be elevated to Director Hearing, charged the appropriate fee and scheduled for a hearing. In summary, all projects will be treated as compliant until determined otherwise.
Design Principle | Scale & Mass
When designing a new infill home or addition to an existing home, consider its compatibility with the overall scale mass, orientation, setbacks and rhythm of other adjacent homes. New construction, infill or remodel, through sensitive design, shall control its apparent mass and intrusion on privacy relative to impacts on adjacent homes and street-facing facades. The design of an addition should consider compatibility with the scale and mass of the existing residence. In instances where the designer is using a contrast approach and the scale and massing vary from existing structures, the designer must explain the essential design objective that justifies this variation.
______________________________________________________________________________
At the beginning of 2018 these guidelines brought our membership together to work with the City, supporting our membership, to create guidelines that minimally restrict design solutions, and to provide opportunities to have a discussion with the City around creative design. Over 50 members followed or participated in this process, with small teams working on edits to the individual guidelines. Jim Bob Kaufman, AIA spoke on behalf of the Chapter at Planning & Design Review, as well as the City Council meeting. Our sincere appreciation to the City of Sacramento, and especially Urban Design Manager, Bruce Monighan, AIA, for engaging with the Chapter during this process.
Our work on the guidelines, has led to the formation of a new AIA Central Valley Civic Engagement Team (CET), that in part, serves to provide advance review and comment on projects and planning/design issues relevant to our profession and our membership. If you would like to get involved with the CET and advocate for architects, either with the City of Sacramento, or with other jurisdictions in our 17 county Chapter area, please let us know: Contact Brian Sehnert, AIA.