Objective Design Standards
Applying Objective Design Standards to Historic Houses and Districts
Page&TurnbullPrincipalChristinaDikasandCulturalResourcesStudioDirectorStacy KozakavichexplainhowcitiescanstreamlineHousingElementplanningapprovalsfor historic houses and residential historic districts.
WHY SHOULD A CITY STREAMLINE THE APPROVALS PROCESS FOR HOUSES THAT ARE HISTORIC OR LOCATED IN HISTORIC DISTRICTS?
California laws have mandated that cities increase their housing production to address California’s housing crisis. A key tool for streamlining approvals has been the adoption of objective design standards (ODS), which removes subjective interpretation that may arise in conventional discretionary approvals. Objective design standards make project approvals more straightforward, and can remove a potential obstacle to renovating an existing building or adding extra units to a property.
Cities are grappling with how to implement their Housing Elements, and historic houses and residential historic districts typically go through additional scrutiny because of their architectural and/or cultural importance. Providing objective design standards for historic houses and districts streamlines that additional planning approval process. Well-prepared objective design standards can guide projects to comply with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties, protecting the historic significance of the properties and neighborhoods while also meeting the requirements of state housing legislation and cities’ needs for more efficient processes.
Providing objective design standards for historic houses and districts streamlines planning approval.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS AND DRAWBACKS OF A CHECKLIST APPROACH FOR OBJECTIVE DESIGN STANDARD APPROVALS FOR HISTORIC HOUSES AND RESIDENTIAL HISTORIC DISTRICTS?
Page & Turnbull recently assisted the City of Fremont, California, with developing an ODS checklist process for projects associated
with historic houses. The checklists give homeowners a straightforward process to follow which can speed up the application and approval process for alterations, additions, and new residential construction on historic residential properties.
The benefits of adopting a checklist approach to ODSs for historic house review are:
• Delivering standardized, clearly stated requirements
• Streamlining approvals to save time
• Creating a user-friendly approval process
• Reducing costs for the city and applicant. A city’s cost to develop these checklists is less than to develop or commission traditional graphic-heavy design guidelines or standards
• Providing a tool for applicants and their designers to use to guide the project design and to apply for the permit
• Supplementing existing design review tools and processes used by preservation commissions and planning departments by outlining clear requirements that can be reviewed at the administrative level.
It is important to remember that a checklist approach to ODSs for historic house review:
• May not apply to every project scenario proposed for a historic house or residential historic district. In some cases a discretionary process should still be applied.
• There may be resistance to changing the approach to design review by historic review board members or the public. Historic property design review typically has allowed for interpretation, and ODS are by nature more rigid.
Clear design standards are efficient. They help preserve historic properties, comply with the Secretary’s Standards, and meet housing laws.
HOW COULD THIS APPROACH BE APPLIED TO OTHER BUILDINGS CURRENTLY SUBJECT TO HISTORIC PRESERVATION DESIGN REVIEW? Cities can adopt ODS checklists for other kinds of historic property design review and realize similar benefits. Our work has focused on ODS checklists for historic houses and residential historic districts, but the tools can be readily developed for other building types that undergo historic property design review. These ODS checklists lower costs for cities and project applicants alike, and their adoption can enhance a city’s image as more user-friendly to the community it serves.
BOTTOM LINE.
Objective design standards for historic properties are a powerful tool for meeting the requirements of cities’ Housing Elements, and can be implemented across your historic review approvals.
For more information, email Christina Dikas.
3 QUESTIONS WITH PAGE & TURNBULL examines historic preservation and planning asagentsforreusingandconservingexisting and historic buildings and places to improve society, the economy, and the environment.