CARLSBAD — Redevelopment in Carlsbad Village is a hotly-debated issue between residents who either prefer a small-town beach community and others who support high density structures and multiple-story buildings similar to those along the San Diego skyline.
For years, residents have howled at some of the Village’s new developments. And Councilwoman Melanie Burkholder is raising the issue again.
This time, Burkholder is voicing concerns about objective design standards, which the City Council will soon consider as an amendment to the Village and Barrio Master Plan.
Burkholder brought the issue forward during the council’s Feb. 14 meeting as an informational item but said she didn’t present her case well enough. However, she’s now focused on spreading awareness of the issue and its potential negative impacts.
“The Village is unique and special. We wanted stricter oversight,” Burkholder said about adding objective design standards. “When I brought the item up for discussion, we’re going to have less oversight. It’s opened the floodgates in the very district we don’t want it.”
One of the more pressing concerns for residents and council members over the years is the potential transition to an “Orange County” feel and look.
Plus, a recent slate of new state laws has also thrown the future of the Village and Barrio into doubt. New rules allow for commercial or retail areas to be redeveloped into mixed-use projects without local approval.
Carlsbad Principal Planner Eric Lardy said the standards for “ministerial approval,” bypassing the City Council and Planning Commission, will only come into play for specific projects meeting strict criteria under Senate Bill 35.
Under SB 35, objective design standards would allow developers proposing a mixed-use or multi-family development would not require approval from the council or Planning Commission if the project is not subject to a conditional use permit. In addition, an SB 35 development application must contain two or more units, zoned for residential or mixed-use, and cannot demolish rent-controlled units, among many other requirements.
Also, within the city’s Housing Element, the city is working on approving two design standards — one for the Village and Barrio and the other for the rest of the city, Lardy said.
“The city has the authority to do whatever it wants to do with the specifics of the design standards,” he said. “For a lot of projects, we anticipate the approval process would not change other than they can review these standards. For example, a site development plan going to Planning Commission and City Council would still do that. The difference being there are certain types of projects under state law, if they meet certain qualifications, are required to be ministerial, such as a SB 35 application.”
In 2019, the Carlsbad City Council approved the formation of a resident-led Village and Barrio Design Review Committee to help develop up to five new objective design standards for the Village and Barrio Master Plan — from architecture styles to building materials — to “streamline the approval process for certain kinds of housing projects”… “without involving personal or subjective judgment by public officials or decision-makers.”
Standards include doors, porches, balconies, walkways facing the street and architecture, among others.
The standards were pushed forward in 2021 when the council approved adding an ad-hoc design review board and hiring consultants to gather data from residents about the standards, including architecture palettes.
The committee will hold its fourth meeting in April with a date to be determined.
In addition, the standards do not change existing development standards, such as setbacks, height limits and others, according to Howard Blackson, an urban design and planning director at AVRP Skyport Studios, and Neal Payton, a senior principal at Torti Gallas + Partners.
Under the original Carlsbad Village Master Plan, the council approved permits and variances for the Village, while the Planning Commission had final say in the Barrio and the rest of the city.
But the council recently shifted final approval authority from the Planning Commission for site development plans, conditional use permits, coastal development permits and variances in the Village and Barrio.
“We’re trying to protect ourselves,” Burkholder said. “I also know the temperature of the community, and we don’t want it in the Village. It’s a very polarizing issue, and I can see both sides.”
1 comment
would encourage people to view the video of the Council’s discussion of this item at the Feb 14, 2023 City Council Meeting, beginning at 1:18:34. Councilmember Burkholder’s comments were a model of clarity. She made clear that she believed the adoption of the design standards were an opportunity for her for avoid tough votes on development issues in the Village and Barrio.
In that discussion, Councilmember Burkholder spoke of adopting and working with state requirements to “streamline the permit review process Specifically for new developments.”
Far from raising concerns regarding the design standards currently under development, Councilmember Burkholder stated that “with those [design standards] in place there is really less of a need for council to be involved in the review of private development projects in the Village and Barrio.”
Councilmember Burkholder’s goal was to take herself and the remainder of the council out of the review process in order “to streamline the process and the decision-making authority. . . from the City Council back to the planning commission.” Councilmember Burkholder’s statements at the Council meeting cannot be squared with the statements in this article.
This item will come up before the council again and I encourage my neighbors to pay very close attention.
I would also encourage Mr. Puterski and the Coast News to report, rather than functioning as a mouthpiece for the council member.
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