8.05.26: Design Review Committee Meeting

The City of Ventura Design Review Committee held a meeting on August 6, 2026, focused on reviewing and discussing draft Objective Design Standards (ODS) for multifamily, mixed-use, and commercial developments. The committee and city staff, including architects and landscape architects, presented the ODS framework, which includes a point-based scorecard system for building design standards and mandatory site and landscape design standards. Key procurement-related discussions involved the integration of these standards into the zoning code, the potential impact of state density bonus laws on waivers and concessions, and the balance between flexibility and quality in design requirements. Public and committee members provided extensive feedback on topics such as plant palettes emphasizing California natives, building height and massing limits, architectural style flexibility, and the ministerial approval process. The committee passed a motion recommending the ODS be forwarded to the city council with suggestions to incorporate citations, define quality, refine the point system, clarify interactions with existing form-based codes, and improve specificity in standards. Future meetings with the planning commission and city council were scheduled to continue refining the standards.