Architectural Design Standards

At a glance

Based on auto-generated captions; names and details may be misheard.

What: whether to remove the architectural standards written into each zoning district and rely on the design review process instead.
Where it stands: discussed for about 14 minutes on 2026-10-13 with no vote. Commissioners asked for more detail before choosing a path.
Next: staff will try to bring the zoning administrator or a design review representative to explain the standards in a future meeting.

Keep high-level design review in the downtown core, possibly expanding it across the urban center districts and shrinking the current area, which reaches National Life.
Add a second tier of design review for projects over six housing units and for larger commercial projects, replacing the district architectural standards.
Design review already has an administrative track that returns to the zoning administrator rather than the development review board.
Staff believe this helps the Tier 1A application, and a state historic preservation contact reviewed the city's design review rules favorably.
The architectural standards today apply only to major site plans, which are few after the threshold was raised.

Whether design review should cover the whole city or only the planned growth area; land outside it (for example Route 302) would otherwise have no design standards.
A commissioner worried that standards differ by location, such as pedestrian-oriented frontage in Mixed-Use Residential 2 versus parking lots on Route 302, and wanted to avoid a big-box store with a large front parking lot in a walkable area.
Design review is an overlay and does not change by zoning district.
Staff said any deletion could be reversed because the draft is a Word document.

About 14 minutes across 1 meeting (from transcript timestamps; approximate).

Meeting	Minutes
2026-10-13 - Planning Commission	14

2026-10-13 - Planning Commission — staff proposed replacing architectural standards with a tiered design review; no vote; commissioners asked for a briefing from design review staff.
2026-09-28 - Planning Commission — motion to eliminate the standards and neighborhood descriptions in favor of design review for projects over six units failed 3-3; section 2 assigned as homework.

Agenda item 6: staff and chair report on potential Design Review District overlay changes proposed by the Planning Commission.