Guiding the future of the Architecture in our Village

Status: This Steering Committee public work went on pause, tied to the elevation in roles of the Planning Director to Assistant City Administrator at year end 2023.  This Steering Committee work on the Design Traditions project is expected to reconvene in late 2025 to work on optimal photo's that best represent best and unacceptable characteristics called out in the working draft of this project etc. 

January 22 2025 - Carmel Public Library Foundations - Program on Village Architecture
Timeless Treasures: Honoring Cultural Heritage Through Architectural Preservation with Kent Seavey and Seth Bergstein

HERE is the link to the video recording of this great session that reviews our Village historic architecture, as aligns with the content covered in the Historic Context Statement (Appendix of our General Plan - PDF) HERE. 

December 4 2024 - Design Traditions Steering Committee 

HERE is the YouTube from this committee's ongoing work as Nov 21st

November 21 2024 - Design Traditions Steering Committee Reconvenes 

HERE is the YouTube from this committee's ongoing work on the photo's/images in the draft Design Guidelines. 

October 21 2024 - Historic/Architectural Context Statement review

Historic Context Statement Update 100% Draft- reviewed at this Historic Review Board session
HERE is the Staff Report from this session. 
HERE is the YouTube from this session. 
For those who are unfamiliar - this document, as finalized, is a part of our General Plan and Municipal Code that covers village history with a focus on the architects and the architectural changes that have evolved over the decades. This document provides a framework to understand the significance of the built resources and the level of integrity needed to qualify as historic. 

Steering Committee Meeting - Nov 17 2023

Agenda for this meeting is HERE.  YouTube for this meeting is HERE.  We reviewed and updated the list of working Guideline open topics, appendix and supplemental items. Brandon's updated timeline targets a revised core document draft in January, when he plans for broader community and Committee input. The full completion (est. Summer 2024) project deliverables will also include Municipal Guidelines, draft Zoning Codes, Process, Check Lists, Recommended Materials and others. 

Steering Committee Meeting - Oct 26 2023

Agenda for this meeting is HERE.  YouTube for this meeting is HERE. Primary topic is to review images needed that support current draft Guidelines - for Residential areas.

Steering Committee Meeting - Oct 5 2023

Agenda for this meeting is HERE.  YouTube for this meeting is HERE.  Primary topic is to review images that support current draft Guidelines - starting with Commercial.

      Steering Committee Meeting  - Sept 6 2023

Agenda for this meeting is HERE.  YouTube for this meeting is HERE.  Ongoing refinements on May 2023 draft Guidelines, that can be found HERE. 

Strategic Priorities half yearly review - Aug 30 2023

View this YouTube at time stamp 22 minutes to 37 minutes. Recognized as a Strategic Prioritiy.  As this was presented as a combined Design Traditions and Design Review Board - Council asked for clarification on if both of these were targeted for December Draft reviews.

Also see the Aug CRA Survey Results - beginning on page 5 for Membership feedback on this topic.

Committee Meeting - Aug 11 2023

Primary topic was to review section labels of the February Draft for Steering Committee feedback on if each topic should remain in the new condensed version of the Guidelines that this team has been crafting.  The meeting agenda document is HERE. The YouTube Video is HERE. The chapter/outline/topic document is HERE.  

Steering Committee Meeting - July 14 2023

Primary topic covered was the Bulk Plane (maximum structure size or buildable envelope) that was very interesting - the slides are HERE. Brandon is going to prepare a timeline, next steps project plan for the next Steering Committee meeting.  The meeting YouTube Video is HERE.  The agenda document is HERE.  

Regular City Council Meeting - June 6 2023 

Design Review Board possible reinstatement was covered for Council's input on roles, policy and Board member criteria - pre-meeting Staff report HERE.  
Results: HERE are the Slides, HERE is the YouTube - begin at the 1:26 minute mark. Public support for moving ahead; augmented by Council guidance leaning to the Monterey model presented with next steps.

Design Traditions project status and timeline updated was covered to Council's directions and public comment - pre-meeting Staff report is HERE.  
Results: HERE are the Slides, HERE is the YouTube - begin at the 2:20 minute mark. Significant public support for ongoing support of this expanded project.  Council expressed concerns and stressed completion by the new estimated timeline with elevated leadership by Planning Director.

Steering Committee Meeting - May 26

This meeting YouTube link is HERE. The agenda with working documents is HERE.  Review of abbreviated Design Guidelines continued striving for consensus. The current drafts are:
   May 23, 2023 DRAFT Residential Design Guidelines
   May 23, 2023 DRAFT Commercial Design Guidelines
The work in progress of this committee will be provided as an update to the City Council for their guidance at the upcoming Regular Meeting June 6th.

Steering Committee Meeting - May 11 

The agenda with working documents is HERE. Two YouTube Recordings #1 is HERE  #2 is HERE. Review of abbreviated Design Guidelines continued striving for consensus.

Steering Committee Meeting - May 3

This meeting YouTube link is HERE. The agenda with working documents is HERE.  Review of abbreviated Design Guidelines continued striving for consensus.

City Council Meeting - April 4

At the 2:09 time stamp of this YouTube, begins the topic of policy considerations for an architectural Design Review Board (DRB). Here is the City Staff report and supporting documents and history (when we have had a DRB in the past) presented by Planning Director Brandon Swanson. The Design Traditions Committee recommended that this topic be continued to a future date - as their Committee has not invested meeting/working time of this DRB implementation. Council comments supported moving ahead, returning the focus of Planning Commission to planning and strategic topics (e.g. monitoring the RHNA efforts, Climate Plans and General Plan Updates plus) versus the current oversight of building design. The concluding request to staff is to return to future Council with summary of the City of Monterey and former Carmel DRB models for discussion and final guidance. 

Steering Committee Meeting - March 31  

YouTube is not available. Here is the staff agenda that includes links to the current "working documents" undergoing comments/markup.  The first portion of this meeting was an open discussion on how the condensed working documents will be incorporated into the large public workshop anticipated before the end of April.  And then this session continued the review of the condensed version of the Commercial adapted documents first shared March 3.   

Steering Committee Meeting - March 22

YouTube Video of this session is here. This session opened with 1 hour open public comments on architectural styles, then continued the comments on the condensed versions of the Residential and then began comments on the condensed Commercial adapted documents from March 3. The upcoming large public input workshop date is targeting mid April, date/time expected soon.

Steering Committee Meeting - March 9

YouTube video of this session is here.  This session continued the review of the condensed version of the Residential adapted documents from March 3.

Steering Committee Meeting - March 3

YouTube video of this session is here.  This session began the review of the condensed version of the Residential adapted documents.

Steering Committee Meeting - March 1 

YouTube Video of this session is here. Focus is to review new and pre-submitted comments on the first draft guidelines.  This included resident David ONeil's prepared feedback along with others from the public. Then each Committee Member discussed their feedback as well. Steering Committee members Don Goodhue and Doug Schmitz have focused feedback on the Commercial Guidelines drafts, while Melanie Billig and Victoria Beech have focused their input on the Residential Guideline drafts.  

DESIGN GUIDELINES - Drafts Published, ready for public comments & review - Feb 9

Readers Guide - START HERE
Downtown Design Guidelines - first draft
Residential Design Guidelines - first draft

Feedback and Review Next  Steps

Steering Committee Meeting - Feb 8

Youtube Video from this session is available here, that continued the agenda items set for Jan 26th, yes, again! 

Steering Committee Meeting - Feb 6

Youtube Video from this session is available here, that continued the agenda items set for Jan 26th. Covering upcoming Design Guidelines on Accessibility (making sure the drafts reflect optimal use & flow). 

Steering Committee Meeting - Jan 26

Primary topic for this session is the Landscape Ordinance - refresh/inclusion.  The meeting notice and agenda is available here. The YouTube Video from this session is available here.

Steering Committee Meeting - Dec 20

This session primarily was to educate the Committee and public on the consideration of using a "Block Plane" (or "buildable envelope") approach to the allowed size and shape of buildings in our Village.  Here is the YouTube Video from this session. Here is the meeting notice for this session.  

Steering Committee Meeting - Dec 7th

The City Agenda Details are available here. Nore Winter will be reviewing the current outline here, for comment, reflecting the structure of the upcoming draft of the Design Guidelines.  This included a presentation from the Carmel Preservation Association, the slides are here and here is a supplemental document on roof lines. Here is the YouTube from this session. 
Prior to this Dec 7th Meeting, the Steering Committee has requested the City Council provide input on the Committee expand timeline and scope (staff report HERE) (Items included: Landscape Ordinance, consideration of new RHNA Housing, added Nore Winter deliverables and possibly Downtown Master Plan) 

Steering Committee - Nov 18

     This session explored the possible alignment points of a new updated ADU Ordinance, the Housing Element Ad Hoc Committee effort and this Design Guidelines/Zoning work. The concluding direction was that these parallel projects can and should be mutually aware but separate. For example, targeting Commercial Design Guidelines, the focus is on the street level experience, that would not likely change where higher housing density is proposed.

 Note:  Nore Winter will be sharing the anticipated outline for the Design Guidelines next week.  He is also finalizing the quantitative inputs from the workbooks in the last Public Workshop, targeting sharing this publicly in the next 2 weeks.  He will following up with key findings from the qualitative comments as well.

     Added focus of this session was on the topic priorities, with agreement that a deeper dive into the Landscaping Ordinance item is therefore targeted for the next Committee meeting. The timeline for this Guidelines project is now anticipated to run through the first half of 2023.  This Committee has a webpage with background and relevant documents here , check frequently for new items over time. The Agenda for today's session is here and steeringcommittee.univer.se Youtube video is here.

City Council Nov 1 & Steering Committee - Nov 3

     At Tuesday's City Council, Brandon summarized for Council the Strategy Paper and community feedback, then open again for public comments.  At the Steering Committee meeting Nov 3, the team went through the comments received from City Council and Planning Commission comments and added public comments for the drafts of Guidelines.  The critical need for capturing all inputs for consideration was raised.  Also a listing of future topics identified and prioritized.  The Agenda for the Steering Committee meeting is here and YouTube is here. 

Planning Commission - Oct. 12 

    This meeting covered the big topics of: community feedback for revised 5th & Dolores Project (aka The Pit and Ulrika Plaza), an update on Design Traditions, Short Term Rentals draft ordinance recommendations, and Historic Context Statement.  Here is the link to this complete meeting packet.  Here is the link to the Ulrika project staff report.  Here is the link to the Historic Context Statement, that documents architecture over the decades in our Village.  And the best information on the Design Traditions Update is included in the next topic on this page.  All of these and other items received comments from the commission and the public, with directions provided and decisions approved for next steps as appropriate. 

Community Workshop - Oct. 3

    This session summarized the major project findings and new table exercises to gather a new round of feedback.  Here is the Strategy Paper DRAFT. Here are the Slides from the Workshop with timelines, exercises and more. Here is the workshop handbook/homework document for your markup and delivery to City Hall by October 10th.  This handbook includes lots of area pictures of homes for public comments. Here is the YouTube as well. 

Updates as of 9/1/2022

 The Design Traditions Steering Committee has been gathering since the project inception in the spring. The Committee meetings were open to the public. The September 1 Steering Committee packet and agenda information is available Here.   This Committee work is to prepare for the broader public session set for the October 3rd.  

Updates as of 8/5/2022

    City team created a survey in mid July open to the public for their feedback (closed Aug 2), that will add to the inputs received from the public June Workshops covering Commercial and Residential architecture.  Next steps, the City will present their consolidated findings under the planned name of "Project Directions" October 3rd. 

Read on for this page original content and key links to relevant materials. 

Carmel-by-the-Sea attracts visitors, future residents and residents with its natural beauty, its forest, its beach, its culture, its arts, its businesses (food, wine, retail..), and its architecture.   All of these, and more, require our care as they need upkeep, investments, engagement and preservation by all of us for future generations to enjoy.   

As covered in CRA's Voice and News You Can Use newsletters and explicit in our CRA Mission, we hope you too will express your views in the future of new and updated architecture in our Village.  Our Carmel City Planning is leading the efforts to update our Commercial and Residential Design Guidelines, along with supporting code/ordinances in this year long effort.   

Here are the existing (dated) Design Guidelines on the Carmel-by-the-Sea City website.

Here is the YouTube of the March 2022 CRA Program hosting our Director of Planning, Brandon Swanson updating our community on this upcoming project and various related State and County regulations tied to Architecture.   Here is the PDF of Brandon's presentation from this program.  

Here is the recently updated Historic Context Statement, that includes building & architecture over the decades. 

First Round of the Design Traditions Workshops - co-hosted by City Planning Staff and WinterAndCompany 

And please visit the Carmel Preservation organization web page for more on their efforts and how to participate https://carmelpreservation.com/