Palo Alto’s objective standards translate the City’s long-time design guidelines into objective regulations. This shift from subjective to objective allows the City to build on established and desired community values. The standards include both measurable dimensioned standards as well as a menu of options for architects and applicants to choose from to support design variety and innovation. Palo Alto did not just add a layer of new regulation, they matched compliance with objective standards with streamlined project review. Projects that are compliant with the objective design standards are only required to hold one study session with the architectural review board prior to staff-level approval.

Partner: Raimi & Associates