New zoning rules were among Solvang’s first enacted policies of 2025. The multi-layered ordinance includes a revised application route—in effect as of Jan. 8—with clear objective standards for developers to draw from that weren’t previously codified.
Staff designed the new policy to provide project applicants with a strong starting point and allow proposals to bypass scrutiny based on subjective grounds if they meet objective city criteria, in accordance with current case law.
The ordinance was the subject of multiple hearings held in the spring and summer of 2024, before the Solvang City Council, Planning Commission, and Design Review Committee (DRC).
During the latter group’s final meeting of December 2024, Solvang resident Dennis Beebe voiced a rumor about the initiative that Planning and Building Manager Rafael Castillo aimed to dispel by the end of the hearing.
“I will join those who will resist any attempts to terminate the DRC or to sideline them,” Beebe said during public comment at the DRC’s Dec. 19 meeting. “Committee members, thank you for your continued service to the committee. … I think you’re a valuable check and balance for the community, and you are partly responsible for what we have here in Solvang.”
Castillo addressed Beebe’s comment directly and argued that DRC supervision is integral to the newly codified application route, described as both consistent with current case law and the Solvang City Council’s ongoing goal to streamline the entitlement and building process for businesses and residents seeking to improve their properties.
“That is not city staff’s intention—to disband the DRC,” Castillo said. “As a matter of fact, the DRC will be utilized as a vehicle to … help interpret these objective standards that have just been approved.”
Castillo explained that the new application route was designed to help speed projects along once they meet certain requirements or prepare applicants to present their case in front of the DRC if they’re seeking an exemption from one or more of the city’s design standards.
The new policy also requires the DRC to oversee designs related to developments outside of Solvang’s Village district, which has been the status quo but not formally recognized, Castillo said.
“We basically modified [the code] to basically say that the DRC actually needs to see [all of] this versus it just being for the Village, because the city of Solvang is not just the Village,” Castillo said. “It’s other locations within the city and our previous code didn’t recognize that so the new code does.”
In November 2024, Castillo spearheaded a similar initiative to streamline projects under the DRC’s purview that focused on shortening the timeline for businesses to obtain signage permits. The Solvang City Council directed staff to schedule a public workshop in the spring of 2025 to hear feedback from business owners and residents on Solvang’s signage standards.
This article appears in Jan 9-19, 2025.