On July 27, Solvang announced it was beginning the recruitment process for the new Branding & Design Committee, which is replacing the Solvang Board of Architectural Review (BAR).
The committee of five’s first task will be to create design guidelines for the long-term Copenhagen Drive Street closure, City Manager Xenia Bradford told the Sun. The city also opened up a request for proposals on its general plan update, which Bradford said the committee will also have a hand in.
Recruitment for the Branding & Design Committee expands to applicants throughout the Santa Ynez Valley. The other change, she said, is the specific requirements for committee seats. The committee will be made up of three professional members with backgrounds in architecture, design, architectural history, urban design, and/or Danish culture. The remaining two members, Bradford said, can have some experience related to those fields but the seats are for general participation.
In January, the City Council discussed its issues with the BAR, saying the city’s municipal code had been inconsistent, the city’s design guidelines hadn’t been updated since 1988, that the BAR hadn’t been addressed since it was established in 1993, and the committee’s review requirements weren’t consistently followed. Those inconsistencies within the city’s architectural review process led the City Council to end the BAR and create the new committee.
Qualified applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible as the priority filing deadline is slated for Aug. 17. The City Council will review and appoint members for terms that end on Dec. 31 of each year. If the city doesn’t receive the required number of qualified applicants or if the City Council opts to extend the deadline to seek additional candidates, a new filing deadline will be publicly posted.
Branding & Design Committee meetings will be held on the second Thursday of each month starting at 6 p.m. Members will be compensated $100 per meeting.
This article appears in Aug 6-13, 2020.