Solvang seeks input on design standards amid housing mandates

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Maintaining the look and feel of a quaint fairy tale village without clashing with state housing directives is among the goals leading Solvang officials down a regulations rabbit hole.

The Solvang Planning Commission and Design Review Committee (DRC) are inviting the public to provide input or seek clarity on the topic at a joint workshop on objective design standards, scheduled for March 13, at 6 p.m., at Solvang City Hall.

During the Planning Commission’s March 3 meeting, Planning Commissioner Aaron Petersen summarized some aspects of the issue and the city’s housing element in general, partly to help newly appointed commissioners Brandon Sparks-Gillis and William Zigler get up to speed.

While some housing projects proposed for areas outside of Solvang’s downtown area are awaiting environmental reviews and public hearings, city staff is currently looking into new policies for the City Council to consider that would encourage developers to pitch mixed-use projects downtown—to help the city meet its regional housing needs allocation requirements, but without altering downtown Solvang’s Danish village aesthetic.

“We do want mixed-use because it helps it with our [regional housing needs] numbers, and it really does help the town become a ‘village,’” Petersen said at the March 3 meeting. “[That’s] what we’re after. … That’s one of the things this workshop will look at.”

Under some circumstances, thanks to state mandates, housing projects in Solvang can bypass design rules set by the DRC. But when downtown housing is limited to mixed-use (half commercial, half housing) developments, those projects have a chance of staying within the DRC’s purview—one approach staff will discuss and present to the public at the March 13 workshop.

“We’re at a crossroads with how do we handle it. … We’ve been dealing with this for quite a while,” Petersen said. “There are a lot of things the state is basically foisting upon us. … Between DRC, planning, and staff, [we’re] trying to walk a line. … And it’s a fine line.”

Among current housing proposals in the environmental review stage, one project that came up during the Planning Commission’s March 3 meeting was the 100-unit Wildwood development at the intersection of Alamo Pintado and Old Mission Drive—a Builder’s Remedy Project, which falls under a state law that allows developers to bypass some local standards. 

But it’s not exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), as some recent rumors have falsely suggested, Solvang’s Planning and Building Manager Rafael Castillo said at the March 3 meeting.

“While they can bypass a lot of our local zoning regs, which they have, and that is within their right, they cannot bypass the CEQA process. And that’s what we’re doing now,” said Castillo, who added that the Wildwood project’s first environmental review “kickoff” meeting occurred earlier that day.

“We are beginning to move forward. We’re going to solidify a schedule. Once the schedule is solidified, we’ll push that out to the public,” Castillo said. “This very much still is a public process.”

This article appears in Mar 6-16, 2025.