REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Direction to Prepare an Amendment to the Zoning Code, SCCC Chapter 18.76 Architectural Review
Report
BACKGROUND
Chapter 18.76 of the Santa Clara City Code (SCCC) establishes an architectural review procedure whereby the Santa Clara Architectural Committee (AC) acts as the review body for specified new land use development projects not otherwise subject to Planning Commission or City Council review or other proceedings established within the City Code. Projects typically considered by the AC include additions to single-family residences and new construction within commercial and industrial districts. The City Code currently provides that the AC be composed of one member appointed by the City Council and two members of the Planning Commission appointed by the Chair of the Commission. In recent years the City Council has appointed a member of the Council to serve on the AC along with the two Planning Commissioners.
AC meetings are conducted one or more times monthly, typically on a Wednesday evening when the Planning Commission is not meeting. The AC meetings are noticed as public hearings but conducted in an informal setting with AC members, staff and the applicant seated around a table where they discuss the project design prior to the AC members' vote on approval, approval with conditions, deferment for redesign, or denial of the project. Members of the public may participate in the discussion. Per the City Code, decisions made by the AC may be appealed by any member of the public to the Planning Commission. The Planning Commission's decision on the appeal is in all cases appealable to the City Council.
On May 8, 2001, the City Council adopted voting procedures and guidelines for the AC, which provided that the AC could only take action with a quorum of two members present (Attachment 1). The adopted procedures did not specify that the two members making up the quorum must include a Councilmember, but sometime around...
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