Opening Doors to New, Context-Sensitive Development

Recent California state legislation (eg., SB 35, SB 330 and the Housing Accountability Act) stipulates that in certain situations, projects that qualify for streamlined review and processing must be designed and reviewed only through objective design standards. Marin County retained Opticos Design in 2019 to develop Objective Design and Development Standards (ODDS) for multifamily and mixed-use residential development in coordination with 11 separate jurisdictions within the County, the largest objective design standards application to date.

Building Types in Zoning, Part 2: Where?

As established in Part 1 of this series, we understand why it’s important to use building types. Now, let’s get into the next question: where? This post focuses on where building types are most effective, where they could be helpful but aren’t necessary, and where they are not necessary and should not be used.

The End of Single-Family Zoning

Your City/State Just Enabled Multiple Units on Every Lot. Here are Six Tips for Successful Implementation.

How to Get By-Right Zoning Right

In November of 2016, Opticos Principal Karen Parolek keenly identified that ‘by-right zoning’ was getting lots of buzz as a tool to help with California’s housing crisis: We need 180,000 dwellings each year by 2025 to keep up with demand.

Building Types in Zoning, Part 1: Why?

Building types are a key component of the physical environment and have existed for millennia in all types of walkable places: from crossroads and small towns to every size of city. Building types and the public realm have made all of these places.   But despite their existence before zoning, building types were left aside when zoning focused on the separation of uses while relegating physical form and character to a non-essential role. The physical realities and qualities of walkable places that existed long before zoning were now viewed through the lens of use, density and Floor Area Ratio (FAR): a lens that is not capable of recognizing physical form and character.