City Shifts Design Review Authority

Ventura's decadeslong debate over how much scrutiny new buildings deserve reached a turning point last month when the City Council voted to dissolve the Design Review Committee — a panel of architects and urban designers whose advisory role in the permitting process had, critics argued, become a bottleneck blocking the housing the city desperately needs.

A 4-3 Split That Reshapes Development Review

The Ventura City Council voted 4-3 on June 9 to eliminate the Design Review Committee (DRC), according to the Ojai Valley News and the Ventura Breeze. Council members Bill McReynolds, who made the motion, Jim Duran, who seconded it, Doug Halter, and Jeannette Sanchez-Palacios voted in favor. Council members Liz Campos, Ryyn Schumacher, and Alex Mangone voted no.

The DRC was composed of design professionals — architects, landscape architects, urban designers, and a representative from the development community — who evaluated the appearance and aesthetic quality of proposed projects. Critically, its role was strictly advisory: it did not make final decisions, and it played no part in land-use policy, zoning, traffic, parking, or historic preservation. Despite that limited mandate, officials said the committee's reviews were adding time and cost to an already strained permitting pipeline.

"The DRC and HPC [Historic Preservation Commission] don't make any final decisions," Community Development Director Rachel Dimond told the council, noting the practical weight of those extra meetings.

Why Now: Grand Jury Pressure and a Housing Shortfall

The council's action didn't emerge in a vacuum. A Ventura County Grand Jury report issued in June 2024 found that both Oxnard and Ventura were taking too long to review and approve permits for development projects, including housing. That report found that projects ultimately wound up before either a director's hearing or the Planning Commission anyway, raising questions about the need for earlier committee reviews, according to the Ojai Valley News.

"The grand jury recommended this, among other things, to streamline the development review process, to create more certainty to applicants and to make it more affordable to build projects in the city and the county," Dimond said.

She also pointed to Ventura's mounting Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) obligations. "We are a lot behind, we are not even close to achieving our RHNA numbers this cycle," Dimond said, estimating the total number of required new units at roughly 5,000. The consequences of continued noncompliance are significant: if Ventura fails to meet its housing targets for the current cycle, the city could be required to ministerially approve any project with 20% or more affordable housing on site — removing substantial local discretion from the process entirely.

Under California Senate Bill 330, a city generally cannot hold more than five public hearings on a housing project after an application is deemed complete. With the DRC, the Historic Preservation Committee, additional follow-up reviews, a director's hearing, and a potential appeal, that ceiling was becoming dangerously easy to hit.

What Changes — and What Doesn't

For residents wondering what this means on the ground, the short answer is: design review isn't going away, but it's changing hands and changing form.

In the interim period before new standards are finalized, design review responsibilities will be administered directly by the Planning Director or the Planning Commission, the Ventura Breeze reported. The Planning Commission already handles zoning, land-use policy, and discretionary project approvals, and supporters of the DRC elimination argue consolidating review there removes a redundant step.

Longer term, the city is developing an Objective Design Review Standards checklist — a set of clear, measurable criteria that staff can apply without convening an advisory committee. A draft prepared by the city's consultants was submitted for staff review, with a public release planned for July, public workshops scheduled for August and September, and a working group that includes architects and two current DRC members set to weigh in, according to the Ojai Valley News. City Council workshops will determine the final adoption timeline, with Community Development Director Dimond estimating formal adoption is likely in early 2027.

Supporters of the vote, including Councilmember Duran, argued that design quality and public input are preserved through other channels. "What I heard tonight gave me confidence that eliminating these committees does not mean eliminating oversight, public input, historic preservation or quality design," Duran said. "Those protections still exist through staff, objective standards, public hearings, appeals and the Planning Commission."

Critics: Who Loses When Design Professionals Step Back?

The three dissenting council members and a majority of public speakers at the June 9 hearing urged the council to retain the DRC, the VC Reporter reported. Councilmember Campos, who voted to keep the DRC, questioned whether folding design review into the Planning Commission would dilute the quality and speed of both functions.

"Once we have those objective design standards, we will still need someone to guide that process," Campos said. "Putting that into the Planning Commission will take away then the timeliness or the ability of the Planning Commission to look more broadly at the zoning and what's going on in the community."

Ventura Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Stephanie Caldwell offered the pro-elimination perspective at the same meeting. "Our system is slow, unpredictable, duplicative and out of alignment with modern planning practices," she said, calling the DRC and the Historic Preservation Committee barriers that had added "layers of subjective review, inconsistent standards and often delays."

The debate over the DRC's dissolution has also been playing out alongside growing community tension over individual projects. A late-June demonstration in Saticoy drew more than two dozen protesters against a proposed 49-unit apartment complex near Wells and Darling roads that would also include a gas station and drive-through restaurants — a project the Planning Commission had unanimously recommended denying in January 2025 over concerns it was too "auto-centric."

What Comes Next for Ventura Residents

For homeowners, neighborhood groups, and developers navigating Ventura's permitting landscape, the most immediate change is that applications requiring design review will now go before the Planning Director or Planning Commission rather than the DRC. That shift is already in effect.

The bigger structural change — the Objective Design Review Standards checklist — remains in progress. The city plans to release the draft to the public in July, hold community workshops in August and September, and move toward City Council adoption in early 2027. Once those standards are in place, qualifying projects could be processed at the staff level without committee review at all, potentially cutting weeks or months from approval timelines.

Residents and developers who want to track the process or weigh in on the new standards can contact the City of Ventura's Community Development Department at City Hall, 501 Poli Street. Agendas and meeting materials are available at the city's Agenda Center.