Alhambra Objective Design Standards

After successfully completing a comprehensive General Plan update adopted by the Alhambra City Council in 2019, RRM was retained to develop objective standards for housing development as part of a comprehensive Zoning Code update. These standards will ensure multi-family development is consistent with the community values identified in the General Plan. RRM will prepare standards that comply with State law and focus on multi-family residential projects with the intent to maintain the City’s high quality/cohesive architectural design, reducing project review processing time and promoting higher density residential development. The standards will provide direction on topics such as site planning, building massing and elements, building frontages, entrances, landscaping, and utilitarian/mechanical elements of building design. Extensive public engagement, including workshops/study sessions, stakeholder interviews, and a dedicated project website and digital media, will significantly shape the resulting standards which will be integrated into the updated Zoning Code designed and formatted by RRM, and endorsed by the community and City decision-makers.