Arcadia Design Guidelines & Objective Design Standards

in recent years, the members of the Arcadia community have expressed concern about the mass and bulk of new development and the perceived lack of architectural sensitivity in relation to the surrounding neighborhood context. This, coupled with aging guidelines, a newly adopted Development Code and contracted design review services, and five HOAs each with ARBs purview to review new residential construction, additions/remodels, provided an opportunity to pause, gather an updated understanding of community and City goals, revise the existing guidelines, and develop a design review process that bridges the gap between HOA, City, and community understanding and authority. RRM Design Group was selected to respond to this challenge and developed Citywide Design Guidelines developed to promote the highest level of design quality while at the same time providing the flexibility necessary to encourage creativity on the part of an applicant in response to existing site conditions. The Design Guidelines contain objective standards that direct users to desired design strategies for development or redevelopment of their property.