City Development Documents

Applications and Guides

To access various City development applications, guides, and fee schedules, please click the link below:

California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)

Community Plan (General Plan)

The City’s Community Plan, also known as a General Plan, is its constitution for development. It is comprised of multiple elements that provide a comprehensive slate of citywide, and location-based, policies for growth and development. You can access a complete PDF of the Community Plan and all of its elements or view them individually by clicking the links below:

Design Review

The City’s Design Review process was created to achieve and protect a residential, seaside community which is both beautiful and pleasant in character, by fostering and encouraging good design which encompasses the use of harmonious materials and colors, compatible proportional relationships and appropriate use of landscaping. To learn more about design review criteria, requirements, and guidelines, please click the links below:

FEMA

As part of the California Coastal Analysis and Mapping Project (CCAMP), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) completed a study of coastal flood hazards and released a preliminary Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) reflecting the results. FIRM maps are used to manage areas subject to flooding and show a community’s base flood elevations, flood zones, and floodplain/floodway boundaries. For more information on FEMA, and any proposed changes, please follow the link below:

Specific Plans / Precise Plans / Master Plans / Vision Plans

Specific Plans (or Precise Plans) are plans pertaining to areas or projects within the City. A specific plan is a tool for the systematic implementation of the Community Plan. It effectively establishes a link between implementing policies of the Community Plan and the individual development proposals in a defined area. A specific plan may be as general as setting forth broad policy concepts, or as detailed as providing direction to every facet of development from the type, location and intensity of uses to the design and capacity of infrastructure; from the resources used to finance public improvements to the design guidelines of a proposed development.

Streetscape & Complete Streets

Streetscape is a term that is used to describe the natural and built fabric of the street, and defined as the design quality of the street and its visual effect. The concept recognizes that a street is a public place where people are able to engage in various activities. These plans and policies largely influence public places where people interact, and it ultimately helps define a community’s aesthetic quality, economic activity, health, and sustainability.

Trees, Forestry & Landscaping

Universal Design

California law, section 17959.6 of the Health and Safety Code, requires a builder of new for-sale residential units to provide buyers with a list of specific “universal design features” which make a home safer and easier to use for persons who are aging or frail, or who have certain temporary or permanent activity limitations or disabilities. To access a New Home Universal Design Checklist, please click the link below.