Design Guidelines for Housing Tracts Urged : Ventura: Planners will ask the council to authorize funds to create standards for residential projects and commercial buildings.

Concerned that east Ventura is turning into a walled community of look-alike homes, municipal planners will ask the City Council on Monday to create design guidelines for large residential tracts.

The guidelines would also cover apartments, condominiums and commercial buildings, though blueprints for such developments already are scrutinized for aesthetic appearance, said Everett Millais, director of community services.

“We have a lot of tracts in east Ventura where all you see from the street are garages, private streets and major walls,” Millais said. “We’re saying we think we can do better with a few design suggestions.”

Millais will recommend to the council Monday that it authorize spending $25,000 as suggested by the city’s Planning Commission and Design Review Committee to create the guidelines.

Millais also will ask the council to amend its building ordinance to require the city to review designs for all subdivisions with more than 15 residences. The 7 p.m. meeting will be at City Hall, 501 Poli St.

Design guidelines would not only improve the city’s overall appearance, they would help developers build housing more efficiently, Millais said.

Instead of drawing plans and then presenting them to the city for review--a process that can take several rounds before both sides are satisfied--the city can let developers know up front how it believes a particular neighborhood should look, he said.

Housing builder Lynn Jacobs said she supports the idea.

“Developers want to build projects that the community will like,” said Jacobs, who owns Ventura-based Affordable Communities. “It’s very helpful to have as much of that information as possible when you start.”

Tom Crozier, vice president of Hertel Development Corp., said he also supports design guidelines. There should be some attempt to ensure that suburban tracts are done tastefully, he said.

But the city must be careful not to go overboard, Crozier said.

“It can get out of hand when a city is dictating specifically what materials you will use, what colors you will use and on and on,” he said.

That is not the intention of the city’s Planning Commission or Design Review Committee, said Sandy Smith, Planning Commission chairman. The two groups joined forces to send the proposal to the City Council to bring consistency to the general appearance of the city’s various neighborhoods, Smith said.

And the way to do that is by setting broad guidelines, he said.

“We don’t want to be like Santa Barbara, where every roof is red tile,” Smith said. “We want to say, ‘If you’re going to build a small shopping center, you’ll need trash receptacles and parking in the back.’ Things like that.”

As for residential neighborhoods, “you don’t want a cement wall that just sits there,” Smith said. “We’d be looking for landscaping and nicely designed signs that create a more pleasant view.”

Millais said the guidelines could even coax developers to move away from building tracts filled with cul-de-sacs and surrounded by sound walls to the creation of developments with multiple entries that allow residents to easily walk to stores for shopping and other errands.

Public hearings would be held before any final guidelines are adopted, Millais said.