Mind Reading The RSF Art Jury

Author: Phil Trubey

Date: January 27, 2021

Last week, the Rancho Santa Fe Art Jury had a special open meeting where they talked amongst themselves and various members about the criteria they use to approve/deny projects. I found it illuminating and moreover I know that very few members actually understand the criteria, mostly because the Association not only doesn't tell you, but its published information is actually misleading.

I hope I have your attention now. I would urge everyone who will be doing any renovations or home building to thoroughly read this article. I would also hope the Association took note and provided more guidance.

General Principles

During the special meeting, Art Jury president Bill Danola said that all applicants would do well to understand this passage from the Residential Design Guidelines (bolding mine):

Rancho Santa Fe is traditionally defined by its subdued, rural character which is achieved by:

• site design which preserves natural landforms and reduces the obtrusiveness of new construction.
• architecture which represents restraint and simplicity through designs whose mass and scale are subordinated to natural surroundings.
• landscaping which is informal and makes maximum use of prevailing natural and traditional plant materials.

So, ostentatious is out. Formal is out. Extensive grading is out. Large structures that overwhelm the lot are out.

Published Misleading Information

Both the Protective Covenant and the Regulatory Code contain language that appear to have quantitative numeric rules, but in fact the Art Jury has discretion to deny applications even if they meet the published numbers. 

Lot Coverage

The Protective Covenant (paragraphs 126-128) says that residences cannot have structures occupy more than 20% of the lot, 50% if you are in the downtown area of the village. And indeed, architects are instructed by the building department to compute a lot coverage percentage on the cover page of their submittals. But the Art Jury routinely rejects submittals with lot coverages below 20%. It all depends on the specific site and its terrain. For example, if a 3 acre lot is mostly 25% or greater slopes (which cannot be touched and are unbuildable) and only has a small 15,000 sq ft pad, then the Art Jury could reject a plan that had structure coverage over substantially all of that pad even though lot coverage is only 11%. 

Of course, the board's latest rejiggering of the regulations that include pools (including a 4' perimeter) and sport courts into the definition of "structure" makes lot coverage even more restrictive.

Conversely, in rare cases, the Art Jury might recommend that the board grant a variance for a project that had 21% lot coverage.

Anyways, here's the operative point. When submitting plans, do not rely on meeting the 20% lot coverage number. If you are anywhere near 20% or on a challenging lot, include what is essentially marketing material in your submittal plans to sell the proposition that the resulting project will not look over developed. I'm not trying to be glib. Your job (or your architect's) is to convince the Art Jury that your lot is not over developed.

Grading

Here's another quantitative number than isn't dispositive. The Regulatory Code says:

41.06 Maximum depth of cut and/or fill. No point on any finished grade shall vary in excess of ten (10) vertical feet from existing grade provided that the design is aesthetically pleasing in the opinion of the Art Jury.

Again, this doesn't mean that if your maximum cut or fill is 10', you are good to go. Indeed, anything close to 10' will get a very hard look by the Art Jury. Just this week in Tuesday's Art Jury meeting, there was an applicant who appeared caught off guard that their grading plan wasn't sufficient for the Art Jury since their plans had shown that their maximum cut was 10'. The problem was that the Art Jury wanted to know just how much of the profile, across the property, was a 10' cut. Was it only in one small area? Or did it stretch 200'? The plans didn't show that because the applicant didn't realize the Art Jury was going to scrutinize the grading over the entire lot. 

Again, for challenging lots and grading that gets close to the 10' number, include information in your submittal that helps the Art Jury see the true extent of the grading. For example, a plan view grading plan rather than just a maximum extent cross section.

In the meeting Danola emphasized that the Art Jury wanted to see minimal grading changes. An example he gave is that of a sloped lot where you have a main house and a guest house. They would rather see the guest house on a pad down 4' from the main house if that's the way the natural land form went instead of grading one larger flat pad for both structures.

Bulk and Mass

Throughout the meeting, "bulk and mass" of buildings was frequently mentioned. In general, the Art Jury looks to reduce the feeling of bulk and mass when you approach a property. Again, while the regulatory code allows 25' high single story structures, Danola said he couldn't remember approving anything taller than 23', and even then it was only one element of a structure that mostly had lower height elements.

Art Juror Ken Markstein remarked that there was one builder many years ago that would build houses with really tall hallways and rooms - everything was essentially 25' high. Markstein thought that an isolated 25' element might be fine, but not the bulk of a structure.

Danola stated that the prominence of a house mattered when it came to bulk and mass and other restrictions. A house on a view hill would be scrutinized a lot closer than a house tucked away in a valley that no one else would be able to see. 

It was mentioned that two story structures were rare. Not disallowed, but you'd have to have just the right lot for a two story structure.

Architectural Design

The Art Jury has definite opinions on allowable architectural style. This derives from the Protective Covenant which states (paragraph 157) :

[Houses] shall be that distinctive type of architecture which for several decades has been successfully developing in California, deriving its chief inspiration directly or indirectly from Latin types, which developed under similar climatic conditions along the Mediterranean or at points in California, such as Monterery.

That sentence hopefully made more sense in 1928 when it was drafted. Art Juries have struggled with interpreting this for decades. One former recent Art Juror tried to create a tool for future Art Juries and, just as important, for applicants to use in determining what would likely be conforming architecture and what wouldn't likely be. That tool has been taken over by the Association's building department, but they are months away from releasing anything publicly. At the end of the day, allowable architectural style is the ultimate judgement call. You will really be leaning on your architect for this one.

Assisted Dwelling Units (ADUs) and Solar Panels

Recent California law has overruled HOA's abilities to rule against certain projects. In particular, CA law states that regardless of any HOA restriction, you are allowed to build an ADU without regard to lot coverage restrictions, larger set back requirements, etc. See this article for a list of what is allowed. The HOA is allowed to ask for standard landscape screening, and presumably homeowners would match existing architectural design.

Likewise for solar panels, an HOA cannot limit where a homeowner chooses to place their solar panels. We would all appreciate it though if you read this article before taking this as a blank check to do whatever you wanted with your solar panels.

Process

When starting a major project it would behoove an applicant to make an appointment with the Association building department to discuss their project and find out what areas might be problematic. Hiring an architect that routinely submits projects to the Art Jury is also very, very helpful. Ask that architect questions and listen to the responses. If you stay within certain boundaries, an Art Jury submittal need not be difficult, but be aware that new house construction will invariably entail many resubmittals.

Read these two documents (or at least the pertinent sections) for a major project:

• Residential Design Guidelines
• Regulatory Code

Conclusion

Hopefully this article helps you in your future Art Jury submittals. Still got questions or concerns? One place to ask is in our discussion forums. And for help when you have your project defined, don't forget to use the Association's building department as a resource.