Objective Design Standards Feasibility Analysis
San Francisco Bay Area Region, CA · 2024
Client: Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG)
Location: San Francisco Bay Area Region, CA
Year: 2024
CP Role: Sub-consultant to Opticos Design
Practice Area: Housing Policy
Team: Alex Steinberger, Economics Advisor; Pauline Ruegg, Project Manager; Sara Goldstein, Analyst
The Challenge
California law requires cities to adopt clear, objective design and development standards for housing, but standards that are too demanding can raise costs or stop projects altogether. The Association of Bay Area Governments wanted its Objective Design Standards Handbook to help cities comply without creating new barriers to housing.
Our Approach
As a sub-consultant to Opticos Design, we wrote the handbook's economic feasibility analysis. We interviewed market-rate and affordable housing developers across the Bay Area and sorted the cost of each design choice into hard costs, soft costs, and long-term costs such as maintenance and liability. We then tested how specific standards affect project viability. For example, requiring private open space of more than 40 to 50 square feet per unit can make projects, especially affordable ones, unworkable.
Outcome
The analysis set the economic guidance in the handbook and gave Bay Area planners a framework to calibrate design standards to real cost thresholds, so they can ask for good buildings without blocking housing.
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