Last week I asked two questions: (1) Should we continue regulating building color like we have been doing, and (2) Can the regulation be objective and free from misinterpretation? Today I will answer the second question, because that’s easier. Tomorrow I will post my answer to the first question along with my rationale.
Our current regulation for building colors is subjective. That has resulted in problems, which have been clearly expressed in emails from residents, Nextdoor comments, and the two public hearings the Planning Commission had over the past nine months discussing this issue. I believe Mike Haycock, head of the City’s Building Department, agreed this was a problem and he asked the Planning Commission for more objective measures.
I reviewed other ordinances and talked to city department heads in other “deserty” communities and met with the Community Development Department in Springdale to get a “walk through” of their approach to regulating building colors and communicating choices to developers and property owners.
These cities (Springdale, Sedona, Scottsdale) have objective, simple requirements for building colors. They all use “The Munsell Book of Color” to regulate colors. They told me they use this source because it gives them a predictable standard for colors. It is objective. It eliminates subjectivity.
I asked them why they regulate color and do not allow some current trendy colors, like white, super saturated, and very light colors. All said they want to reduce the visual impact of buildings using colors that emphasize muted earth tones blending with their natural desert environment.
None of the Cities allowed all the color choices on any page. They all had a minimum and maximum limit for the “value” of the color (how light or dark it is). That’s the vertical scale. They also had limits for the chroma, shown on the horizontal scale.
Springdale uses an “overlay” that blocks out high chroma and high value chips on any page. But all the chips are kept in the book so when someone comes in with their paint chip color, they can easily see if their chip falls within or outside the acceptable ranges.
I recommend the City buy The Munsell Book and get input from design professionals and residents on acceptable hues, chroma ranges, and value ranges. All three cities had similar ranges, but there were differences. That’s because although they are all “deserty” communities, the colors in their natural environments are visually different from each other. As is ours.
Please share your comments on this topic and tell me about other Ivins issues I have not addressed in recent posts. Email me at Mike@MikeScott4Ivins.com.
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