Emeryville Family Friendly Multifamily Residential Design Guidelines
The City of Emeryville requested assistance updating the Emeryville Design Guidelines to include Family Friendly Design Guidelines for Multifamily Housing. The update required guidelines and illustrations for unit design as well as site and building design. Unit design was a particular focus as the majority of newer housing in the city was mid-rise, podium style apartments with few family units. The school system was reporting declines in enrollment. The creation of the family friendly guidelines coincided with a zoning code revision that required max. 10% studio units, min. 35% two-bedroom units, and min. 15% three plus bedroom units.
Arnold Mammarella, Architecture + Consulting provided examples and illustrations along with consultation on written regulations. Illustrations included both desirable and undesirable examples. Additional analytical tools, such as a data comparison between standard apartments and family friendly units and a review scoring system were provided as well as review services on projects.
Family friendly multi-family housing units differ from standard units with more focus placed on gathering rooms over bedrooms. The floor area of gathering rooms averages 35.4% of unit size for 2 and 3-bedroom family units as opposed to 26.3% for standard units, while bedroom and bathroom floor area decreases from 51.4 to 44.2 percent. Family friendly design requires 10 to 15 percent more floor area than “minimum” apartments. Key features include ample living area, a dining area with seating for six people, a clearly delineated foyer, a flex space for child play or study, and no double master bedroom units. Diversity of unit design/type and the inclusion of 2-level units was another key concept. Building sectional and plan configuration guidelines were also provided to improve design conditions for family living environments.
Note: As laws in California have changed to permit project sponsors to file applications under ministerial review on multi-family housing development, guidelines such as these (as clear and valuable as they may be) would need to be restated as “objective standards” to fit the state law’s yes/no review determination parameters given limitations on public input and discretionary review by local review boards and officials.
