Redwood City, CA Zoning Overlays & Bonuses: Downtown Design Guide (2026)

110, is Redwood City's design review body for downtown projects. The Committee advises the Zoning Administrator, the Planning Commission, and the City Council on architectural matters, and its charter spells out three specific duties: reviewing any new building over three stories or thirty-five feet tall anywhere in the city, reviewing requests for deviations from the Downtown Precise Plan's design guidelines, and reviewing any other project the Municipal Code, Zoning Ordinance, or an adopted precise plan sends to it. A developer proposing a downtown building that does not meet a Precise Plan guideline, for setbacks, massing, materials, or streetscape treatment, must bring that deviation to the AAC before the project can move forward.

The Committee has six members, five of them voting, and a majority of the five voting seats is required for a quorum. At least three voting members must live or work in Redwood City or within twenty miles of the city limits, and each voting member needs an architecture or landscape architecture license, five years of professional design experience, or design-related experience such as civil engineering or construction, with no more than one seat filled solely through that last path. Members serve staggered four-year terms expiring May 31 of even-numbered years, appointed by the Planning Commission after an oral interview weighing professional qualifications and civic interest.

110(D)(2) states plainly that the AAC cannot grant or deny any entitlement or approval on its own. Its recommendation instead informs whichever body, the Zoning Administrator, Planning Commission, or City Council, holds final say over the downtown project.