Art Jury Board Editorial

How Rancho Santa Fe Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Variance

03/31/2026
Kelli Hillard
The Gateway project approved in 2017 was a mixed retail/office/grocery development in a charming Spanish Colonial style, featuring interior courtyards, roof articulation, and a variety of design elements in keeping with the Lilian Rice style. It received a variance after meeting the required three of the four findings.
The revised Gateway project swaps Spanish Colonial architecture for 15 apartments, buries the grocery store underground, and replaces a grassy public area with a private patio propped up by a 12-foot retaining wall. It meets only one of four required variance findings.

Art Jury Story

Most of us have an Art Jury story.

Ours involved a three-month stop work order on our home demo while we replaced the pine trees we removed in our zeal to reconfigure the driveway. Was I angry and confused? One hundred percent. Was the Art Jury of 2013 living up to its reputation? Also yes. Did it require us to plant mature olives and a host of other specimen trees to properly screen our home before we could proceed? Indeed it did.

And yet – looking back – it was the right call.

The Art Jury did us, and our neighbors, a favor. They weren’t just protecting our investment; they were protecting everyone’s. They exercised what at the time felt like a heavy hand to ensure we didn’t skimp on the very thing that makes the Ranch the Ranch: privacy. Physical. Visual. The blessed absence of seeing what your neighbor had for breakfast.

When “Streamline” Meant Something Else

That’s why I later agreed to serve on the Art Jury. I believed in its purpose – protecting neighbors from each other, and occasionally from themselves. They did us a favor. I thought I could return it.

But not so fast.

Rumblings were already afoot to remake the Art Jury. Make it “easier to navigate.” Streamline. Modernize. Or, depending on your vantage point, identify creative pathways around those inconvenient design guidelines and regulations. A loophole here, a variance there. Nothing dramatic. Just… flexible.

It didn’t help that we were fresh off a rather spirited dust-up between Golf and the Association over the removal of 60 trees to accommodate a hilly new course design. Sixty. Not six – which, coincidentally, was the number the Art Jury had approved. Now, even the last two signature eucs by the Snack Bar are slated to come down, accompanied by a conveniently timed arborist report suggesting they may be compromised by the project – after a century of robust health and generous shade.

The Inn at Rancho Santa Fe’s “temporary” plastic dining tent, now a fixture on what is arguably the best view in the Village.

A Kinder, Gentler Interpretation

What followed was a not-so-subtle directive to be kinder. Gentler. More collaborative. To find ways to give applicants more of what they want. Did it matter if a project follows the design guidelines? Or even the regulations? That depends on who’s asking.

If you’re the Inn at Rancho Santa Fe, a permanent “temporary” plastic dining tent appears to be enjoying a long and happy life. Dark Skies? Less so. Every tree has been assigned a light and even the Inn’s tennis court is also now lit for nighttime play.

Down the street, a home’s seasonal lighting has also embraced a more… year-round interpretation – green for St. Paddy’s, pink for Valentine’s, and lavender for Easter. We appreciate the enthusiasm. Truly.

The only wrinkle? Rancho Santa Fe is a Dark Skies community. The stars used to be the brightest things out here. Now they’re in competition.

Rather than expanding the Association’s existing golf equipment barn – thoughtfully designed to harmonize with the Ranch’s rural aesthetic – the Art Jury instead approved sun sails. (Rendering not to scale)

Consistency is another matter. Two prior Art Juries denied sun sails to shade all the new lawncare equipment. The Association asked again – and this Art Jury said yes. One wonders whether Tensile fabric structures, more at home at a marina, are now part of the Covenant’s architectural vernacular, or whether the building materials rules apply differently depending on who’s asking.

The Art of Interpretation

Some residents may begin to wonder why they’re paying a premium to live in Protective Rancho Santa Fe if yesterday’s “no” gradually becomes today’s “well…it depends.”

Want to split a four-acre lot into two non-conforming ones – each with their own estate and ADU – by a creative reading of an old land deed? We may have a variance for that.

Calling Gateway’s private senior apartment patios an “outdoor courtyard” to satisfy the 10% requirement for a variance is inventive. Equally accommodating is skipping the customary story poles on a 26,000 sq. ft. project that hasn’t been reviewed in nearly a decade and has since substantially changed.

Word around town is that the new motto is “A Path to Yes.” But the Ranch’s standards were never the obstacle – they were the value. Because what we say “yes” to today, we inherit tomorrow.

Editor’s Note: These issues and more are scheduled to come before the RSFA Board at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, April 2, at the Association offices on Avenida de Acacias. Member input may be offered in person or submitted in advance to:

Kelli Hillard is a Covenant resident and former Art Jury member, still recovering from 3.5 years in architectural oversight. She has a soft spot for mature eucs, dark skies, respect for the PC, and the thoughtful, occasional use of “no.”

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