What a planning commission needs to see in your renderings

Renderings made for a planning commission or design review board have a different job than renderings made to sell. A marketing image is allowed to be flattering. A hearing exhibit has to help commissioners, planning staff and neighbors judge whether a building fits its site — and they will notice when an image is working harder to impress than to inform.

The good news is that accurate exhibits are also the persuasive ones. Here's what tends to matter.

What reviewers are actually checking

• Massing and height against the neighbors. Show the adjacent buildings, at their real heights. A project rendered on an empty lot invites the question of what it's hiding.
• Views from where the public stands. Most of the people affected by a project will see it from the sidewalk or the street, so at least one view should be at eye level from a public vantage point.
• Materials and colors that match the drawings. Commissioners compare renderings against the elevations and the color and material board. Any mismatch costs credibility.
• Landscaping shown honestly. Trees take years to reach the size they're often drawn at. Show planting at installation, at maturity, or label clearly which one you're showing.
• The unglamorous details. Walls, screening for rooftop equipment, parking, lighting and signage are often exactly what conditions of approval address.

The views that usually belong in the set

A typical exhibit set covers four views:

1. The primary street view — the approach most people will know the building by.
2. A secondary elevation — often the side a neighbor or commissioner asks about.
3. The rear or courtyard — where objections about privacy and massing tend to land.
4. An aerial context view — the whole site in its surroundings, which answers questions no single eye-level view can.

That's the reasoning behind our Entitlement Set: three exterior views plus an aerial, built from one model so every view agrees with the others and with the plans.

Schedule backwards from the hearing

The hearing date is the one deadline that doesn't move. Exhibits usually need to be ready when the application or resubmittal goes in, well before the staff report is published, and staff can ask for changes along the way.

So when you plan the visualization, work backwards: hearing date, then staff report, then submittal, then drafts. Build in at least one revision round between drafts and submittal. If conditions of approval change the design, the renderings may need an update before the hearing too.

What quietly undermines an exhibit

• Very wide-angle lenses that make a building look smaller than it is.
• Context buildings that are missing, shortened or simplified away.
• Mature trees placed exactly where they hide the most contested part of the building.
• Renderings that don't match the elevations in the same packet.
• Inconsistent lighting or time of day between views, which makes a set read as unrelated images.

A short checklist before you submit

• Every view matches the current plans and elevations.
• Adjacent buildings and streets are in the frame where they matter.
• At least one eye-level view from a public sidewalk or street.
• Landscaping labeled or shown at a realistic size.
• Materials match the color and material board.
• File sizes and formats meet the city's submittal requirements.

If you're preparing for a hearing, tell us the date when you first get in touch. We'll build the schedule around it.