Project Background & Description
What is the Milpitas Zoning Ordinance?
While the Milpitas General Plan sets forth a wide-ranging and long-term vision for the city, the Zoning Ordinance establishes regulations and standards governing the use and development of individual properties within the city to achieve that vision. The Milpitas Zoning Ordinance, also referred to as the Zoning Code, is part of the City’s Municipal Code (Title XI – Zoning, Planning and Annexation; Chapter 10 – Zoning). In this Municipal Code Chapter are the body of rules and regulations that control what may be built on the ground and what uses may occupy buildings and sites.
Why is the City Undertaking this Project?
The City completed a comprehensive update to its General Plan in 2021. The recent adoption of the new General Plan has created an opportunity as well as a legal mandate to update the Zoning Ordinance to ensure that the Code achieves the type of development that will carry out the vision set forth in the General Plan. The update will also ensure that the Code implements the zoning-related General Plan policies and actions for community design, economic development, conservation and sustainability, and community health and wellness.
Milpitas’ current Zoning Ordinance is decades old. It has only been modified over the years through minor amendments in order to keep up with new State requirements and address targeted issues on an ad hoc basis. A comprehensive update will add clarity to the overall organization and usability, ensure transparency to the administrative processes and permitting, and will reflect current uses and development practices and trends.
Ultimately, the effort will lead to a user-friendly, illustrated, legally compliant, and effective set of regulations that implements the General Plan.
What are the Project Objectives?
Modernize the Zoning Ordinance. Modernization involves updating definitions, uses, development standards, and design standards to more accurately reflect current development practices and trends. It also means generally reflecting best zoning practices and ensuring the Ordinance is compliant with State and federal law.
Make the Zoning Ordinance more user-friendly. The updated Ordinance will be organized in a logical and intuitive manner, provide cross-references where appropriate, and include clear and graphically consistent diagrams to illustrate standards as needed.
Ensure consistency across all applicable City documents. The updated Ordinance will be consistent with and implement existing City documents, including the General Plan, the updated Housing Element, the Metro Specific Plan, the Economic Development Strategy, the Climate Action Plan, and other applicable planning documents and policies.
Promote more compact, mixed-use and transit-oriented development types, where appropriate. In the more urban areas of the City, the Zoning Ordinance update will seek to support more compact and transit-oriented development, with appropriate standards for design, impacts, parking, and sustainability.
Who is Involved in this Project?
The comprehensive update of the Zoning Ordinance is being led by the City of Milpitas Planning Department. To assist the Planning Department Staff in the undertaking, the City has selected as a consultant Lisa Wise Consulting, Inc. (LWC). LWC is an award-winning firm that specializes in land use planning, zoning, and economic analysis aimed at promoting pedestrian and transit-oriented neighborhoods, revitalizing built environment, and facilitating sustainable, well-designed complete neighborhoods.
While the City staff and LWC comprise the planning team, community involvement is central to the planning effort. The team relies on the participation of Planning Commission, City Council, a Zoning Advisory Group, and the whole community to share thoughts and ideas, review working documents, and ultimately inform the development the comprehensive Zoning Ordinance. (See Get Involved.)
Project Timeline
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Why are we updating the Zoning Ordinance?
This effort follows the City’s adoption of the City of Milpitas General Plan in 2021, which expressed the community’s long-range goals for the future of the City. The Zoning Ordinance Update is intended to create a flexible, user-friendly set of land use and development regulations that serves as an effective tool to implement the community’s vision articulated in the General Plan.
What’s the relationship between the Zoning Ordinance Update and the Milpitas Midtown Specific Plan?
The Milpitas Midtown Specific Plan, last updated in 2010, establishes a vision and policy direction for approximately 589 acres area west of the heavy rail line that bisects the City. In 2021, the City initiated the Gateway-Main Specific Plan, which will replace the Milpitas Midtown Specific Plan. At the conclusion of that project, the Zoning Ordinance will be updated to implement the new Specific Plan, reflecting the plan’s direction in quantifiable standards and regulations. That effort is anticipated to occur after the adoption of the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance Update. After the Gateway-Main Specific Plan is adopted, the Zoning Ordinance will be amended to establish new zoning districts or other changes necessary to implement the Specific Plan.
How long will the process take?
The Zoning Ordinance Update process is anticipated to take about two and a half years, and will be completed in the late summer or early autumn of 2025. There will be many opportunities for public involvement and input throughout. Please refer to project timeline above.
What is a Zoning Ordinance?
While the City’s General Plan sets forth a wide-ranging and long-term vision for the City, the Zoning Ordinance specifies how each individual property can be used to achieve that vision. Zoning is the body of rules and regulations that control what is built on the ground, and what uses occupy buildings and sites. Zoning determines the form and character of development, such as the size and height, and certain design parameters. It also includes provisions related to the compatibility of new development and uses with existing neighborhoods.
What’s the relationship between the Zoning Ordinance Update and the new Metro Specific Plan?
The Metro Specific Plan, adopted in February 2023, provides the detailed vision for the BART station and Milpitas Transit Center area, and the Zoning Ordinance serves as the tool to implement the Metro Specific Plan’s vision through land use regulations. The Zoning Ordinance will translate the Metro Specific Plan’s policies and direction into complete and quantifiable standards and regulations. This includes creating new zoning districts that correspond to and implement the Metro Specific Plan’s land use designations.
What’s the relationship between the Zoning Ordinance Update and the City’s new Housing Element?
The 2023-2031 Housing Element is one element of the General Plan and calls for the City to rezone properties to allow for additional housing. Once the newly updated Housing Element (adopted by the City Council in January 2023) is certified by the State, the Zoning Ordinance Update will seek to implement the housing strategies that form the basis of the Housing Element. The Zoning Update will also reflect and comply with all current California housing laws.
What’s the relationship between the Zoning Ordinance Update and the Climate Action Plan effort?
The Milpitas Climate Action Plan (CAP), adopted in August 2022, establishes measures and actions to address the challenges of climate change in existing and new development in the City. Any CAP measures and actions appropriate to be addressed through zoning will be translated into specific standards and regulations in the Zoning Ordinance Update.