Comprehensive Zoning Update

In early 2023, the City launched an effort to comprehensively update the Zoning Ordinance, which is the primary implementation tool for the City’s General Plan with regard to land use and urban development. Zoning regulations are a tool to implement the vision and goals for growth and preservation of the city by setting forth rules and standards for what may be built, and what types of uses or businesses may be located where. The City’s Zoning Ordinance addresses topics such as land uses, administration, and procedures for new development as well as alterations to existing buildings and lots, development standards such as building height and lot coverage, and other important topics such as parking and landscaping.

Milpitas’s Zoning Ordinance was originally written and adopted in 1955. Prior to the initiation of the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance Update project, the most recent significant update had taken place in 2008. Although there had been multiple ad hoc amendments in recent years in response to changes in state law, zoning practice, and technology, overall the Zoning Ordinance had not kept pace with changing trends in land use and economics and did not reflect current best practices in planning and development regulations. 

The first phase of the zoning update work, which focused on consistency with the updated general plan (Milpitas 2040 General Plan) and the Milpitas Metro Specific Plan, resulted in the creation of the new Business Park Research and Development (BPRD) Zone and Metro Area Zones, along with related updates to the City’s zoning map. These ordinance and map changes were adopted by City Council on June 18, 2024.

The second phase of the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance Update project consisted of detailed update work on the entire code. Objectives of this phase of work included reorganizing the code and making it more user friendly; modernizing the zoning regulations in keeping with changes in state and federal law and current best practices in land use planning; incorporating changes to implement various City policy documents, such as the Climate Action Plan and the Housing Element; and promoting more compact, mixed-use and transit-oriented development in appropriate areas of Milpitas. Phase 2 of the zoning update involved replacing the old Zoning Ordinance with a new, reorganized and comprehensively updated version. The new Zoning Ordinance, which is Title XIII of the Milpitas Municipal Code, was approved by the City Council on September 2, 2025.