California cities
California city zoning & municipal codes
What you can build depends on local zoning and planning codes that change at the city line. GoCodebook covers 482 California cities — find yours below, or just ask about an address.
Featured cities
San Francisco
San Francisco Planning Code, Building Code, zoning districts and permit pathways.
Los Angeles
Los Angeles zoning code (Chapters 1 & 1A), rent stabilization and building rules.
Cupertino
Cupertino Municipal Code Title 19 zoning and development standards.
Palo Alto
Palo Alto zoning (Title 18), master plan and precise plans.
What the city code decides
State law sets the floor, but the municipal code answers most of the questions people actually have — and it changes the moment you cross a city line.
Zoning district & permitted use
Which district a parcel sits in, and whether what you want to do is allowed outright, allowed with a permit, or not at all.
Building envelope
Height limits, setbacks, lot coverage, floor-area ratio and density — the numbers that decide how much building fits on the lot.
Parking & local standards
Parking minimums where they still apply, plus design review, landscaping and the local amendments a city adds to the state building code.
Permit path & review
Whether approval is over the counter or discretionary, which body hears it, and what notice or hearing the process requires.
Outside city limits, the county code governs instead — and the verbatim text for both lives in the Code Library.
All cities by county
482 cities