Milpitas council adopts comprehensive zoning ordinance update, citing modernization and consistency with general plan

The Milpitas City Council on Aug. 12 adopted a comprehensive update to the city's zoning ordinance, approving General Plan amendment GP250001 and introducing Ordinance No. 38.858 to place the updated zoning code in a new Title 13 of the Milpitas Municipal Code.

City Planning Director Jay Lee and consultant Jen Morello described Phase 2 of a two-phase zoning rewrite as a reorganization and modernization effort meant to make the zoning code easier to use and internally consistent with the Milpitas 2040 General Plan. Lee said the update is focused on formatting, clearer standards, tables and graphics and compliance with recent state and federal law: "This project is a full reorganization and modernization and updating of the zoning ordinance," he told the council.

The update does not, staff emphasized, change existing land use designations or materially increase development potential. The draft ordinance aligns density and floor-area-ratio standards with the recently updated general plan and integrates earlier zoning changes adopted under Phase 1, staff said. Consultant Jen Morello told council staff efforts included consolidating and recategorizing uses, adding procedures to streamline approvals and creating a new minor deviations approval that allows staff to authorize small departures from standards.

Planning Department project manager Holly Pearson and the consultant team described outreach that included a zoning advisory group, two community workshops (each attended by fewer than 10 people), online materials, office hours and study sessions with the Planning Commission and council. The Planning Commission unanimously recommended adoption and found the project could proceed under an addendum to the Milpitas 2040 General Plan EIR under CEQA Guidelines sections 15162 and 15164.

Public comment during the hearing included Yoli Garcia of Milpitas Involved Citizens (MIC), who said the group's review supported staff recommendations and thanked staff for their outreach: "MIC would like to ask counsel to go with your staff recommendations. They did an awesome job as usual," Garcia said. Another speaker, Walter Montemayor, offered general support for preserving agreed elements of prior plans.

Council members asked for clarifications about outreach, community workshop attendance, the relationship between zoning FAR limits and the general plan, and how the ordinance responds to recent state housing laws. Director Lee and staff said changes that might appear to increase density are intended only to align city zoning with the general plan and state law, and that any future increases in FAR would first require a general plan amendment. Staff also reviewed a letter received earlier the same day about accessory dwelling unit (ADU) rules and said they would submit the adopted ADU regulations to the California Department of Housing and Community Development for review as required.

Councilmember Chua moved to approve the staff recommendations, and Councilmember Lynn seconded. The council voted 5-0 (Vice Mayor Barbara Dio; Councilmembers Chua, Lam, Lianne; Mayor Montana) to approve the resolution adopting GP250001 and to introduce Ordinance No. 38.858. The ordinance title was read into the record before the vote.

The city manager and planning staff said staff will implement the new code numbering and bring any necessary clarifications or amendments back to the council as needed. Staff also noted that the update preserves single-family protections and does not rezone single-family areas to higher density uses.

Adoption of the zoning ordinance completes Phase 2 of a two-phase process that began with Phase 1 (adopted June 18), which established several new zoning districts to implement the updated general plan and the Metro Specific Plan.

The council's action will become effective per the city's ordinance-adoption procedures; staff will publish the updated code and notify stakeholders.