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Milpitas adopts ordinance and urgency measure to implement state transit-oriented housing law
Summary
The Milpitas City Council introduced and adopted an urgency ordinance to align local zoning with California’s SB 79, creating a transit-oriented development (TOD) overlay for areas within a half-mile of major transit stops and specifying local development standards ahead of the law’s July 1 effective date.
Milpitas — The Milpitas City Council moved this week to make local zoning consistent with California’s newly enacted transit-oriented housing law, adopting both an implementing ordinance and a separate urgency ordinance to ensure the rules take effect immediately when the state law becomes effective.
Principal Planner Lillian Van Houten told the council that “SB 79 takes effect July 1, 2026,” and that the ordinance would add a Transit‑Oriented Development overlay to the Milpitas Municipal Code, apply to lands within a half‑mile of major transit stops, and set local definitions and development standards the city may enforce.
The ordinance implements the state framework while carving out local specifics: staff proposed higher local minimum densities in many locations (raising the minimum in some zones up to 60 dwelling units per acre and using R‑5 and R‑4 Metro standards for qualifying sites) while confirming that the state’s maximum and minimum ceilings under SB 79 remain controlling. Van Houten said the overlay would only be operative while SB 79 remains law.
City Attorney staff advised the council that adopting an urgency ordinance was necessary to avoid a one‑day gap in local land‑use rules if the city relied only on the standard ordinance adoption timeline. The attorney explained the urgency ordinance would make the city’s implementing rules operative immediately and said staff did not identify any particular litigation risk from adopting the local ordinance itself.
Why it matters: SB 79 limits some local discretion on housing near transit while allowing local governments to adopt ordinances that provide specifics and manage impacts. Milpitas’ overlay directs how developments that invoke SB 79 will be regulated locally, including density floors, applicable metro zoning standards, and CEQA handling.
The council voted unanimously to introduce the standard ordinance (waiving full reading except for the title) and to adopt the related urgency ordinance so the local rules will be in place when the state law takes effect.
Next steps: Staff will file the ordinance for codification and will respond to any state comments required under the SB 79 implementation process. The city’s map and written overlay will be applied to the three identified transit stops: the Milpitas BART/Transit Center (tier one) and two VTA light‑rail stations (tier two).
