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What the new attic, garage and “square footage” rules mean for homeowners and developers
Summary
The adopted code language clarifies attic, garage and square-footage measurements: garages remain counted in floor-area calculations, attics are excluded only when objective criteria are met (unfinished, no permanent stairs directly to the attic, no operable windows), and finished spaces will be treated as habitable area.
Cupertino’s revised code language spells out when attic and garage spaces count toward project square footage and how the city will apply square-footage rules for state streamlined reviews. Planning staff told commissioners the new square-footage definition is intended mainly to support state streamline-review calculations (for example, SB 35 and related Housing Accountability Act contexts) and does not replace the municipal floor-area concept used for other zoning allocations.
Planning staff answered commissioners’ technical questions during the hearing: a residential garage is included in the city’s floor-area calculations and the new square-footage definition will be applied in the state streamline-review context rather than as a wholesale replacement of local floor-area ratio practices. "Garage is included in square footage...that definition only applies to state streamlined projects," a planning staff member said in response to questions about ADU conversions.
On attics, the code now lists objective descriptors staff said will help planners determine whether a space is an attic (examples discussed: unfinished floor surfaces such as plywood, lack of permanent stairs directly to the attic, and absence of operable windows). Commissioners pressed whether a pull-down or temporary ladder would count as a permanent stair; staff clarified that a pull-down stair is not a permanent stair for the purpose of this definition. The commission adopted a clarifying amendment to make the permanent-stairs condition read explicitly as "permanent stairs directly to the attic space from the floor below," a change intended to avoid counting homes with interior access to an upper bedroom landing and a closet door to the attic as suddenly adding square footage.
Staff repeatedly said enforcement is largely reactive: the city has received complaints in the past where attics were retrofitted with permanent stairs or windows and effectively became living space. The hearing included discussion that finishing an attic or basement to meet building-code standards would make it habitable and, practically, part of a property’s habitable area.
Practical implications: homeowners converting attics, garages or basements should expect the city to treat finished, code-compliant, habitable space as square footage for relevant reviews; conversions that do not include permanent stairs directly to the attic and that meet the "unfinished" criteria could remain excluded under the clarified attic definition.
