Master Your Zoning Code: The Smart Homeowner's Guide to Building Success

Bill Reid:

All right, welcome back. We're continuing our design limitation series, and today we're tackling something that sounds boring but is actually critical: city and county regulations.

Now I know what you're thinking: "Bill, regulations, zoning codes—can we make this fun?" And honestly, no, probably not. But what I can do is make it interesting, make it relevant, and most importantly, help you avoid some really expensive mistakes. In episode 31, we talked about property evaluation—making sure you understand what you're buying before you buy it. Well, today we're going to take it one step further and talk about the rules that govern what you can actually do with your property once you own it.

And here's the thing: these rules are everywhere. Every city has them, every county has them. Some homeowner associations add even more rules on top of the city's rules, and they're not suggestions—they're laws. So why does this matter? Let me paint you a picture. You buy your dream lot. You hire an architect. You spend months designing your perfect home. You're excited, you're ready to go. And then your architect submits to the city for approval and... denied. Why? Because your design violates the floor area ratio, the setback requirements, or ten other regulations you didn't even know existed.

Now you're back to square one, redesigning everything, and you've just wasted six months and thousands of dollars.

[: 01:48

This happens more frequently than it should, and sometimes it can add up to many, many months and many thousands of dollars. So that's what we're preventing today. We're going to explore the regulatory landscape before you design anything. Specifically, we're covering three big areas.

First, how city and county regulations work and where you find them. Second, what planning departments do and why they matter so much. And third, how to actually navigate the municipal code and zoning districts. So by the end of this episode, you'll know where to look, what to ask, and how to set yourself up for a smooth approval process.

Sound good? Well, let's dive in.

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SECTION 1: CITY-COUNTY REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

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Bill Reid:

All right, let's start with the basics. When it comes to building or remodeling a home, you're not just dealing with your architect and your contractor—you're dealing with government entities that have the power to approve or deny your entire project. Now, I'm going to use the term "city" throughout this episode, but everything I say applies equally to counties if you live in an unincorporated area. And here's the first thing you need to understand: these regulations exist for a reason.

They're trying to protect neighborhoods, ensure public safety, and prevent someone from building that giant pink mansion that ruins everybody's property values. The problem is, as a homeowner, you're probably not familiar with how this system works. So let's go ahead and break it down.

What Are City and County Regulations?

First, let's define what we're talking about. City and county regulations are documented rules that control what you can build. They're usually found in the municipal code—think of it as the rule book for everything in that jurisdiction. These regulations are public and accessible online through your city planning department.

If you're in an HOA, you might have additional rules on top of the city rules. These aren't suggestions, they're legal requirements. And every city is different. You cannot assume rules from one city apply to another.

A Real-World Example

I've got a short story for you that happened to me on a project. In the city of San Jose, California, we had a demolition of an existing home and the construction of a new home in a small, compact urban area near downtown San Jose called the Willow Glen area. We did our due diligence. My design team went in and met with the planning department, spoke with the building department to understand what the design criteria was. So we proceeded to actually design the project, went in and talked to the city about our design, showed them our design, and got a preliminary unofficial approval.

We went back, completed the design, submitted to the city, and sure enough, we had two things blindside us. One of them was the parking regulations, and one of them was what they call an "overlay" set of rules over the typical municipal code planning department rules.

The first thing was parking. We originally wanted to have just a one-car garage covered parking like many of the homes had in the area. Well, we were given the approval to do that informally by talking to a planner. And we also wanted to confirm the front yard setback, which was normally 20 feet in that jurisdiction, as documented in the municipal code.

Well, after we completed the design and submitted the project to the planning department and the building department to issue a building permit, we got blindsided because they then required two covered parking spaces, and the front yard setback wasn't 20 feet—it was actually 25 feet to the roof overhang, which made it about 27 feet instead of 20 feet, which is normally measured from the front property line to the front of the building, not the overhang.

So this was quite a surprising discovery. Long story short, we had to redesign the project after we were completely done, and it cost time and money. In our case, we absorbed much of the cost of the design time because we felt a certain level of responsibility, even though we did our due diligence as best as possible with the city. That is a scenario where we actually did that—where we actually went in ahead of time and tried to learn. And we did learn some other things, but here's the point: many people don't go in and do some of this preliminary discovery work with the planning department before they begin the design. They just dive into the design and end up getting really blindsided. In fact, design professionals can actually do this too. So you have to really press for the information when you start doing this.

So that's what city regulations are, but who enforces them? That's where planning departments come in.

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SECTION 2: UNDERSTANDING PLANNING DEPARTMENTS

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Bill Reid:

In city government offices, or maybe county government offices, you'll have two departments that you'll be dealing with to get a permit. One is the planning department, and one is the building department.

So let's talk about planning departments—what they do, why they matter, and how to work with them instead of against them.

Here's the fundamental thing, and this is covered in my book in Section 2.303: Planning departments care about what your home looks like from the outside. They regulate the look, the mass, and the scale using documented ordinances in the municipal code. They don't care about your interior floor plan. If you're doing an interior-only remodel, you might not deal with the planning department at all. But if you're building a new house or adding on, you're going to be very familiar with the planning department.

What Does the Planning Department Do?

City planners—the people that live behind the counter at the planning department—live by the book of zoning. The city council approves these rules, and planners just enforce them. Here's a critical distinction: planners don't write the rules. They interpret and apply the rules found in the municipal code.

Now, why does this matter? Because if you get a decision you don't like from a planner, you may be able to appeal it. But if the rule itself is the problem, changing it requires going through the city council, which is a much bigger process.

Working Effectively with Planning Departments

Here's my recommendation on how to actually work with planning. First, visit the planning department website. Most cities now have their municipal code online. You can usually find zoning maps, applications, fee schedules, and sometimes even examples of approved projects.

Start here before you do anything else. Get familiar with the terminology. Look up your property's zoning district. Read through the general regulations for that district. Now, I'll be honest—municipal codes can be dense and they're written in legal language. You're not going to understand everything on the first read, and that's okay. The goal here is to get familiar enough that you can ask intelligent questions.

Schedule a Pre-Design Meeting

Second, schedule a meeting with a planner before you design anything. Most planning departments offer free consultations. Call the main number, explain you're planning a project, and ask to meet with a planner. This meeting is gold. Bring a simple site plan showing your property boundaries, bring photos of your existing house if you're remodeling, and bring a list of questions. Here's what to ask:

What zoning district am I in?

What are the setback requirements for my property?

What's the maximum floor area ratio or square footage allowed?

Are there any height restrictions?

Are there any special overlays or historic district rules?

What's the approval process and timeline?

And here's the critical part: take notes. Write down everything. Get the planner's business card. Get their name. If they reference specific code sections, write those down too.

Document Everything

Third, document everything from these meetings. You're sitting in front of a counter. Get the business cards from the planner and maybe their supervisor. You usually have what's called associate planners—those would be junior planners—and then you have the head of the planning department or their supervisor. Get those cards. Make sure you take note of who you spoke with, when, and the information that you covered. Record the date and time that you had that meeting and note down which municipal code sections they referenced. Then take detailed notes and follow up with an email to document everything, or at least take notes for yourself so that you can remember.

And the reason I'm emphasizing this is because it's not uncommon to go into a planning department two different times asking the same questions and get two different answers. This happens all the time. So I hate to say it, but when you're dealing with an associate planner and you ask a question like "How many square feet am I allowed on my property?" if you don't see them referencing the code, don't believe them. Ask them, "Could you show me the code where that says that?" so that you know that you've empowered yourself. You've enlightened and empowered yourself to protect your design. There's my three missions there.

Just keep in mind: a visit to the planning department is only as good as the person you meet with. And there's a hierarchy there that you need to pay attention to.

Schedule a Pre-Submittal Meeting

The next thing you're going to want to do, once you've designed but before your formal submittal, is show your plans informally. This lets them flag issues before you pay application fees.

Now keep one thing in mind as we're discussing this: if you're designing a new custom home or a substantial remodel, the first thing you do is gain planning approval. The second thing you do is gain building department approval. The building department is all about the structure and the safety. The planning department is all about conforming to the bigger picture rules and regulations—mass and scale, setbacks. Some cities even regulate colors and materials, believe it or not. But the building department won't usually look at your project if it's that type of project until the planning department has provided approval for the process.

So that's why going back into the planning department, probably months later, and then presenting your preliminary design or your schematic level design—like we've spoken about in previous episodes, which is design step one—is so important. Your architect has conceptualized a design based on the criteria that you had as a homeowner and your dreams and visions and discovery ideas that you had, and hopefully they've balanced the solutions with what the city and county regulations are.

And that's probably one of the basic questions you're going to want to ask as they present that design to you: "By the way, does this meet all the regulations of the city?" And if you get a long pause or they start looking down at their feet, you know you might have a problem in the future. So ask that question.

Three-Step Policy

These three steps are kind of my policy:

1. Research the planning department website

2. Schedule a pre-design meeting with a planner

3. Schedule a pre-submittal meeting

This really helps protect your experience.

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SECTION 3: NAVIGATING MUNICIPAL CODE & ZONING DISTRICTS

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Bill Reid:

Now let's talk about the municipal code specifically and the zoning districts where the actual rules live. The municipal codes can be hundreds of pages for a city, and sometimes it's in legal language. But you don't need to become a zoning expert. You just need to know how to access it and navigate the basics.

Understanding Zoning Districts

Every property is in a zoning district. These are the categories that group similar properties within their own rules. Like I mentioned earlier, residential neighborhoods usually begin with an "R" and some numbers after that defining the particular zoning district and therefore the rules that will apply to that district.

Go to your city's planning website, find that zoning map, locate your property, and note your district. I know I'm being redundant here, but this is really important stuff. And then you'll go into the master rule book of the city planner, and the section we're talking about here is the zoning.

The book's goal is to inform you how to obtain the information so you can intelligently converse with your design professional. You're not becoming a zoning expert—you're becoming an informed homeowner.

The Critical Next Step

After researching online, you must visit planning in person. Why? In reading municipal codes, there's always room for interpretation, especially for complex formulas. And remember, occasionally supplemental rules to specific neighborhoods are not identified within the standard municipal code. And that's why you can't just read online and think you're done.

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Bill Reid:

All right, here's your action plan:

**Action Step One:** Identify your zoning district from the city's zoning map.

**Action Step Two:** Research the municipal code. Find your district's regulations, highlight confusing areas, and write down questions.

**Action Step Three:** Schedule a pre-design meeting with planning. Bring property info and questions, ask how ordinances apply to your property, and document everything.

**Action Step Four:** Involve your architect early. Share your research, confirm they visit planning before designing, and have them explain how regulations affect your project.

**Action Step Five:** Schedule a pre-submittal meeting. Show plans informally and fix issues before paying fees.

Do these five things and you'll be way ahead of most homeowners.

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EPISODE SUMMARY & KEY TAKEAWAYS

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Bill Reid:

So here's what we covered: Cities regulate what you can build through municipal codes organized by zoning districts. Planning departments enforce these rules.

Your action plan:

- Research zoning

- Read the code

- Meet with planning before designing

- Document everything

- Do pre-submittal review

The big takeaway: Never assume you know the rules. Never assume your design professional knows all the rules, and never skip those planning meetings. The time up front can save you thousands.

Everything we covered and way more detail is in Section 2.302 through 2.304 of my book, *The Awakened Homeowner*, with examples, illustrations of zoning maps and municipal codes, and stories from 35 years of experience. You can visit theawakenedhomeowner.com for those resources in the show notes.

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WHAT'S NEXT

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Bill Reid:

We've just scratched the surface of design limitations. In the upcoming episodes, we're going to be diving into floor area ratio—how cities can limit the size of your home—setbacks, height restrictions, and how much of the lot you can actually cover with buildings.

The next episode is going to be more details about zoning ordinances and floor area ratio, so I don't want you to miss it. Now I've decided to do a little supplemental separate episode, and it'll be a YouTube video of me showing you how to navigate some of these things I've been going on and on about when it comes to diving into a particular city's municipal code and finding the right zonings on a subject piece of property. So I invite you to look for that next episode. And it won't be a podcast episode—it will be a YouTube video that I'll be posting that you can go to and look.

And remember, a lot of these podcast episodes are also uploaded to YouTube if you're not listening there, and you can also watch there. Most of this is all about audio, but as we get deeper and deeper into the mission of *The Awakened Homeowner*, it's probably going to be a little bit more YouTube video presentation as well.

So if this really helped you learn the basics of some proper planning techniques to protect you, I would really love to see any kind of review, even if it's a negative one, even if you want me to cover different things or handle it a different way. But hopefully I'm helping. You can leave a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify or wherever you're listening to this. And if you know anybody that's planning a project, please share this with anybody planning a project, especially in the early stages. This is exactly what they need to hear before making costly mistakes.

All right, that's it for today. Remember: enlighten, empower, protect. Understanding the rules before you design protects you from expensive surprises. I'm Bill Reid, your home building coach. Thanks for listening. Now go make it happen.