Cities | Fresno

Fresno Multiplex Rules 2026: ADUs, SB 9, RM Districts and Infill Fee Waivers

Fresno is the fifth largest city in California by the Census Bureau's 2025 estimate, and its rules for more than one home on a lot sit in Chapter 15 of the Fresno Municipal Code, the Citywide Development Code. This page sums up the routes to two, three, four or more homes on a Fresno lot, what each one allows, and where the City's rules differ from state law. Every code section was read in Supplement 54, which includes City ordinances through No. 2026-001. The seven guide pages below go into each topic.

Fresno Guide Pages

Start With State Law

Four state laws set the floor Fresno must allow. SB 9 (2021) allows two main homes on a lot in a single-family zone, a split into two lots, or both, approved by staff with no hearing. ADU law sets the accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and junior ADUs a city must allow. A junior ADU is a unit of 500 square feet or less inside the walls of the house. SB 684 and SB 1123 allow maps of up to 10 lots with 10 homes. SB 79 raises zoning near qualifying rail and bus stops, but only in an "urban transit county," which Government Code 65912.156 defines as "a county with more than 15 passenger rail stations."

HCD's SB 79 advisory lists Alameda, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and San Diego Counties as the places where the upzoning took effect on July 1, 2026. Fresno County is outside that list. SB 9, the ADU law and SB 684 all apply in Fresno today.

Fresno is a charter city, a city that runs under its own local charter. Charter Section 200 gives it "the power to make and enforce all laws and regulations in respect to municipal affairs, subject only to such restrictions and limitations as may be provided in this Charter and in the Constitution of the State of California." The City applies SB 9 through a posted submittal checklist, and its ADU section says "the Government Code shall prevail" in any conflict.

Fresno in Numbers

The US Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 city file estimates 555,549 people in the City of Fresno on July 1, 2025, up from a 2020 estimates base of 542,228. In that file Fresno ranks after Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and San Francisco, and ahead of Sacramento (536,449). Fresno County has 1,035,456 people in the same file.

The City's 2023 to 2031 Housing Element, its state-required housing plan, carries a regional housing target of 36,866 homes, according to the staff report for Text Amendment P26-01326.

The Routes to More Homes Compared

Sources: Fresno Municipal Code 15-2754, 15-906, 15-1003, 15-2723 and 15-5102; City SB 9 checklist; Government Code 66499.41.

House Lots: One Home Plus ADUs

Fresno's single-unit districts are RE and RS-1 to RS-5. Table 15-903-1 sets density on a small site at one home per lot, and Section 15-310 says "Second/Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) shall be excluded from this calculation." So the first way to add homes is the ADU. Section 15-2754, rewritten by Ordinance 2025-024 effective July 27, 2025, allows "Up to two ADUs and one JADUs per lot" where a single home stands, with no parking, a size cap of 1,400 square feet or half the main home's floor area, whichever is greater, and a height of the district limit or 30 feet, whichever is greater. In the RS districts that height is 35 feet. ADUs may also be sold apart from the house through a condominium or a parcel map.

One City rule is stricter than the statute. Section 15-2754 requires the owner to live on site with any junior ADU, while Government Code 66333 drops that rule when the junior ADU has its own bathroom. The statute controls. See the ADU and SB 9 page.

SB 9 in Fresno

Fresno has no SB 9 section in its code. The City's submittal checklist sends a two-unit project to a zone clearance and a lot split to a tentative parcel map, and limits both to "the RE, RS-1, RS-2, RS-3, RS-4, and RS-5 zone districts." Split lots must be at least 1,200 square feet and at least 40 percent of the original lot. The applicant for a split promises to live in one of the homes for three years. When an owner wants both, the checklist says the lot split "will need to be submitted and approved first."

The checklist names the state limits: setbacks of no more than 4 feet from side and rear lines, no standard that blocks two homes of 800 square feet, and parking of up to one space per unit, none near high-quality transit. The lots and subdivisions page covers the split in detail.

Three or More Homes

The RM districts are where Fresno allows apartment buildings outright. RM-1 allows 12 to 16 homes per acre and 40 feet of height, RM-2 16 to 30 and 50 feet, and RM-3 30 to 45 and 60 feet. Section 15-5102(E) lets "Multi-unit residential development in the RM-1, RM-2, and RM-3 Districts on parcels that are within ½ mile of an existing bus stop" proceed with a zone clearance. Table 15-4907 describes the same permit with a narrower test, "within half a mile of a Major Transit Stop," so ask the City which test applies to your parcel.

In RS-5, a duplex or multi-unit building needs a Conditional Use Permit, a neighborhood meeting and a density of 5 to 12 homes per acre, which means at least 7,260 square feet for two homes by VanPlex arithmetic. RS-5 and RM-1 also permit cottage clusters of 4 to 12 homes of 600 to 1,200 square feet around shared open space. The three or more homes page covers each route, the density bonus and the transit bonus.

On July 30, 2026, the City Council approved Text Amendment P26-01326, which allows housing with "at least 20 percent of units affordable to lower-income households" without discretionary action on listed prior Housing Element sites. It takes effect 31 days after final passage and is not yet in Supplement 54.

Lot Size, Setbacks and Height

Table 15-903-1 sets the smallest lot the City will create in each single-unit district: 5 acres in RE, 36,000 square feet in RS-1, 20,000 in RS-2, 9,000 in RS-3, 5,000 in RS-4 and 4,000 in RS-5. A standard RS-5 lot must be at least 35 feet wide and 70 feet deep, and a standard RS-4 lot 50 feet wide and 85 feet deep. A lot that was legally created before the current rules may still be built on even when it is smaller, under Section 15-2019.

Every single-unit district has a 35-foot height limit. In RS-5, the front setback is 13 feet, measured from the back of the sidewalk, the side setbacks total 8 feet with at least 3 feet on each side, the rear setback is 10 feet, and buildings may cover 60 percent of the lot. ADUs are left out of that coverage figure. A house or a duplex needs one parking space per home inside a garage, and driveway parking does not count toward it. The parking, setbacks and height page lists the figures for every district.

Older Buildings and Older Blocks

Age matters in Fresno. A building more than 50 years old may be designated a Historic Resource, and a zone-clearance housing project that demolishes or changes the outside of a building over 50 years old needs a Historic Resource evaluation first. Once a designation hearing is noticed, permits for that property are stopped for 90 days. SB 9 does not apply to a lot in a historic district or to a listed historic property.

Three overlays shape older blocks: the Apartment House overlay for pre-World War II neighborhoods of small apartment houses, the Neighborhood Revitalization overlay near Downtown, which drops the neighborhood meeting for a duplex, and the Kearney Boulevard Historic Corridor. The historic properties and overlays page covers each one and the Mills Act tax contract.

Fees and Incentives

The Master Fee Schedule effective July 1, 2026 lists, per single-family home, a park fee of $5,110.55, a fire fee of $2,286.13 and a traffic signal fee of $762.39. Homes in multi-family projects above 7.5 homes per acre pay $3,853.92, $1,743.86 and $591.30. Street fees are charged per gross acre. Fresno reduces these costs in three ways:

• Inner City discount. Many planning fees, including the Conditional Use Permit and Development Permit, are cut 50 percent in the 21 square mile Inner City area.
• Infill waiver. Article 4.16 waives park, police, fire and street facilities fees for new housing on sites of 6.5 net acres or less in the City's infill priority areas.
• Rebuild exemption. Article 4.12 exempts the replacement of a house, duplex, triplex or fourplex with the same number of units from impact fees.

State law bars impact fees on an ADU of 750 square feet or less. Fresno's code also bars the Council from adopting inclusionary zoning until the 2014 General Plan is replaced, so no share of affordable homes is required. See the permits and fees page.

Where to Go Next

Related on VanPlex: the California impact fees page and the duplex to fourplex guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Official sources (checked October 2026)