Fresno | Zoning Districts

Fresno Zoning Districts: Single-Unit, Multi-Unit and Mixed-Use Rules for Small Multiplex Projects

A zoning district is the label the City puts on each lot to say what may be built there. Fresno writes its districts into Chapter 15 of the Fresno Municipal Code, the Citywide Development Code. This page explains the house districts, the apartment districts and the mixed-use and downtown districts, and how many homes each one allows on a lot. It was read in Supplement 54 of the code, which includes City ordinances through No. 2026-001, plus a July 2026 Council action that the code does not show yet.

How the Code Is Organized

Section 15-107 divides the city into base districts and overlay districts. A base district sets the main rules for a lot: the uses allowed, the number of homes, the height and the setbacks. An overlay district is a second layer placed on top of some base districts. It changes a few rules, often design or setback rules, and leaves the rest of the base district in place.

Table 15-107-A lists the residential base districts in two groups. The Residential Single-Unit (RS) group has six districts: RE (Residential Estate), RS-1 (Extremely Low Density), RS-2 (Very Low Density), RS-3 (Low Density), RS-4 (Medium Low Density) and RS-5 (Medium Density). The Residential Multi-Unit (RM) group has RM-1 (Medium High Density), RM-2 (Urban Neighborhood), RM-3 (High Density) and RM-MH (Mobile Home Park). Other groups cover mixed-use (NMX, CMX, RMX), commercial, employment, public and downtown land (DTN, DTG, DTC).

The names changed in 2025. Ordinance 2025-024, effective July 27, 2025, renamed Article 9 from "Residential Single-Family Districts" to Residential Single-Unit Districts, and Article 10 from "Residential Multi-Family Districts" to Residential Multi-Unit Districts. Older City documents, maps and staff reports use the former names. The district symbols, such as RS-5 and RM-2, stayed the same.

Each district matches a land use category in the Fresno General Plan, the City's long-range plan. Section 15-901 says the RS districts carry out the General Plan classes of "Low Density Residential," "Medium Low Density Residential," and "Medium Density Residential." Section 15-1001 says the RM districts carry out "Medium High Density Residential," "Urban Neighborhood Density Residential," and "High Density Residential." A request to move a lot from an RS district to an RM district is a rezone, which goes to the Planning Commission and the City Council under Table 15-4907.

The Six Single-Unit Districts

Table 15-903-1 sets the lot size and the number of homes for each RS district. The minimum lot size is the smallest lot the City will create in a new subdivision. The density figures need one more term. Density is the number of homes on a piece of land. Fresno counts it two ways, explained in the next section.

Source: Fresno Municipal Code Table 15-903-1 and Table 15-107-A, Supplement 54. On a small site, every district allows 1 home per lot.

The same table sets a maximum lot size for three districts: 32,000 square feet in RS-3, 9,000 in RS-4 and 6,500 in RS-5. A note under the table lets a developer exceed those maximums when the overall density of the project does not fall below the General Plan density. RS-5 can also use a 2,500 square foot minimum lot when the project provides an "Enhanced Streetscape," a set of street-facing design features listed in Section 15-904-B, such as a front porch, a landscaped parkway strip or an alley-loaded garage. At least five of the fifteen listed features must be present.

Large Sites, Small Sites and the One-Home Rule

Section 15-310 explains how the RS density numbers apply. A site is "large" when its area before subdividing is greater than the maximum lot size for its district. For a large site, density is counted "in dwelling units per net acre of the subdivision." Net acreage is the land left after major streets, schools, regional trails, wetlands and land under power lines are taken out. The code's own example: 150 homes on 30 net acres is five homes per acre.

A site is "small" when its area is equal to or less than the district maximum. Then density "shall be measured in dwelling units per subdivided residential lot," and Table 15-903-1 sets that figure at 1 for every RS district. This is the rule that matters for most existing house lots in Fresno: an RS lot holds one main home. Both parts of Section 15-310 add the same sentence: "Second/Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) shall be excluded from this calculation." An ADU, a second smaller home on the same lot, does not use up the one-home count.

So the routes to more than one home on an RS lot are these:

• ADUs. Section 15-2754 allows up to two ADUs and one junior ADU on a lot with a single home. See the Fresno ADU and SB 9 page.
• SB 9 (2021). State law allows two main homes, a lot split, or both, on a lot in a single-family zone. The City's SB 9 checklist lists RE and RS-1 to RS-5 as the eligible districts.
• RS-5 use permits. In RS-5 only, a duplex or a multi-unit building may be approved with a Conditional Use Permit, and a cottage housing cluster is permitted. See the three or more homes page.
• A rezone. Moving the lot into an RM district allows several homes, but it is a decision by the City Council.

Which Housing Types Each RS District Lists

Table 15-902 uses letters. "P" designates permitted uses. "C" designates uses that need a Conditional Use Permit, a permit that requires review of the specific project and can carry conditions. A dash means the use is not permitted. The housing rows read as follows (RS-1 to RS-3 have the same letters, so they share a column here).

Source: Fresno Municipal Code Table 15-902, as amended by Ordinance 2025-024.

An attached single-unit home is a home on its own lot that shares a wall with a home on the next lot, such as a townhouse. The code defines a duplex as "A single building on a lot that contains two dwelling units or two single-unit dwellings on a single lot," and multi-unit residential as "Three or more dwelling units on a site or lot." A cottage housing development is "A group of single-unit homes, typically smaller than 1,200 square feet," arranged around a shared green space.

Table 15-902 leaves SB 9 out and marks a duplex in RS-1 to RS-4 with a dash. State law in Government Code 65852.21 still requires the City to approve two homes on a qualifying single-family lot by staff review. Fresno's SB 9 checklist tells applicants to file that project as a zone clearance. Where the table and the statute differ, the statute controls.

The Multi-Unit (RM) Districts

Table 15-1002 permits duplexes and multi-unit buildings in RM-1, RM-2 and RM-3 with a "P." RM-1 also permits detached houses (under the RS-5 standards), attached single-unit homes and cottage housing. RM-2 permits attached single-unit homes. RM-MH is for mobile home parks. In the RM districts, density is counted per acre of the site, and Table 15-1003 sets a minimum and a maximum.

Source: Fresno Municipal Code Table 15-1003. Open space is a share of lot area.

The code has no minimum lot size for the RM districts; the homes-per-acre range does that work. Section 15-303 sets the rounding rule: "The maximum number of residential units shall not exceed the maximums per the base district," with an exception only for the state density bonus. Worked examples by VanPlex on a 10,000 square foot lot (0.2296 acre): RM-1 at 16 per acre gives 3.67, so 3 homes; RM-2 at 30 per acre gives 6.89, so 6 homes; RM-3 at 45 per acre gives 10.33, so 10 homes.

The minimum matters too. RM-1 has a minimum of 12 homes per acre, which on the same 10,000 square foot lot is 2.75 homes, so a single house on that lot falls below the RM-1 minimum. Table 15-1002 does list a detached house in RM-1, with a limit that says the development standards for the RS-5 district apply to it.

Mixed-Use and Downtown Districts

Housing is also allowed in the mixed-use districts. Table 15-1103 sets minimum densities of 12 homes per acre in NMX (Neighborhood Mixed-Use), 16 in CMX (Corridor/Center Mixed-Use) and 30 in RMX (Regional Mixed-Use), with heights of 40, 60 and 75 feet. The table lists no maximum density; it was last amended by Ordinance 2022-029. The minimum does not apply to lots under 20,000 square feet, to projects more than 1,000 feet from a planned or existing bus rapid transit route, or to projects that applied for a Development Permit before January 1, 2019.

The three Downtown districts allow more. Table 15-1503 lists "No Limit" for both floor area ratio (building floor area divided by lot area) and residential density in DTN, DTG and DTC. Height is capped at 6 floors or 90 feet in DTN, 10 floors or 140 feet in DTG, and 15 floors or 190 feet in DTC.

One overlay changes the mixed-use numbers. Section 15-1614 creates the Focused Infill (FI) Overlay, added by Ordinance 2020-044, which sets a "maximum permitted residential density" of 48 homes per acre in NMX, CMS and CR, 90 in CMX, and 135 in RMX. That text predates the 2022 change that left Table 15-1103 with minimums only, and the code does not say how the two fit together. The FI overlay is also missing from Table 15-107-B, the list of overlay districts. Section 15-104 gives internal conflicts in the code to the Review Authority, the official or body deciding the permit, so ask the Planning and Development Department which number applies to a lot in the FI overlay.

Overlay Districts That Touch Housing

Article 16 holds the overlays. Table 15-107-B lists eleven. Four matter most for small residential projects:

• Neighborhood Revitalization (NR). Near Downtown. A duplex needs no neighborhood meeting, and multi-unit housing "at a density of 16 dwelling units per acre or less" needs none either. The overlay adds design rules for RS-3 and RS-5 lots.
• Apartment House (AH). For pre-World War II neighborhoods with small apartment houses. It permits attached homes and multi-unit housing in all locations, caps lots at 15,000 square feet and height at 35 feet, and sets a 4-foot side setback.
• Kearney Boulevard Historic Corridor (KB). Front setbacks, fences and trees along Kearney Boulevard.
• Residential Modifying (RM overlay). Not the same as the RM base districts. It bars some non-home uses, such as schools and religious assembly, in designated residential areas.

The historic properties and overlays page covers the AH, NR and KB rules in detail.

Recent Changes: 2025 and 2026

Two ordinances in 2025 and one Council action in 2026 changed how housing is approved in these districts.

• Ordinance 2025-024 (effective July 27, 2025). Renamed the districts, rewrote the ADU section 15-2754, and amended the RS and RM use and standard tables.
• Ordinance 2025-023 (effective December 26, 2025). The latest amendment to Section 15-5102, which now carries a part titled "Additional Housing Streamlining." Under it, a zone clearance, the City's staff-level check with no public notice, now covers multi-unit housing in RM-1, RM-2 and RM-3 "on parcels that are within ½ mile of an existing bus stop," multi-unit housing in the mixed-use and CMS and CR districts inside the City's Infill Priority Area, and new multi-unit housing in the O (Office) district.
• Text Amendment P26-01326 (passed July 30, 2026). The Council approved it on its consent calendar. It amends Sections 15-1002, 15-1102, 15-1502, 15-5102 and 15-6802 so that housing with "at least 20 percent of units affordable to lower-income households" is allowed without discretionary action on "any nonvacant site identified in a prior housing element" and on vacant sites listed in two or more consecutive Housing Elements. The ordinance takes effect "on the thirty-first day after its final passage." Supplement 54 of the code does not include it.

One City document disagrees with the code in force. The draft ordinance for P26-01326 prints Table 15-1002 with the heading "RESIDENTIAL MULTI-FAMILY DISTRICTS" and a "Second Dwelling Unit" row, which are the names in use before Ordinance 2025-024. The Council record also says the bill was "Introduced June 25, 2025," while the same record says the Planning Commission first considered the amendment on June 3, 2026. Until the City publishes the codified text, read the new footnote together with the July 2025 version of the table.

Older and Smaller Lots

Many Fresno lots were created before the current code, which took effect on January 9, 2016 through Ordinance 2015-39. Section 15-2019 protects them: "Any lot or parcel of land that was legally created may be used as a building site even when consisting of less area, width, or depth than that required by the regulations for the district in which it is located." The lot keeps the same yard and density rules as a standard lot, and the Director "may reduce the side and rear yard requirements at a ratio equivalent with the non-conformity." The lot may not be made smaller, except for a public improvement.

A 40-foot wide RS-4 lot is one example. The district asks for 50 feet, so the lot is 20 percent narrow. The Director may scale the side yard rule by the same share. Ask for that reduction in writing before you design.

Where to Go Next

Related on VanPlex: the Fresno overview, SB 9 in California and the duplex to fourplex guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Official sources (checked October 2026)