Lancaster | Parking, Setbacks and Height

Lancaster Parking, Setbacks, Height and Lot Coverage

Four numbers decide how much building fits on a Lancaster lot: the setbacks, the open distances a building must keep from each property line; the height limit; the lot coverage, the share of the lot under roofs; and the parking that must fit beside it all. Lancaster sets them by zone and by building type in Chapter 17.08 of the Municipal Code. This page gathers them for houses, duplexes, apartments, ADUs and SB 9 homes. The Lancaster overview sums up the whole guide.

Houses and Duplexes in the Urban R Zones

Source: Lancaster Municipal Code 17.08.060.B, Supplement 10 - 2025. "Not listed" means the corner duplex column prints "N/A" for that row.

Section 17.08.060.B covers a "Single-Family House or Duplex on Residential Lot." A porch "may encroach up to 6' into front yard setback," and "Corner lots featuring side yard driveway access require a minimum 20-foot driveway and street side yard setback." The corner duplex column sets a 10 foot interior side yard and prints no rear, combined side or street side figure, so ask the Planning Division which numbers it applies there. Lot coverage, as Section 17.04.240 defines it, counts every building "which extends more than 3 feet above the surface of the ground and including any covered vehicular parking spaces." By VanPlex arithmetic, a 60 by 116 foot R-7,000 lot of 6,960 square feet would fall short of the 7,000 square foot minimum, while a 60 by 117 foot lot of 7,020 square feet meets it and, at 50 percent, may carry 3,510 square feet of roofed area.

Rural Lots

Source: Lancaster Municipal Code 17.08.060.A.

On rural lots, "All garages shall be located at or behind the wall plane where the front entrance is located," except on individual custom homes. The rural zones allow taller houses than the urban zones, 40 feet in RR-2.5 and RR-1, with lower coverage, 30 percent in RR-2.5.

Apartments, Mixed Use, ADUs and SB 9 Homes

• MDR and HDR, 3 to 15 homes. Front setback 0 feet on a street with on-street parking, 8 feet next to single-family homes on the same street, 20 feet on an arterial; side 10 feet, street side 15, rear 15. Coverage 50 percent. Height 55 feet, or 35 feet "within 100 feet of SFR zone."
• MDR and HDR, 16 or more homes. Side 15 feet, street side 20, rear 15; height 72 feet, or 35 feet within 100 feet of a single-family zone.
• Mixed use zones. Height in stories: 2 for a detached house, 3 for 1 to 15 homes, 4 for 16 or more, 5 on a major arterial, and 50 feet for commercial and mixed-use buildings. Apartment side yards are 10 feet on the first floor and 15 feet on the second and third, with 10 foot rear yards.
• ADUs. Front 25 feet, side and rear 4 feet. Attached ADUs up to 25 feet and 2 stories; detached ADUs 18 feet, or 20 to match the roof pitch of the house. Government Code 66321 guarantees at least 16 feet for a detached ADU.
• SB 9 homes. Front 25 feet, side and rear 4 feet, one story and 22 feet, 50 percent coverage. Lancaster waives any standard other than side and rear setbacks that would stop two homes of 800 square feet, as Government Code 65852.21 requires.

Chimneys, domes, elevator housings, spires, steeples and towers "not used for human occupancy are not subject to the height limitations of this title" under Section 17.40.630; the exception does not cover signs or wind energy systems.

Parking Requirements

Sources: Lancaster Municipal Code 17.08.100, 17.41.018 and 17.41.058. The table applies on sites more than one-half mile from a major transit stop.

Lancaster's parking minimums apply only on sites "more than one-half mile from a major transit stop." Within that distance, "no parking is required," with exceptions for hotels and for projects of 20 or more homes where the City finds, within 30 days of a complete application, a "substantially negative impact." A major transit stop is defined in Section 21155 of the Public Resources Code; ask the City which stops it counts. "Fractional space requirements for a parking space shall be rounded up to the next whole space." The Director may also reduce parking "if the builder can sufficiently demonstrate, through research and analysis that the development warrants fewer parking," for example near transit or in exchange for in-lieu fees.

Parking design rules in Section 17.08.100.E:

• Space sizes. Garage 10 by 20 feet; carport 9.5 by 19 feet; open space 9 by 18 feet; compact 8 by 16 feet, up to 35 percent of a lot and only for guest spaces at apartments; parallel 8 by 22 feet.
• Driveways. "Garages shall be accessed via a minimum 20-foot-length driveway," at least 20 feet wide, or 12 feet for tandem or rear garages.
• Location. Parking other than driveways may not sit in a required front or street side setback. Cars must leave the lot facing forward, except on lots with 4 or fewer homes.
• Curb cuts. Up to 24 feet wide for single-family homes and 35 feet for apartments; two cuts on one lot at least 20 feet apart and no more than 40 percent of the frontage.
• Front yard paving. "In no instance shall flat, paved surfaces, including driveways, cover more than 50% of a single-family front yard."

Parking in Mixed Use Zones and Under the Design Standards

Homes in the mixed use zones use the residential parking table, with added rules in Section 17.10.060.D. Apartments with a private enclosed garage for each home count as a duplex, triplex or fourplex, at 2 garage spaces per home; apartments that share a parking structure use the rates for 5 or more homes. Each private garage needs "a 100 cu. sq. ft. shelving area for storage," a driveway no wider than 12 feet for one garage or 26 feet in total for several, and 4 feet of landscaping between separate driveways. Home and business spaces in a mixed-use building "shall not be shared."

The objective design standards in Section 17.41.084 add layout rules for every residential project. For buildings with more than 2 homes, "no off-street parking, off-street vehicle loading, or vehicular circulation areas shall be located between the building and the primary street frontage," except on an arterial where rear parking is not possible and the cars are screened to a height of 5 feet. Parking lots of more than 50 spaces must be divided into smaller lots of no more than 50. RVs and boats must be parked behind the front of the main building, and for one or two homes paved parking and driveways may not cover more than half of the front yard.

Two smaller rules round out the parking chapter. Accessible spaces follow the table in Section 17.08.100.D: 1 for a lot of 1 to 25 spaces, 2 for 26 to 50, rising to 2 percent of the total for 501 to 1,000 spaces. And a garage converted to living space in a house, which Section 17.08.220 allows, "shall be replaced by 2 covered or uncovered, surfaced, off-street parking spaces on the site," while a garage converted to an ADU needs no replacement.

Accessory Buildings and Projections

Section 17.08.160 sets the limits for sheds, garages, patio covers and pools. A detached shed of 120 square feet or less may be 8 feet tall with no setback from the side and rear lines; a larger shed or gazebo "One story or 12 feet" with 5 feet; a detached garage without a second-story home 20 feet tall at the line, as long as it does not drain onto the neighbor. All need 6 feet from the house. "No more than 50% of the required rear yard shall be covered by roofed structures," and "Infill residential lots (smaller than 7,000 square feet) may have up to 60%." Eaves and awnings may reach "2½ feet into any required front or side yard or 5 feet into a rear yard," keeping 3 feet from the line, and raised porches and decks may reach 2 feet into interior side yards and 5 feet into front yards.

Where the Code Disagrees With Itself

• Two projection rules. Section 17.28.030, carried over from the County code, lets eaves reach "2½ feet into any required yard" and come within 2.5 feet of a lot line. Section 17.08.160.B, written for the residential zones, allows 5 feet into a rear yard but keeps a 3 foot distance. For a home in a residential zone, the specific Section 17.08.160 is the one to design to; confirm with the Planning Division.
• A wrong cross-reference. Note 2 under the parking table sends large parking lots to "subsection 17.08.090.D (Parking design and performance standards)." Section 17.08.090 is the density bonus section. The parking design standards are in Section 17.08.100.E.
• Corner duplex rows. The corner duplex column prints "N/A" for the rear, combined side and street side yards, so the table gives no figure for them.

Where to Go Next

Related on VanPlex: the Lancaster overview and the duplex to fourplex guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Official sources (checked October 2026)