California’s Density Bonus Law (Government Code Section 65915) lets a housing developer build more homes than local zoning allows, and obtain waivers of development standards, in exchange for including deed-restricted affordable units.
Key features
- The base bonus reaches up to 50 percent more homes than zoning allows; a 2023 amendment lets developers stack a second bonus that can bring the total to 100 percent.
- A city must waive development standards that would physically prevent the bonus project, and may refuse only on narrow grounds such as a specific, unmitigable health or safety impact.
- The law carries its own parking caps: near a major transit stop, a qualifying project cannot be required to provide more than half a space per apartment.
Why it matters for parking
- Because waivers are hard to deny, a density bonus project can trade height for parking: fewer stalls, or stalls above grade instead of below, often decide whether the project pencils.
Related terms: Parking Minimums, AB 2097, SB 79, Transit-Oriented Development.