Monterey Park, CA Building Setbacks & Zoning: Lot Coverage Limits (2026)

Section 21.04.287 gives Monterey Park's working definition of lot coverage: the percentage of a site covered by roofs, soffits, or overhangs that extend more than three feet from a wall, and by decks taller than four feet, while roofs with 50% or more open or perforated surface area, pools, and hot tubs are excluded from the calculation. That definition feeds into the development standards for each zone. In the Open Space (O-S) zone, Section 21.07.060(B) sets the plainest numeric ceiling in the code: the maximum coverage of all structures on a lot shall be 25% of the total gross lot area, though the City Council can raise that figure if it finds the increase necessary or desirable to meet the chapter's purpose.

The O-S zone covers the city's parks, playgrounds, and public recreational land, so this cap applies to structures on those public and quasi-public sites rather than to typical single-family lots. For the R-1, R-2, and R-3 residential zones, the code does not use a lot-coverage percentage at all; instead Section 21.08.080's Table 21.08(E) caps building bulk through a floor area ratio, a different metric measuring total floor area against lot size rather than ground footprint. A property owner comparing an O-S parcel to a residential lot cannot apply the 25% figure across zone lines: the O-S cap and the residential floor-area-ratio limits are calculated under different formulas set out in different sections of Chapter 21.07 and Chapter 21.08.