Santa Barbara County, CA Building Setbacks & Zoning: Structure Height Limits (2026)

This 25-foot cap comes from the R-1/E-1 chapter of the Coastal Zoning Ordinance and is ten feet lower than the county's own Rural Residential (RR) zone, which allows 35 feet, so the number changes with the zoning designation on the parcel, not just the location. 1: the vertical distance between existing grade and the uppermost point of the structure directly above that grade, using Figure 7-1 in the code as the reference diagram. Parcels subject to the county's Ridgeline and Hillside Development Guidelines (Sec. 35-144) face a separate ceiling measured differently: 32 feet from the lowest point where an exterior wall meets grade, outside the Montecito Community Plan area, or 28 feet inside it, and that measurement runs from the lowest wall-to-grade intersection rather than a single existing-grade point.

Roof pitch earns a modest bonus: a structure otherwise at its height limit may add up to three feet where the roof pitches at 4-in-12 or greater, except within the Summerland Community Plan's Urban Grid, where pitch bonuses are barred outright, and its Commercial Core, where a steeper 5-in-12 pitch is required for the same three feet. Chimneys, spires, elevator and stair housings, flagpoles, and noncommercial antennas are exempt up to 50 feet, and architectural elements covering no more than 10 percent of the roof area or 400 square feet, whichever is less, can go 8 feet over the limit with Board of Architectural Review approval, though that allowance cannot stack with the roof-pitch bonus.