Milpitas, CA Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Milpitas Municipal Code Section C.10.140, adopted by Ordinance No. 38.858 on September 2, 2025, governs large family child care homes operated out of a residence. The Table B.4.020-A land use table marks a Large Family Child Care Home 'P' in the R1, R2, R3 and R4 zones and the mobile home park (MHP) zone, meaning the home business is permitted by right and does not need a discretionary use permit to open. Development Standards Subsection C.1 nonetheless imposes a spacing rule: large family child care homes must be spaced at least 300 feet apart from each other, so a second home-based daycare cannot open within that distance of an existing one.

The Planning Commission may waive the 300-foot spacing and allow homes closer together, but only through approval of a Conditional Use Permit under Subsection D.4.030 (Use Permits), which requires a public hearing before the Commission rather than administrative sign-off. Subsection C.3 sets the only operating-hours limit in the Section: a large family child care home may not operate before 6:30 a.m. or after 7:30 p.m., a restriction that applies regardless of the 300-foot spacing outcome. The parking standard in Subsection C.2, requiring off-street spaces consistent with Chapter C.6 (Parking and Loading), applies to the home as well, since the Applicability clause reaches all large family child care and child care uses covered by Part XIII-B.

Because state law caps a large family child care home's licensed capacity and licenses it through the state, Milpitas's own regulation is limited to the spacing, hours, and parking standards quoted here rather than staffing or child-capacity rules.