Pacifica, CA Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Sec. 1 defines family daycare homes as establishments providing day care for fourteen or fewer children in a dwelling unit, as licensed by the California Department of Social Services, and it treats a family day care home as an activity allowed as part of residential use in any zoning district in which residential uses are either permitted or conditionally permitted. That treatment matters because the R-1 District's permitted-use list at Sec. 401(a)(3) separately confirms family daycare homes for fourteen or fewer children as an outright permitted use alongside a single-family dwelling, without requiring the discretionary use permit that larger community care facilities need.

Because state licensing through the California Department of Social Services is what defines the fourteen-child ceiling in the first place, an operator must hold that state license for the home to qualify for the by-right residential treatment under this section; the City's role is confirming the home fits within the zoning district's residential use category rather than issuing a separate childcare permit. A separate, larger childcare facility use, addressed at the repealed Sec. 2309, is no longer separately codified there, leaving the family day care home definition in Sec. 1, read together with each district's permitted-use list, as the operative City standard for in-home child care.