State-licensed family day care homes are allowed in Santa Barbara's residential zones. The legacy City code permitted small family day care homes by right and required a Performance Standard Permit for large homes (Chapter 28.93). Under California SB 234 (2019, HSC 1597.46), both small and large family daycare are now a residential use by right, preempting that local permit and spacing scheme.
The City of Santa Barbara's zoning code defines a 'Family Day Care Home' (SBMC 28.04.295) as a state-licensed home providing care for children under 18 for less than 24 hours a day, incorporating the state definitions of 'Large' and 'Small Family Day Care Home' in California Health and Safety Code Sections 1597.465 and 1597.44. The legacy Title 28 code listed a state-licensed Small Family Day Care Home as a permitted use in the one-family residence zones (A-1, A-2, E-1, E-2, E-3, R-1) and listed a Large Family Day Care Home as allowed 'subject to the provisions in Chapter 28.93' - the Performance Standard Permit process. That legacy large-home process (SBMC 28.93.030) imposed conditions such as no other large day care home within a 300-foot radius, adequate passenger loading area, outdoor play limited to 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and an additional employee parking space. Important state-law note: California SB 234 (2019), codified at HSC 1597.46, now requires that the use of a home as a small OR large family daycare home be treated as a residential use by right for all local ordinances - prohibiting conditional use permits, business license fees imposed solely for daycare, and (per the law's by-right classification) spacing requirements. So the older local large-home Performance Standard Permit and 300-foot spacing rule are preempted by state law; family daycare operators primarily comply with state licensing rather than a discretionary City permit.
Because state law makes family daycare a by-right residential use, the City cannot deny it through zoning; however, operating without the required state license, or operating a use that exceeds the licensed family-daycare definition, remains enforceable by the state and City.
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See how Santa Barbara's home daycare rules stack up against other locations.
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