Inglewood, CA Zoning Overlays & Bonuses: Downtown Design Guide (2026)

5, part of the Article 8 C-1 Limited Commercial Zone regulations, applies only within the mapped downtown boundary and yields to the Downtown Inglewood and Fairview Heights Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Plan wherever the two conflict. The rule bans roof lines that create overly prominent building designs like geodesic domes, A-frames and mansard roofs. Air conditioning equipment is barred from any front facade and from any other facade that has a pedestrian entry, pushing mechanical equipment to side or rear walls. New buildings at street corners must include design elements such as building cutoffs or trellis structures that focus visual interest on the intersection, plus a minimum ten-foot setback from the adjacent intersection.

Security retrofits are tightly specified: a proprietor who wants physical security on a street-facing storefront must install laminated glass, a minimum of two one-eighth-inch panes with a six one-hundredths-inch inner layer, or four ten-thousandths-inch security film behind existing windows, or a mall-style roll-up door that stays out of view during business hours; permanent security bars and metal doors are flatly prohibited, and metal gates or scissor-style security grilles need Planning Division sign-off. Awnings and canopies must clear eight feet from the sidewalk grade, project no more than six feet from the building facade, and use a single color or a two-color stripe or motif.

New live-work units built in the C-1 zone must meet Section 12-6's minimum dwelling requirements, provide a five-hundred-square-foot minimum unit size with at least fifty percent devoted to nonresidential use and a minimum two-hundred-fifty-square-foot residential floor area, and add on-site laundry once a site holds more than five dwelling units.