Housing Opportunity Districts (HOD)

The Housing Opportunity Districts (HODs) project implements the City's General Plan policies and Housing Element program. The project comprehensively amended the General Plan and zoning regulations in the Neighborhood Commercial Mixed-Use (NCMU) and Town Center (TC) areas. It establishes distinct zones within these areas, each with specific requirements and allowances based on factors such as parcel size, location, and current use. The zones permit increased residential density and reduced minimum non-residential floor area ratios (FARs) to promote versatile development. 

The City Council adopted the Housing Opportunity Districts project on April 15, 2025. The new zoning districts went into effect on June 6, 2025.  

Project Files:

NCMU & TC Areas

HODs

Video Presentations

The City produced three informative videos that provide an overview of the project and the zoning changes in each zone. Please use the links below to watch the videos. We have also prepared an HOD Factsheet (PDF) that provides an overview of the project.

Video 1: Housing Opportunity Districts (HOD) Overview (7 min)

Video 2: Neighborhood Commercial Mixed-Use (NCMU) HOD (7 min)

Video 3: Town Center (TC) HOD (4 min)

  1. Background
  2. FAQs
  3. Previous Project Materials

Governor Newsom's 2019-20 Budget Act allocated $250 million to address California's affordable housing shortage and homelessness. This included $119 million for the Local Early Action Planning Grant (LEAP), a non-competitive program for cities and counties to update planning documents and accelerate housing production. The City applied for LEAP funding to create Housing Opportunity Districts (HODs) in priority areas identified in its General Plan. HODs provides incentives such as density bonuses, relaxed standards, streamlined permitting, and financial support for affordable housing. The City of Milpitas was awarded a $300,000 LEAP grant on September 2, 2020, and subsequently approved a professional services agreement with Raimi and Associates to prepare the HODs by June 30, 2024, in coordination with other ongoing planning efforts.