Zoning Districts in Nevada City

The city is divided into several base zoning districts, which establish the primary regulations for land use. Additionally, combining districts may be attached to these base districts to apply more specific development standards.

Base Zoning Districts

The following base zoning districts are established within the city [§ 17.08.010]:

• AF - Agriculture Forestry
• RR - Rural Residential
• R1 - Single Family Residential
• R2 - Multiple Family Residential
• R3 - High Density Multiple Family Residential
• LB - Local Business
• GB - General Business
• LI - Light Industrial
• OP - Office and Professional
• EC - Employment Center
• SL - Service Lodging
• P - Public
• OS - Open Space
• PR - Public/Recreation

Combining Districts

The regulations of the base zone districts may be made more restrictive by adding various combining district regulations to achieve a desired level of development standards and land use application processing. More than one combining district may be attached to a base zoning district [§ 17.08.010, § 17.68.010].

The combining districts referenced in the code include:

• HD - Historical District [§ 17.68.010]
• SC - Scenic Corridor [§ 17.68.010]
• X - Excluding Subdivision (intended to prohibit further division of lands and permanently freeze parcel sizes) [§ 17.68.350]
• SP - Site Performance (intended to provide a greater level of mitigation for land use impacts and allow for conditional approval of rezonings and prezonings) [§ 17.68.300]
• Development Agreements - Considered a combining zone when used with an existing district [§ 17.108.020]

(Note: An example of a combined district designation is "OP-HD-SC," which indicates the Office and Professional base district combined with both the Historical District and Scenic Corridor regulations [§ 17.68.010].)