Here's the short answer: California requires two distinct types of bike parking — and they're not interchangeable. Short-term racks (Class II) near your building entrance are for visitors who'll be in and out in an hour. Secure long-term storage (Class I) — lockers, locked bike rooms, or key-card cages — is for the employee who rides in every day and actually cares whether their bike is still there at 5 p.m. CALGreen sets the floor. Oakland, San Francisco, and a growing list of cities have raised it considerably.

If you're submitting a permit in California and you've got one type where the other belongs, you're getting a correction notice. Let's sort it out.

Class I vs. Class II: The Definitions That Matter at Plan Check

California cities borrowed the Class I / Class II framework from APBP (the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals) and the NACTO design guide. Most ordinances use the terms consistently:

The mismatch that shows up in about half the permit sets we review: the architect puts Class II racks in the parking structure basement (locked away from visitors, inconvenient for everyone) and leaves the employee bike room as an open, unlockable alcove. Both fail. Proximity and security are part of the code requirement — count.

CALGreen 2022 Minimums (The Statewide Floor)

CALGreen 2022 (Title 24, Part 11) governs bike parking for most new construction in California. The two sections to know:

For a typical office project under CALGreen alone, you'd need 1 short-term space per 10,000 SF and 1 long-term space per 10,000 SF, with a minimum of 1 each. For multifamily, CALGreen requires 1 short-term space per 20 units and 1 long-term covered space per unit.

Those are minimums. If you're in Oakland or San Francisco, stop reading the CALGreen table and go read the local ordinance — the city's numbers are the ones that matter.

What Locker Types Actually Count as Class I

Not everything labeled "bike storage" qualifies as Class I. Here's what does — and what doesn't.

Individual Bike Lockers

Single-bike metal lockers (typically 6–7 feet long, 2–3 feet wide) with their own key or combination lock. The gold standard for security — each user has exclusive access to their own compartment. Common in transit-adjacent commercial projects. Plan checkers love them. The downside is floor area: you need roughly 20–22 SF per locker including the door swing.

Two-Tier (Stacker) Lockers

Stacker systems use a pull-out lower tier and a slide-in upper tier, cutting the floor area per bike by about 40% compared to standard lockers. They're common in below-grade bike rooms when you're fitting a required count into tight square footage. They count as Class I under CALGreen and most city ordinances. The catch: they require user instruction, and some older cyclists won't use the upper tier. Provide a mix if the project has a significant residential component.

Secure Bike Rooms with Key Card Access

An enclosed room, lockable door (hardware specified on the plans), interior racks or wall hooks, and key-card or fob access is the most common Class I solution for commercial and multifamily projects. It's — you can fit a lot of bikes per square foot with two-sided wall racks and a proper aisle — and it's flexible on the interior rack type. The room must be shown on plans with door hardware specified and interior dimensions dimensioned. "Bike storage" on a floor plan with no door call-out isn't Class I.

What Doesn't Count

An open cage (no lockable door), a covered rack under a carport (no enclosure), or a locked room that employees access through an always-unlocked parking structure — these don't meet the Class I definition under most ordinances. If an outside party can access the bikes without a key or credential, it's not secure storage.

Short-Term Rack Types: What's Accepted and What Isn't

Class II racks sound simple. They're not, because rack geometry directly affects whether a cyclist can actually secure their bike — and plan checkers in Oakland and SF have specific preferences.

Inverted-U (Staple Rack) — Preferred

The inverted-U is the most universally accepted short-term rack in California. It contacts the bike at two points (one on each side of the frame), lets the rider loop a U-lock through the frame and wheel, and is structurally simple to anchor. Oakland's Bicycle Parking Ordinance (OMC 17.117) and San Francisco's Planning Code Section 155.2 both accept inverted-U racks without additional documentation. When in doubt, use these.

Wave Racks — Not Preferred, Often Rejected

Wave racks (the sinuous loops of steel that let you slot multiple bikes along a single row) look efficient on a site plan. In practice, they only secure the front wheel — not the frame — unless the rider uses a long cable lock. Oakland has explicitly noted in its bike parking guidance that wave racks aren't preferred and may not be credited for Class II spaces without justification. San Francisco has similar guidance. If your permit set shows wave racks in Oakland or SF, expect a comment.

Wall-Mount Racks

Acceptable for both short-term and as supplemental Class II, as long as they allow a U-lock through the frame. Must be anchored to a structural wall or post — a drywall anchor doesn't cut it at plan check. Useful for tight entries where floor-mount racks would obstruct the accessible route.

Location, Spacing, and Aisle Requirements

Getting the rack type right is step one. The layout is step two — and the source of most correction notices we see on commercial projects.

Proximity to the Entrance

Short-term racks must be located near the main entrance — within 50 feet under most ordinances, visible from the entry. The common mistake: racks placed at the edge of the parking lot because there's room there. CALGreen 5.106.4.2 requires short-term racks to be as close to the entrance as possible without obstructing the accessible route. If your auto parking has a covered structure, the racks should be outside the structure in most cases — not buried in the back corner of a parking garage.

Long-term facilities (lockers, bike rooms) should be accessible from the employee/resident entry, not the visitor lobby. In a typical commercial office building, the bike room is often in the basement parking level adjacent to the stairwell or elevator that employees use — not at the public lobby.

Rack Spacing: 24 Inches Minimum OC

Inverted-U racks placed in a parallel row require a minimum of 24 inches center-to-center under CALGreen and most California ordinances. Some cities require 30 inches. If your plans show racks at 18 inches OC (a common default in CAD blocks), you'll get a correction. Dimension your racks on the plans. Unlabeled CAD symbols at unspecified spacing won't pass review in Oakland or SF.

Aisle Width in Bike Rooms

If you're laying out a Class I bike room, the access aisle between rack rows must be a minimum of 48 inches for single-loaded rows (bikes on one side) and 60 inches for double-loaded (bikes both sides). The 60-inch double-loaded aisle is the number most designers miss. A tight basement bike room dimensioned at 48 inches OA between opposing racks fails plan check in Oakland and SF — and requires a redesign that usually affects the parking layout above it.

Coverage

CALGreen requires weather protection for Class I (long-term) facilities. Short-term rack coverage isn't required under CALGreen statewide —, Oakland and San Francisco both have provisions requiring covered short-term racks for certain occupancy types. Multifamily projects in Oakland with more than 10 units generally need covered short-term racks. Check the local ordinance before finalizing the site plan.

How Oakland and San Francisco Raise the Bar

Oakland

Oakland Municipal Code Title 17, Section 17.117 governs bike parking citywide and is significantly more demanding than CALGreen for commercial occupancies. For office use, Oakland requires 1 long-term space per 3,000 SF — versus CALGreen's 1 per 10,000 SF. For retail, Oakland requires 1 short-term space per 1,000 SF. Oakland also requires that long-term facilities be shown on plans with specific interior layout, a labeled room. Oakland's plan check process reviews bike parking under the Planning division, which means it's a separate comment track from building — easy to miss if you're only tracking Building comments.

San Francisco

San Francisco Planning Code Section 155.2 uses a detailed table by occupancy class and gross floor area. For office, SF requires roughly 1 long-term space per 5,000 SF — double CALGreen's minimum. SF also ties shower and changing facility requirements to long-term bike parking count: office buildings with 20 or more Class I spaces need at least one shower. That's an MEP scope item that needs to be coordinated at schematic design, not during permit response.

Common Plan Check Failures — And How to Avoid Them

When to Coordinate This Early

Bike parking layout belongs in schematic design, not permit response. A Class I bike room that needs to be 20% larger than the space you allocated cascades into the parking count, the structural grid, and sometimes the building footprint. We resolve this as part of our site planning scope — it's a five-minute conversation at the right phase and a two-week delay at the wrong one.

If you're already in construction and an inspector is flagging the bike room, our construction administration team handles the field coordination, RFI response, and updated as-builts. Give us a call and we'll get it sorted.