Here's the short answer: California's CALGreen 2022 (Title 24, Part 11) requires bike parking for most new nonresidential and multifamily construction, split between short-term (think quick rack near the door) and long-term (think secure room or locker for the commuter). The exact count depends on occupancy type, building area, and whether your city has amended CALGreen upward — which Oakland, San Francisco, and a handful of others have.
Below is the table. Then we'll walk through how to calculate bike parking requirements for your specific project and what trips people up at plan check.
CALGreen 2022 Bike Parking Requirements by Occupancy Type
CALGreen Section 5.106.4 sets minimums for nonresidential occupancies. Multifamily is covered under Section 4.106.6. These numbers apply statewide — local amendments can only go up from here.
| Occupancy Type | Short-Term (Visitor) | Long-Term (Commuter) |
|---|---|---|
| Office / Commercial | 1 per 10,000 SF, min 1 | 1 per 10,000 SF, min 1 |
| Retail / Mercantile | 1 per 2,000 SF, min 1 | 1 per 10,000 SF, min 1 |
| Restaurant / Food Service | 1 per 2,000 SF, min 2 | 1 per 10,000 SF, min 1 |
| Schools (K–12) | Based on enrollment | Based on enrollment |
| Multifamily (5+ units) | 1 per 20 units, min 1 | 1 per unit (covered) |
| Hotel / Motel | 1 per 20 rooms, min 2 | 1 per 20 rooms, min 1 |
Source: 2022 CALGreen (Title 24, Part 11), Sections 4.106.6 and 5.106.4. Always confirm local amendments — especially in Bay Area jurisdictions — before submitting for permit.
For K–12 schools: CALGreen delegates to the district and local agency, most California cities with active school programs require 1 short-term space per 10 students and 1 long-term space per 20 staff. Oakland Unified, for instance, has its own Bicycle Master Plan requirements that go beyond CALGreen on every new school facility.
Short-Term vs. Long-Term: What's the Actual Difference?
This is the definition that trips people up on plan check. It's a time limit — it's about the physical product and its location.
Short-Term Bike Parking (Class II)
Short-term parking is for visitors, customers, and anyone who plans to be on site for two hours or less. The functional requirement is that the bike can be locked to a fixed object using a U-lock — meaning the frame and at least one wheel contact the rack.
What this looks like in practice:
- Inverted-U racks (also called staple racks) — the most common and most code-friendly design
- Wave racks, loop racks, post-and-ring configurations
- Located within 50 feet of the main entrance, visible from the entry
- doesn't need to be covered (though covering is preferred and required in some cities)
- Must be anchored to the ground or wall — a free-standing rack that can tip over doesn't meet code
Under CALGreen 5.106.4.2, short-term racks must be placed where they don't obstruct the accessible route or building entrance. A lot of plans put the rack in the ADA access aisle because the pavement is already there. That's a correction notice.
Long-Term Bike Parking (Class I)
Long-term parking is for employees, residents, and anyone staying two hours or more — the daily commuter who actually needs to trust that their bike will still be there. The security requirement is significantly higher.
Acceptable long-term facilities under CALGreen:
- Locked bike room — enclosed, key-card or key access, interior racks, weather protection built in
- Individual bike lockers — single-bike metal lockers with their own key or combination lock
- Supervised area — attended parking where a person controls access (common in transit facilities)
- Resident storage rooms in multifamily buildings where bikes can be secured inside
Long-term facilities must be weather-protected. A covered rack in an open parking garage technically qualifies in some jurisdictions, a fully enclosed room is almost always what the building department wants to see for a commercial project.
Class I vs. Class II: The Terminology Overlap
Some cities — Oakland, San Francisco, and many jurisdictions that adopted their own bike parking ordinance before CALGreen was formalized — use "Class I" and "Class II" instead of "long-term" and "short-term." The mapping is consistent:
- Class I = Long-Term — secure, weather-protected, intended for commuters and residents
- Class II = Short-Term — standard racks near entries, intended for visitors
If you're pulling a permit in Oakland or San Francisco and the plan check comments reference "Class I spaces," they're talking about your secure bike storage, not some exotic rack standard. The names are different; the requirements are roughly the same.
City Amendments That Exceed CALGreen
CALGreen is the floor. These cities have raised it:
Oakland
Oakland's Zoning Code (OMC Title 17) requires bike parking for virtually all new development and has higher minimums for commercial and mixed-use than CALGreen. 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. The city also requires a minimum of 5% of total auto parking spaces to be replaced with bike parking in some cases — which is a fundamentally different calculation method.
San Francisco
San Francisco Planning Code Section 155.2 applies to most new construction and change of occupancy. SF requires long-term bicycle parking based on gross floor area and uses a detailed table by occupancy class. For office use, the SF requirement is roughly 1 long-term space per 5,000 SF — twice CALGreen's minimum. SF also has specific requirements for shower and changing facilities tied to long-term bike parking counts, which CALGreen doesn't mandate.
Portland (Oregon)
Portland isn't in California, we mention it because CDG has projects there and Portland's bike parking ordinance is one of the most detailed in the country. Portland requires both short-term and long-term spaces based on use, with minimums that are generally higher than California's. Portland also mandates covered short-term racks for retail and restaurant occupancies — a requirement that California cities are increasingly adopting by amendment.
Design Requirements: Spacing, Aisle Widths, and Coverage
Getting the count right is step one. Getting the layout right is step two — and it's where a lot of permit sets fall apart.
Rack Spacing
CALGreen and most city bike parking standards require a minimum of 24 inches center-to-center between inverted-U racks when placed parallel. Some cities require 30 inches. If you dimension your rack layout at 18 inches because that's what fit on the plan, expect a correction.
Wall-mounted racks (including two-tier stacker systems in bike rooms) have their own spacing requirements — typically 18–24 inches center-to-center depending on rack type. Two-tier systems cut the floor area per bike roughly in half, which matters for basement bike rooms in urban infill projects.
Aisle Width
The access aisle in a bike room or alongside a rack row must be a minimum of 48 inches for a single-loaded row (bikes on one side only) and 60 inches for double-loaded (bikes on both sides). This is the aisle required to maneuver a bike in and out without banging adjacent bikes or the walls.
The 60-inch double-loaded aisle is the number most designers miss. A bike room laid out with 48 inches between opposing rack rows won't pass plan check — at least not in Oakland or SF, which have adopted specific dimensional standards.
Covered vs. Uncovered
CALGreen requires long-term facilities to be weather-protected, doesn't require coverage for short-term racks. Oakland and San Francisco both require covered short-term racks for some occupancy types. If you're in the Bay Area, assume covered is required unless the building department tells you otherwise.
"Covered" means a fixed overhead structure — a bike canopy, a building overhang, or an adjacent wall with a roof extension. A tree doesn't count. A shade sail doesn't count in most jurisdictions.
Common Plan Check Failures
We review a lot of permit sets across California. These are the bike parking failures we see most:
1. Wrong type in the wrong place. Short-term racks installed in the parking structure where no one will use them, and long-term locker rooms located near the visitor entrance where no employee will bother. CALGreen and most ordinances specify proximity requirements. Short-term goes near the entrance. Long-term goes where employees actually access the building.
2. Insufficient quantity under city amendments. The civil site plan uses CALGreen state minimums, the project is in Oakland. Oakland's minimums are two to three times higher for commercial occupancies. This gets caught late because CALGreen compliance is handled by the architect's Title 24 compliance forms, the city's bike parking ordinance is a separate check item under the planning or zoning review — not always flagged until planning comments come back.
3. Rack dimensions not shown or too tight. Plans show the racks as a symbol with no dimensional callout. Plan checker asks for dimensions. Designer dimensions them and they're 18 inches OC. Correction issued. Add two weeks.
4. Bike room aisle width undersized. The bike room fits the required number of lockers or racks, the path between them is 42 inches instead of 60 inches. The room has to be redesigned. This usually cascades into a building footprint change if the room is in a below-grade parking level.
5. Long-term facility doesn't actually lock. A room marked "bike storage" on the plans with no door hardware specification. Plan checker asks for clarification. The room turns out to be an open alcove. Not compliant.
6. No shower/changing room when required. San Francisco and some other cities tie shower and changing facility requirements to long-term bike parking counts. For office buildings over a certain size in SF, if you have 20 or more long-term bike spaces, you need a shower. This gets missed when the bike parking count is done by the civil and the MEP coordination hasn't started yet.
A Quick Pre-Submittal Checklist
- Short-term count meets CALGreen and local ordinance (whichever is higher)
- Long-term count meets CALGreen and local ordinance
- Short-term racks within 50 feet of main entrance, outside accessible route
- Long-term facility is enclosed, lockable, weather-protected
- Rack spacing dimensioned on plans — 24 inches OC minimum, 30 inches in stricter cities
- Bike room aisle width: 48 inches single-loaded, 60 inches double-loaded
- Short-term racks anchored to ground or wall (not freestanding)
- Coverage requirements confirmed with local jurisdiction
- Shower/changing facility requirement checked if project is in SF or other city with that ordinance
- City ordinance cross-checked against CALGreen — use the higher standard
When to Bring Us In
Bike parking layout sounds simple until you're trying to fit a compliant bike room into a basement level that's already tight, or you realize mid-permit that Oakland's ordinance requires three times as many racks as your Title 24 forms reflect. We handle this as part of our site planning scope — it's a detail that belongs in the site plan at schematic design, not a comment response at permit review.
For projects already in construction that are getting flagged during inspections, our construction administration team can coordinate the field fix, updated as-builts, and inspector sign-off. Give us a call and we'll sort it out.
