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Store Size Cap – Agoura Hills, California

In 2002, voters in Agoura Hills, a community 20 miles north of Los Angeles, adopted the following measure limiting stores to no more than 60,000 square feet. (More on the vote and the campaign.)

Note that the definitions are designed to prevent retailers from evading the size cap by building two or more adjacent stores, as Wal-Mart recently proposed in Dunkirk, Maryland.

9306. Retail stores.

In all commercial districts, the gross floor area of a retail store shall not exceed sixty thousand (60,000) square feet. This limitation shall be applied as follows:

A.     The sixty thousand (60,000) square foot limitation shall apply to individual retail stores for which permits are sought and also to the cumulative sum of related or successive permits for retail stores that are part of a larger project, such as piecemeal additions to a building or multiple buildings on a lot or adjacent lots.

B.     For purposes of this section, the gross floor area of a retail store shall include gross floor area as defined in section 9120.6 and the area of all portions of the site outside of the exterior walls of buildings used for the display, storage, or sale of any goods, wares or merchandise, except that the gross floor area of a retail store shall not include exterior areas of not more than three thousand (3,000) square feet used for seasonal or temporary sales events under appropriate city permits or approvals.

C.     The gross floor area of adjacent stores shall be aggregated in cases where the stores (1) are engaged in the selling of similar or related goods, wares or merchandise and operate under common ownership or management; (2) share checkstands, a warehouse, or a distribution facility; or (3) otherwise operate as associated, integrated or co-operative business enterprises.

(Ord. No. 02-310, § 3B, 3-5-2002)