Los Altos Hills has a ban on commercial zones, upheld by the California Court of Appeal (First District) in 1973.[8] The town’s two retail, commercial operations are the book store on the campus of Foothill College and the gift shop on the Immaculate Heart Monastery of the Poor Clare Colettines. The town does not have a post office or library, providing mail delivery from nearby Los Altos.
The town’s zoning regulations require a minimum lot size of one acre (4,000 m²), setbacks from the property boundary, and easements for public pathways.[9][10] Landowners are limited to one primary dwelling per lot, which effectively bans multifamily housing; this ban and the minimum lot size were upheld as constitutional by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 1974.