City
San Mateo
San Mateo is a city record. City or town offices may handle local rules inside their limits, while county offices still handle records, taxes, courts, and many services.
Starting point
Confirm the address is inside local limits first.
If the address is inside San Mateo, city or town offices may handle local permits, code, and services. If it is outside limits, county routing may be the better first stop.
A mailing city is not always the same as city government jurisdiction.
2025 population
103,337
Land area
12.117 sq mi
Water area
3.733 sq mi
Directory notes
Local layers to keep on the same page.
Confirm city or town limits.
A mailing address can use a nearby place name. If the address is outside limits, county offices may handle permits, code, and land-use routes.
County still matters.
San Mateo County can still matter for assessor, tax collector, recorder, court, public health, social service, and election records.
Some layers are separate.
Water, sewer, fire, school, utilities, coast, earthquake maps, wildfire zones, parks, and trails may point outside city hall.
County layer
County shown for San Mateo
Practical notes
Office, map, permit, and paperwork notes for San Mateo
Place note · Rules and licenses · Reviewed July 3, 2026
My San Mateo keeps city service requests in one place
San Mateo residents can use My San Mateo to submit and track non-emergency city service requests, including streetlight outages, weeds, graffiti, and other local concerns.
Place note · Rules and licenses · Reviewed July 3, 2026
San Mateo County FBN filings start with ACRE
San Mateo County fictitious business name filings create a public business name record through ACRE, separate from business license and permit steps.
Place note · Money and taxes · Reviewed July 3, 2026
San Mateo County property tax has value, accounting, and bill lanes
San Mateo County property tax questions usually start with the Assessor for value, the Controller for tax accounting, or the Tax Collector for bills and payments.
Place note · Cars and driving · Reviewed July 3, 2026
San Mateo parking permits depend on your block first
San Mateo residential parking permits use program areas, eligibility checks, a permit map, visitor permits, and limits tied to local parking pressure.
County layer · Cars and driving · Reviewed July 5, 2026
Daly City street sweeping is really a parking-window check
Daly City's street sweeping rules depend on the posted block and time window, and citations can still happen after the sweeper has already passed.
County layer · Cars and driving · Reviewed July 5, 2026
Free South City Shuttle links the hill, downtown, and transit
South San Francisco's free shuttle runs on weekdays and links local stops with SamTrans, BART, Caltrain, downtown, parks, stores, and civic destinations.
Almanac notes
Stories and local context near San Mateo
Place note · Outdoors
Coyote Point shows San Mateo's busy Bay edge
Coyote Point Recreation Area brings together Bay views, a marina, marsh habitat, a beach promenade, windsurfing, playgrounds, CuriOdyssey, picnic areas, and SFO planes overhead.
Place note · History and culture
Bay Meadows still explains a big piece of San Mateo
The former Bay Meadows racetrack site shows why part of San Mateo now mixes housing, offices, shops, parks, and Caltrain access in one busy rail-side area.
Place note · History and culture
Central Park's Japanese Garden gives San Mateo a calm downtown stop
San Mateo Central Park includes a Japanese Garden designed by Nagao Sakurai, with a koi pond, tea house, granite pagoda, bamboo grove, and no-dog rule inside the garden.
County layer · History and culture
South San Francisco's biotech story grew from an industrial city
South San Francisco is known as the birthplace of biotechnology, with Genentech's 1976 start helping shift an older industrial city into a major life-science center.
County layer · History and culture
The Cow Palace gives Daly City a big Bay Area memory
The Cow Palace in Daly City began in 1941 and still carries a mix of rodeo, concert, sports, convention, and community history near the San Francisco line.
County layer · History and culture
Sign Hill turns South San Francisco's old slogan into a walk
South San Francisco's Sign Hill carries the famous 'The Industrial City' sign, but the hillside is also a 65-acre open space with rare plants and habitat.
County layer · History and culture
Atherton began as Fair Oaks, a quiet rail stop for estate country
Atherton's story starts with Fair Oaks, the San Francisco-to-San Jose rail line, large country estates, and Holbrook-Palmer Park's surviving estate buildings.
County layer · History and culture
Half Moon Bay turns pumpkin season into a Main Street event
Half Moon Bay's pumpkin festival, weigh-off, farm fields, and coastal Main Street make the town's fall identity easy to see.