This research analyzes the relationship between local land use regulations and commercial development in the City of Bakersfield, California, specifically focusing on how the regulations are used to inform commercial development to be sustainable or not. This research contributes to similar research efforts through its contribution of the Sustainable Development Indicator Checklist, the tool used to measure sustainable development within the regulations as well as the built environment. Analysis of six case study locations falling under the C-B (Central Business), C-C (Commercial Center), and PCD (Planned Commercial Development) zone designations indicated the local land use regulations were not informing development to be particularly sustainable, mostly due to vague language, constraining language, and sometimes a combination of the two. Recommendations are made for how the City of Bakersfield can improve the land use regulations to be more pertinent to the process of informing future commercial development to be more sustainable.