The Fort Bragg City Council put off, for the second time in two weeks, a fix to a conflict more than 20 years old in its own rules about where apartments can go. It did so Monday as the city heads into a state housing target nearly five times the size of the last one.
The vote was 5-0 to continue the hearing to Nov. 9. That’s six days after the Nov. 3 election. Councilmember Lindy Peters made the motion and Councilmember Scott Hockett seconded it.
The number
Fort Bragg’s next housing element, the state-required housing plan for the 2027 cycle, looks like it will carry a regional housing needs allocation of 668 units, Marie Jones, the city’s planning consultant, told the council. The staff report used the same number.
The city’s allocation for the 2019-2027 cycle was 137 units, according to the Mendocino Council of Governments’ final plan. So 668 is about 4.9 times the last one. The staff report called it “an increase of 300%.”
The city doesn’t have to build 668 homes. “You just have to have vacant parcels that have adequate zoning that could allow 668 units to be developed,” Jones said.
Countywide, the state Department of Housing and Community Development assigned 6,456 units for the new cycle. The Council of Governments called that “a roughly 250% increase.” It appealed. HCD said no.
The conflict
Fort Bragg’s General Plan and its zoning code disagree about apartments in commercial zones. The zoning code allows multifamily housing there with a use permit. The General Plan requires commercial uses on the first floor.
That conflict has been “on the books” for over 20 years, according to the staff report.
Fort Bragg used commercially zoned parcels to meet past housing targets, but “recent case law has invalidated this approach unless the zoning code allows projects that are 100% multifamily in the commercial zone,” the report said.
Vacant residential land covers 162 of the 385 low-income units the city has to plan for. That’s 42%, below the state’s 50% minimum, according to the report. Changing the General Plan to allow multifamily in commercial zones would open room for 410 more units, it said.
On Sept. 14, the council adopted the change for the city’s coastal zone but not for the inland zone, and continued the inland hearing to Monday.
No deadline
The report said there are “no legal consequences to delaying this task to a later date.” A delay, though, “could result in some market-rate housing projects not being proposed.” Affordable projects can still move forward, because their developers can ask for planning incentives.
Mayor Jason Godeke said the change looked like a way to get more worker housing. “The last thing I want is to further hobble the opportunity to build market rate housing,” he said.
Paul Clark, speaking during public comment, wanted to wait. “I’d postpone that portion of it as long as you possibly can,” he said.
The council’s direction to Jones: bring back General Plan language allowing multifamily and mixed-use projects in commercial zones, with no required commercial space, plus a possible upzoning of two parcels on Chestnut and South Lincoln streets. The Planning Commission had already recommended making ground-floor commercial optional.
The report also laid out annexation. That idea drew more than 70 people to a 2024 city meeting, most of them east Fort Bragg residents who opposed it.
The hearing returns Nov. 9.