EIR Addendum
Project Background
On August 19, 2025, the City Council received a report which identified six potential strategies to remove potential barriers to economic growth in Fort Bragg. These regulatory changes could help accelerate the City’s efforts to make Fort Bragg easier for businesses to start, grow and expand.
Revise the Land Use Tables to allow more business types in more zoning districts.
Allow Small Startups (less than 500 SF) in more locations.
Revise the Limited Term Permit Process.
Consider modifying the Minor Use Process to make it a truly administrative permit.
Modify non-conforming use regulations to make it easier for existing business to expand.
Each of these policy options along with the underlying issue and possible regulatory solutions was explored in detail. The City Council gave the green light for City staff and consultants to make the proposed regulatory changes and bring them forward to Planning Commission for a recommendation.
Items 2 and 3 were referred to the Community Development Committee for further discussion and consideration. The Community Development Committee provided direction to hold of on implementation of item #2. For Item 3, MJC meet with the eight-member technical Advisory Committee regarding proposed changes to the Limited Term Permit process. Recommendations from that meeting were brought forward to the Community Development Committee which accepted the recommendations. The proposed ordinance includes revisions to Limited Term Permit regulations to reflect the input provided by both the Technical Advisory Committee and the Community Development Committee.
The City updated the Inland Land Use and Development code in 2017 to allow more uses in more zoning districts at that time. Those changes have not yet been implemented in the Coastal Land Use and Development Code. Therefore, many more changes are proposed to the CLUDC to increase flexibility in those zoning districts. However, as Highway Commercial zoning is intended for visitor serving uses which is a Coastal Act priority, relatively few changes are proposed for this zone, as the Coastal Commission would likely not approve significant revisions to this zoning district.
In February of 2026, the Planning Commission considered the proposed amendments and suggested a number of changes to the proposed amendments, which have been incorporated into the ordinances.
Project Setting and Surrounding Land Uses
The project is located in the commercial, industrial and special purpose zoning districts of the Inland portion of Fort Bragg east of Main Street and North of Walnut Street, as shown the light blue with yellow outline in Figure 1 (Location Map). The Inland Land Use and Development Code regulates land use, subdivisions and development for the eastern half of the City.
The project is under review by the City of Fort Bragg and would require discretionary approval from the City. Therefore, pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15060(c), this activity is potentially considered a project under CEQA. Pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15061(a), the lead agency (in this case, the City of Fort Bragg) must determine whether the project is exempt from CEQA.
Addendum Process
An addendum need not be circulated for public review but can be included in or attached to the final EIR [CEQA Guidelines Section 15164 (c)]. The decision-making body shall consider the addendum with the final EIR prior to making a decision on the project [CEQA Guidelines Section 15164 (d)]. A brief explanation of the decision not to prepare a subsequent EIR pursuant to Section 15162 should be included in an addendum to an EIR, the lead agency's findings on the project, or elsewhere in the record. The explanation must be supported by substantial evidence [CEQA Guidelines Section (e)].
Addendum Determination
The City believes an Addendum provides the appropriate level of analysis under CEQA because: CEQA Section 15164 (a) provides that “the lead agency or responsible agency shall prepare an addendum to a previously certified EIR if some changes or additions are necessary but none of the conditions described in Section 15162 calling for preparation of a subsequent EIR have occurred.” None of the conditions described in section 15162 have occurred.
Section 15162 provides for the preparation of a subsequent EIR where:
Substantial changes are proposed in the project, which will require major revisions of the previous EIR or negative declaration due to the involvement of new significant environmental effects or a substantial increase in the severity of previously identified significant effects; The changes proposed by the Zoning Amendment are relatively minor as described below.
Substantial changes occur with respect to the circumstances under which the project is undertaken that will require major revisions of the previous EIR or negative declaration due to the involvement of new significant environmental effects or a substantial increase in the severity of previously identified effects; There have been no substantial changes to the circumstances under which the EIR was certified as it relates to this zoning amendment. Since that time, no new significant environmental effects have been identified.
New information of substantial importance, which was not known and could not have been known with the exercise of reasonable diligence at the time the previous EIR was certified as complete or the negative declaration was adopted, shows any of the following:
The project will have one or more significant effects not discussed in the previous EIR or negative declaration; The zoning amendment will not have any significant effects that were not discussed in the previous EIR.
Significant effects previously examined will be substantially more severe than shown in the previous EIR; There is no evidence to suggest that this zoning amendment will create impacts more severe than what was analyzed, nor is there evidence to suggest the previously examined impacts will be more severe than originally thought.
Mitigation measures or alternatives previously found not to be feasible would in fact be feasible, and would substantially reduce one or more significant effects of the project, but the project proponents decline to adopt the measure or alternative; Mitigation measures have been implemented as they were proposed in the original EIR through changes in land use policies and zoning regulations in both the General Plan and the zoning code. There are no known mitigations that were considered infeasible at the time but are now feasible.
Mitigation measures or alternatives which are considerably different from those analyzed in the previous EIR would substantially reduce one or more significant effects on the environment but the project proponent declines to adopt the mitigation measure or alternative.
There are no considerably different mitigations measures that have been proposed in conjunction with this project. The mitigations and uniformly applied development standards that mitigate impacts of existing zoning ordinance will continue to mitigate the impacts of this zoning ordinance amendment.
Approved EIRs
The Fort Bragg General Plan was originally adopted in 2002, and the ILUDC Zoning Code was adopted in 2014. Therefore, this Addendum shall apply to both the 2002 General Plan EIR and the 2014 Inland Land Use Development Code Update. Together, these CEQA documents analyzed the potential impacts of the City’s land use policies and regulations, and included mitigations in the form of uniformly applied development standards. They were considered comprehensive updates at the time, and have since provided the policy platform from which land use and development in the City has been regulated.
Changes to Approved Projects
The changes to the zoning code are driven primarily by City Council, Planning Commission and staff input.
The City of Fort Bragg City Council seeks to amend the zoning code to:
Make changes to the City’s Use tables for commercial and industrial zoning districts to improve the permitting environment of Fort Bragg to increase business success, expansions and relocations. Including allowing some new uses in zoning districts where they are not currently allowed with Use Permit approval, and allowing some uses in zoning districts where they are currently allowed with a Use Permit to be approved with a Minor Use Permit or by right. The proposed land use table changes include the following:
Minor changes to all commercial zoning districts including: spelling out Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU), deletion of the category Single Residential Unit as it is duplicative of Single-family residential unit, combine duplicative health and fitness categories into just two categories “recreational facility indoor” and “outdoor”., delete footnote reference #4 for Cannabis uses as this footnote is not included in the zoning code.
Allow more uses in more commercial zoning districts, where they will not cause conflicts or environmental impacts, as follows:
Neighborhood Commercial Zoning District:
Use Permit Required- Cottage Food Preparation.
Permitted by right - Live/Work, Single-Family Residential, Restaurant/café, and Child day care center.
Commercial Office Zoning District
Use Permit Required - R&D, Indoor Commercial Recreation Facility, , Grocery (specialty Retail), and Vehicle Storage.
Permitted by right - Printing and Publishing, Art Studio, Artisan Shop, Child day care center.
Central Business District:
Permitted by Right - Bed and Breakfast Inn.
Allow residential uses in the Central Business district on the back half of a commercial property, in addition to allowing them on the upper floors of a commercial property. This change would allow more housing in the Central Business District and provide property owners with more income streams. This change in use would also necessitate the installation of sprinkler systems.
General Commercial.
Use Permit - bar tavern.
Permitted by Right - Bed and breakfast Inn.
Highway Commercial.
Use Permit – Brewery Restaurant, Bar Tavern, Cottage Food Preparation.
Permitted by Right – Printing & publishing, indoor building and landscaping sales, furniture store, doctors’ office, Medical clinic, adult day care, person services.
Simplify the required Use Permit findings for commercial projects.
The ordinance includes limited proposed changes to the Light Industrial and Heavy Industrial zoning districts as follows:
Light Industrial: Permitted by Right - caretakers quarters, accessory retail, Heavy Industrial: Permitted by Right - caretakers quarters, accessory retail, fuel dealers and business support services.
The zoning amendment includes minor changes to the Limited Term Permit process and requirements.
The zoning amendment makes minor changes to the Minor Use Permit hearing noticing requirements.
The zoning amendment also includes changes to the City’s non-conforming use regulations to make it possible to expand existing non-conforming use of land or a non-conforming building with Use Permit approval. This will allow some existing businesses in Fort Bragg to expand in their current locations and will allow some non-conforming residential structures to be rebuilt upon destruction by fire and to expand in conformance with the zoning ordinance.
Environmental Analysis
For the purposes of analysis, the above changes are classified into three categories: No Impact, Less-than-Significant Impact, and Less-than-Significant Impact with Discussion.
No Impact
The following items are expected to produce no environmental impact. Included in this category are typographical corrections, and clarifications of existing department policy and practice. They are:
A1 and A2cii. –these amendments include corrections and clarifications.
B – this amendment clarifies existing departmental policy and practices with regard to processing permits for events.
C – these amendments provide a simplified noticing process for Minor Use Permits, which will not have an impact on the environment.
Less-than-Significant Impact with Discussion
The following items may produce slight impacts to the environmental factors addressed in the previous EIR’s. It is believed that any associated impacts would be less than significant, and that those impacts are reasonably ascertained without additional analysis. They are: A2ai, A2bi, A2ci and ii, A2di and A2dii, A2ei,A3.
These changes are considered less than significant because:
All of the proposed new uses in each zoning district would require a Use Permit and CEQA review at the time of permitting.
The entirety of the zoning districts which would have new uses are made up of urban infill parcels and would therefore be exempt from CEQA, so long as the statutory requirements for the infill exemption were met. If the exemption requirements are not met for a specific project, each project would require a CEQA analysis because a Use Permit is required and any potential impacts could be mitigated at that time.
The following items may produce slight impacts to the environmental factors addressed in the previous EIR’s. It is believed that any associated impacts would be less than significant, and that those impacts are reasonably ascertained with discussion: A2aii, A2bii,A2eii and D. The potential impacts are addressed below.
A2aii, allowing Live/Work, Single-Family Residential, Restaurant/café, and Child day care center as a permitted use in the neighborhood commercial zoning district is not likely to have a significant impact on the environment because all parcels that are zoned Neighborhood Commercial are small infill parcels and thus would only accommodate a very small project of less than 2,500 SF, which would make the projects exempt from CEQA. Additionally, these uses are consistent with the neighborhood commercial zoning district and surrounding residential zoning districts because they are neighborhood serving and low intensity. For example, single family residential and childcare daycare are currently allowed by right in the residential zoning district.
A2bi allowing the following uses (Printing and Publishing, Art Studio, Artisan Shop, Child day care center) by right in the General Commercial zoning district will not have a significant effect on the environment because these uses have small footprints and have similar impacts as other uses that are allowed by right in the zoning district. These uses are also consistent with other commercial uses allowed in the zoning district. All parcels located in the General Commercial zoning district in the inland area of the City are small infill parcels and are therefore exempt from CEQA.
A2eii, the zoning change would make the following uses Permitted by Right in the Highway commercial zoning district. – Printing & publishing, indoor building and landscaping sales, furniture store, doctors’ office, Medical clinic, adult day care, person services. These uses are also consistent with other commercial uses allowed in the zoning district. All parcels located in the Highway Commercial zoning district in the inland area of the City are small infill parcels and are therefore already exempt from CEQA.
D. These zoning changes would allow existing non-conforming uses and buildings limited opportunities for expansion provided certain conditions are met that would ensure that environmental impacts would be insignificant. Conditions for expansion of a non-conforming use or structure include one or more of the following: Use Permit or Minor Use Permit approval, replacement in the same footprint, additions of less than 500 SF, lack of code violations or call for service. Taken together these conditions will ensure that the implementation of the new regulations will not result in a significant impact on the environment, either because the expansion is so small or because a Use Permit or MUP is required and would there by trigger CVEQA review. Additionally, most parcels located in inland area of the City are small infill parcels and are therefore already exempt from CEQA.
Findings
In recommending this Addendum, the Commission should find:
There is no new information of substantial importance that shows that:
The project will have one or more significant effects not discussed in the previous EIR; Significant effects previously examined will be substantially more severe than shown in the previous EIR; Mitigation measures or alternatives previously found not to be feasible would in fact be feasible, and would substantially reduce one or more significant effects of the project, but the project proponents decline to adopt the mitigation measure or alternative; or Mitigation measures or alternatives which are considerably different from those analyzed in the previous EIR would substantially reduce one or more significant effects on the environment, but the project proponents decline to adopt the mitigation measure or alternative.
In compliance with Section 15164 of the CEQA Guidelines, an EIR Addendum is appropriate for the zoning amendment. 1 2