EIR Addendum
RHNA Amendment
Project Background
The City of Fort Bragg adopted its current General Plan in December 2002. In 2009, 2014 and 2019 the City updated the Housing Element of the General Plan in compliance with California state law. An up-to-date Housing Element is necessary for the City to retain its eligibility for CDBG and HCD funding. The 2019 Housing Element is the blueprint for City actions with regard to housing through 2027. A new Housing Element will need to be prepared in 2026/27 to address new State requirements and a larger RHNA (Regional Housing Needs Assessment) allocation.
The proposed General Plan Land Use Element amendments to the Coastal and Inland General Plans and related zoning code amendments would allow the City to achieve the new required higher RHNA (Regional Housing Needs Assessment) housing allocation as part of the upcoming 2027 Housing Element process.
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. 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:
Amend the Fort Bragg Inland General Plan to allow Multifamily in Commercial Zoning Districts in order to comply with new State Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) housing unit requirements (GPA 2-26).
Modify regulation in the zoning ordinance to allow the development of Multifamily Housing projects in Commercial Zoning Districts and to allow a 35 foot building height for multifamily and mixed use projects in the Neighborhood Commercial zoning district with Use Permit approval.
Environmental Analysis
The proposed zoning and general plan amendments 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.
These changes are considered less than significant because:
A multifamily development in a commercial zoning district would require Use Permit approval 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.
Multifamily housing is already permissible in these zoning districts with a Use Permit at a density of 24 units per acre as part of a mixed-use project. The proposed change would not increase this maximum density.
Maximum density would remain 24 units per acre and would be permissible without commercial development which would actually reduce environment impacts of a project.
The change to allow a 35 foot heigh limit in Neighborhood commercial zoning districts for multifamily and mixed use project with a Use Permit would likely impact relatively few urban infill parcels as most Neighborhood commercial parcels are already completely built out. All neighborhood commercial parcels are infill parcels and the requirement for a Use Permit would allow the Planning Commission to insure that the proposed project would meet Use Permit findings which would reduce potential impacts to the environment to less than significant.
In adopting this Addendum, the City Council 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