Business Item 5c
STAFF REPORT
City Council Business Item
DATE:
TO:
FROM:
THRU:
February 18, 2025
Honorable Mayor and Council Members
Shari Meads, Community Development Director
Amy Nilsen, City Manager
SUBJECT: Prioritize Ordinance Development and Long-Range Planning Activities for the Community Development Department
STAFF RECOMMENDATION:
Prioritize ordinance development and long-range planning activities for the Community Development Department including establishing first, second, and third priorities.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
The Community Development Department is responsible for core services around planning and building. Staff would like to provide the City Council with a list of optional ordinances and longrange planning activities so that priority activities can be established.
BACKGROUND:
During the August 5, 2024 City Council meeting a Noise Ordinance was brought forward and direction was provided to staff to receive individual feedback Council Members, including a study session, and return at a future date with a draft Noise Ordinance. In addition, at the February 3, 2025 City Council meeting, the Council requested during “Future Agenda Items” discussion that a Cannanbis Ordinance come before the City Council.
Below are eight optional long-range planning items. Receiving feedback from the City Council on two to three priorities would be helpful for staff to begin to coordinate.
Optional Ordinances/Long-Range Planning Items (in no particular order)
1. Design Review Guidelines
The City currently has design review guidelines (called objective planning standards) that are confusing, inadequate, and apply to limited development types.
2. Historic Preservation Ordinance
The City, and especially Main Street, has an important array of historic buildings which are currently not protected by City ordinance. This means that any or all of the buildings could be demolished and replaced. A Historic Preservation Ordinance would provide regulations and guidance on allowable alterations while preserving community character, aesthetic and tourism appeal, and ensuring that our understanding and respect of the past are transmitted to future generations.
Business Item 5c
3. Cannabis Ordinance
The City currently prohibits all commercial cannabis activities. Community members have requested that the City reevaluate this stance to potentially develop new potential revenue sources.
4. Outdoor Lighting Ordinance
The City has received occasional complaints and requests from community members for more comprehensive regulations around intrusive light pollution .
5. Tree Protection Ordinance
Tree canopy contributes to a community’s character and livability and can increase property values. Improved air quality, stormwater management, energy savings, habitat provision, and increased aesthetics are just a few of the frequently referenced benefits trees provide. Additionally, the Regional Climate Action Plan, which will be brought to the City Council for review and adoption in Summer 2025, will likely require a tree canopy inventory, the development of an urban forestry program, and/or the adoption of a tree protection ordinance.
6. Sidewalk Vendor Ordinance
Senate Bill 946, California Retail Food Code (CRFC) “Compact Mobile Food Operations,” also known as the Safe Sidewalk Vending Act, decriminalizes sidewalk vending in California and allows local authorities to adopt non-criminal laws to protect public health, safety, and welfare. Based on the Safe Sidewalk Vending Act, the City would adopt an ordinance to establish the rules and regulations on how, when, and where a street vendor can operate.
7. Filming Activities Ordinance
The City does not have an established permitting process or guidelines to ensure the implementation of film-friendly policies. The California Film Commission must review any ordinance.
8. Comprehensive Municipal Code Update
The complete Fortuna Municipal Code (not just the Zoning Code) is out of date.
Individualized feedback from Council Members on the selected priorities would begin around March 3. Workshops would then be scheduled in April, May, and June of this year.
It should be noted that there are a number of required long-range planning items that staff is currenly working on.
Housing Element Implementation Ordinances. The Council has recently acted on two such ordinances – Single Room Occupancy and Request for Reasonable Accommodations. The following are a few of the State requirements with which the City is noncompliant:
Business Item 5c
1. Density Bonus Ordinance
a. State law requires that the City allow more dwellings to be built than the existing development standards allow if a developer agrees to make a certain number of dwellings available to the target income group. This provision in state law is commonly referred to as a density bonus provision. The City currently does not have a Density Bonus Ordinance.
2. Transitional and Supportive Housing Ordinance
a. The City currently has separate definitions of transitional and supportive housing. “Transitional housing” means a building or buildings configured as rental housing developments, but operated under program requirements that call for the termination of assistance and recirculation of the assisted unit to another eligible program recipient at some predetermined future point in time, which shall be no less than six months. “Supportive housing” means housing with no limit on length of stay, that is occupied by the target population as defined by Government Code Section 53260(d) (i.e., low income persons with mental disabilities, AIDS, substance abuse or chronic health conditions), and that is linked to on-site or offsite services that assist the supportive housing resident in retaining the housing, improving his or her health status, and maximizing his or her ability to live, and when possible, work in the community. To comply with state law, the City must revise its Zoning Ordinance to state that transitional and supportive housing types will be allowed as permitted uses subject to only the same restrictions as residential uses when they occupy the same type of structure. Additionally, supportive housing must be allowed as a permitted use in zones where multifamily and mixed uses are permitted, including nonresidential zones permitting multifamily uses.
3. Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) Ordinance update
a. The current ADU ordinance must be brought into compliance with current State guidelines.
4. Inclusionary Housing Ordinance
a. Inclusionary zoning ordinances require developers to include a certain percentage of rental or for‐sale units that are affordable to lower‐income individuals as a condition of development or to pay in lieu fees to be used to subsidize affordable housing. The City’s Housing Element includes a program (H-21) that commits the City to exploring the feasibility of adopting such an ordinance and includes a timeframe of 2019 - 2020.
5. Regional Climate Action Plan (RCAP) adoption and implementation a. The RCAP is currently in process and expected to be ready for adoption this summer. A qualified RCAP meets specific requirements so that future development projects requiring environmental review under State law can streamline greenhouse gas (GHG) impact analyses by demonstrating consistency with the RCAP. This will likely require updating the Zoning regulations. Implementation will be ongoing.
6. Local Hazard Mitigation Plan
a. In process. This will require updating the General Plan Safety Element and potentially require updating the Zoning regulations.
7. Pre-Approved ADU Plans availability on the City website.
Business Item 5c
a. State law effective January 1, 2025 requires ADU plans to be offered on our website.
The City Council should also be aware there a number of near-term required long-range planning projects that will need to be completed in order to maintain compliance with State and Federal laws. These projects include the Housing Element and General Plan updates, which are multi-year processes that require the City to identify funding sources.
Housing Element Update
The City’s current Housing Element expires in May 2027. Performing the required update will be an expensive, consultant-led, multiyear process. If a jurisdiction’s housing element is out of compliance, courts can fine jurisdictions up to $100,000 per month. If the fines are not paid, that fine can be multiplied by a factor of six.
Comprehensive General Plan Update
The City’s General Plan’s planning horizon is 2030. It is markedly outdated and does not meet current State General Plan Guidelines. If a jurisdiction is sued over an inadequate General Plan, the court may impose requirements for land use decisions until the jurisdiction brings its General Plan—including its Housing Element—into compliance with State law. Concurrently updating the Housing Element and General Plan may be more cost-effective and efficient. This will be an expensive, consultant-led, multiyear process.
Comprehensive Zoning Code Update
The City’s Zoning Code appears to have had its most recent comprehensive update in 2011 following the adoption of the City’s current General Plan. The adoption of a new General Plan (as above) will create an obligation and opportunity to update the Zoning Code to ensure that it achieves the type of community development that will carry out the vision set forth in the General Plan. In addition, a comprehensive Zoning Code will ensure compliance with State legislation to streamline and facilitate housing development among other requirements.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Staff salaries must be allocated in the City’s Annual Budget. Additionally, City ordinances require review by the City’s legal team prior to adoption. Future public hearings (which include at minimum one Planning Commission hearing and two City Council hearings) for ordinance adoption require public noticing which has costs. The General Plan and Housing Element updates will have significant associated consultant costs which have yet to be determined. In addition, due to the state-mandated compliance work required currently and in the near-term, additional resources will need to be allocated.
RECOMMENDED COUNCIL ACTION:
1. Receive staff presentation and ask questions
2. Open Council discussion
3. Open public comment.
4. Close public comment.
5. Motion to prioritize ordinance development and long-range planning activities for the Community Development Department including establishing first, second, and third priorities. Voice vote.