> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.mendolocal.news/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Fort Bragg Rewrites Its Coastal Zoning Rulebook in a Single Night - URL: https://www.mendolocal.news/fort-bragg-rewrites-its-coastal-zoning-rulebook-in-a-single-night/ - Published: 2026-08-25T21:35:54.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-25T21:37:08.000Z - Description: The Fort Bragg City Council moved nine zoning ordinances through first reading on Aug. 24, a rewrite that reaches into both residential neighborhoods and the city's commercial districts. - Author: Elise Cox - Tags: Fort Bragg The Fort Bragg City Council moved nine zoning ordinances through first reading on Aug. 24, a rewrite that reaches into both residential neighborhoods and the city's commercial districts. Every vote was 5-0, with all council members in attendance. Planning consultant Marie Jones presented the changes largely as a cleanup, bringing the coastal code into line with inland rules the city adopted years ago, alongside a second set of amendments meant to remove barriers to development. For homeowners, several rules loosen. Detached garages will be allowed on property lines with a minor use permit. Cottage food production — small-scale food businesses run out of a home kitchen — will be allowed in zones where residential use is permitted, generally with a use permit. Child care centers will be allowed by right in multifamily housing projects and community facilities across all zones, as required by a new state law, AB 750\. Nonconforming homes can expand by up to 250 square feet or 25% of their size, whichever is less, with a use permit, and a home that is involuntarily damaged or destroyed can be rebuilt in the same footprint. The rules on residential accessory structures, animal keeping, and landscaping were also updated to match the inland code. Yard signs change too. A political sign ordinance that regulated signs by the content of their message — which Jones said the city attorney flagged as legally indefensible — will be replaced with limits on size and number only: up to four square feet total per residential parcel. The rewrite also touches how housing gets built. The inclusionary housing ordinance, which can require developers to include affordable units, was updated to reflect 2017 state law requiring the city to show a project is financially feasible before mandating those units. Jones said the ordinance has been applied only once since it was adopted in 2009 — to the 1151 South Main St. project. The Fort Bragg Planning Commission asked the council to decide whether to keep it at all; the council routed that question to its community development committee. For businesses, the biggest change is that short-term vacation rentals will become legal for the first time in the coastal zone's central business district, capped at 10 permits to mirror the inland limit. Commercial signs will be allowed up to 16 square feet. Arts and antiques dealers gain a place in commercial districts, and bed-and-breakfast inns will be permitted in general commercial zones without a use permit. Bars, breweries, and contractor spaces will be allowed in highway commercial with a use permit. Light industrial zones gain caretakers' quarters and accessory retail by right. Nonconforming commercial buildings can expand by up to 500 square feet or 25% of their footprint, whichever is less, with a use permit. Commercial cannabis cultivation and retail rules were also brought into line with the inland code. One commercial change drew the night's only objection. Paul Clark told the council that the formula business ordinance — which regulates chain and franchise operations — had previously been voted down and should not ride into law inside a larger package. He said property owners in the coastal zone, including at the Boatyard Shopping Center, likely did not know it was being folded in, and asked for a standalone vote. Godeke noted that the ordinance is not a ban. A formula business — like Grocery Outle — can be permitted if it "will add to rather than detract from the overall economic and cultural vitality of the city" and "will not result in an over-concentration of formula business establishments." Essentially, he said, the city can "make room for a formula business if we feel it fits within our community." Godeke also acknowledged the tension: "a lot of small businesses … feel very threatened when formula businesses come to town." The council kept it in the package and passed it 5-0. Short-term rentals surfaced a second business dispute. Jones noted an illegal vacation rental that has been operating in the Company Store, which was recently purchased by the Skunk Train. "This would allow them to legalize that," she said. The rental was later brought up in public comment by a resident who characterized it as part of a pattern in which the railroad ownership acts as if it is above the law, Chris Hart of the Skunk Train later responded by phone that any violations predated its ownership of the Company Store. All nine ordinances were introduced by title only, with further reading waived. Each requires a second reading before it takes effect. --- Read additional coverage of the August 24, 2025 Fort Bragg City Council meeting [Fort Bragg Earns State Prohousing Designation](https://www.mendolocal.news/fort-bragg-earns-state-prohousing-designation/) [Fort Bragg City Council — Full Report — August 24, 2026](https://www.mendolocal.news/fort-bragg-city-council-full-report-august-24-2026/)