Council prioritizes cannabis ordinance, downtown design guidelines and municipal code updates

The Fortuna City Council on Feb. 24 voted to prioritize three long‑range planning activities for the Community Development Department: (1) a cannabis ordinance, (2) design‑review and historic‑preservation guidelines for downtown Main Street, and (3) updates to the municipal code.

Community Development Director Sherry Meads asked the council to select one to three priorities for ordinance development given limited staff resources. Several councilmembers said revenue generation was an important consideration. Councilmember King said cannabis ordinance work should be the top priority because it could generate new revenue. Others favored design review and municipal code updates to make downtown more attractive to businesses; public commenters also urged municipal code modernization and clear design-review guidelines to help attract and guide development.

Councilmember Connolly moved and the council approved the three priorities by voice vote. Staff said individual workshops on the selected topics would be scheduled in the coming months (likely April–June) to solicit detailed feedback and return code amendments or ordinance drafts for council consideration.

Public comments during the discussion emphasized updating the municipal code and adopting design-review guidelines so developers and business owners have clear standards. The police department also called for municipal code updates to aid enforcement.

Staff will proceed to schedule workshops, scope work and return ordinance drafts for council action. The city manager indicated workshop timing may begin after March 3 to avoid conflicts with pending hearings and budget work.