Fortuna planning commission backs Mill District specific plan, sends recommendation to city council

The Fortuna City Planning Commission voted unanimously Jan. 28 to recommend that the City Council adopt the Mill District specific plan, including technical edits to policies and performance measures, a new Q (qualified) zone, and associated design guidelines.

The commission’s vote came after a staff presentation and a detailed review from Plan West Partners about comments received on the plan’s supplemental environmental impact review. Sherry Mead, the city’s Community Development Director, told commissioners the item updates a plan first presented to this body in September and implements growth and design controls for the former Pacific Lumber Company mill site now marketed as the Fortuna Mill Commerce Center.

John Miller, a consultant with Plan West Partners, summarized the final environmental review and the city’s responses to comment letters. He said that several commenters raised procedural and analytical concerns but that staff and the consultants concluded the document functions as a program-level specific plan rather than a project: “This is a program. It’s not a project,” Miller said, adding the specific plan sets a process for future development and does not itself authorize specific construction.

Miller outlined how the city addressed comments from the Great Redwood Trail Agency and comments submitted on behalf of the Golden State Environmental Justice Alliance, including clarifying the trail’s relationship to the plan and redoing air-quality analysis where necessary. He said the final EIR adopts mitigation measures to keep emissions within the scope of the earlier general-plan EIR and to limit future development pressures that would require new modeling. He also described additional controls to reduce risks from toxic air contaminants, including a required use permit for industrial uses, referral to the local air district for review, and applying the State Air Resources Board’s land-use handbook criteria as an objective standard.

Mead and Plan West identified three technical edits staff recommended, including correcting the name “Great Redwood Trail Agency” where an earlier draft had used “Great Redwood Trail Authority,” adding clarified language to Policy LUC and Performance Measure P-4 for transparency, and incorporating the Q-zone into the zoning ordinance as an implementing tool.

After the presentation the commission voted to adopt resolution P-2025-3121 recommending city council adoption of the specific plan and the staff-recommended modifications. Roll-call votes were recorded as yes from Commissioner Bennett, Commissioner Burke, Commissioner Doris, Commissioner Nichols, Vice Chair Kine and Chair Howley.

The commission’s recommendation moves the draft plan and the final EIR to the City Council for its consideration and possible adoption. City staff said the specific plan is intended to allow a broader range of compatible industrial, commercial and mixed uses in the Mill District, allow certain development within the 100-year flood plain subject to city flood policies, and replace citywide commercial/industrial caps with an ongoing monitoring program.