Fortuna planning panel recommends repealing ADU chapter, replacing it with state-referenced text

The Fortuna Planning Commission voted to recommend that the City Council repeal and replace the city’s accessory dwelling unit regulations in Title 17 to align with recent state law and avoid enforcement action by the California Department of Housing and Community Development.

Michelle Nielsen, contract planner for the city of Fortuna, told the commission the city’s ADU ordinance, adopted in 2021, has not been updated to reflect multiple state changes since then. Nielsen said HCD has elevated its review authority and is "sending them letters of technical assistance and advising if [an] accessory dwelling unit ordinance has not been updated, then it's going to be out of compliance with state law," and that staff recommends replacing the local chapter with language that directly references the relevant Government Code sections.

The proposed amendments would repeal Fortuna’s existing ADU chapter (codified at 17.06) and insert replacement text that defers to state ADU statute, update definitions in the short-term rental code to distinguish "second residential" units from ADUs, and add a definition for older, pre-2017 unpermitted secondary residential units that can be allowed to continue or be brought into compliance as ADUs. Nielsen said staff drafted four redline sections to implement those changes and recommended the commission find the project exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act.

A commissioner asked whether homeowners’ CC&Rs that restrict secondary units remain enforceable under the new rules. Nielsen replied that recent state law changes limit the local ability to enforce such private covenants against ADU legalization and that updating the ordinance would help avoid conflicting guidance to property owners. Commissioners also asked about the path for legalizing unpermitted units and whether they must meet the code in effect when built or current standards; the city’s building official, Eric, said legalization requires meeting the currently adopted building codes and clarified the city’s sprinkler rules: "If we have a structure that's something that's built like an ADU ... it has to follow by today's codes. ... We go by the codes that have been adopted in right then." He added that manufactured units have some different requirements.

A motion to adopt Planning Commission Resolution P2026-3142 — recommending that the city council adopt the ADU code changes and finding the project exempt from CEQA — was made and seconded. A roll-call vote recorded affirmative votes from all commissioners present and the motion passed.

The commission packet notes staff published public-notice materials in the North Coast Journal and posted notices at city hall; staff said the statutory CEQA exemption for ADU-implementing ordinances applies. The recommendation goes next to the Fortuna City Council for final action.

The planning commission did not receive oral public testimony on the ADU item at this meeting; the public-notice record includes a December 17 posting at city hall and publication in the January 1 edition of the North Coast Journal.