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Council adopts ordinance to reinstate agricultural overlay uses and add employee housing
Summary
The Grand Terrace City Council approved Ordinance No. 377 to amend agricultural overlay zones and add agricultural employee housing standards, saying existing animal uses will be grandfathered; the measure passed 4'1 with Council Member Brown opposed.
Grand Terrace'The City Council on May 26 adopted Ordinance No. 377, a zoning change that reinstates agricultural overlay uses and creates standards for agricultural employee housing to implement Housing Element Program 12.
City Attorney Adrian read the ordinance title for the record as an amendment to Title 18, including chapters 18.53 (AG'1), 18.56 (AG'2) and a new chapter 18.58. Adrian said the ordinance also references the California Employee Housing Act and cited Health and Safety Code sections 17021.5 and 1021.6 as part of the implementing authority.
Director Scott Hutter of Planning and Development Services and Associate Planner Gabriel Gyles told the council the change restores rural uses that were inadvertently removed when older agricultural categories were edited, and adds objective standards for on'site employee housing. Staff repeated that existing animal-related uses on properties in the overlay will be treated as legal nonconforming uses and may continue.
Two residents made their views known before the vote. The city clerk read two emailed comments from residents in the agricultural overlay who opposed changes that, they said, could restrict keeping animals; one letter was signed by Janice Lillin. Public commenter Bobby Forbes told the council he lives in the overlay area, described neighbors with horses and chickens, and urged the council not to remove residents'ability to keep animals.
Council members debated briefly and then voted to approve the ordinance. The motion passed with four votes in favor and Council Member Brown voting no.
What happens next: the ordinance and the zoning changes are now part of the municipal code as adopted. Staff said the amendments implement the city's housing element requirement while preserving existing rural animal uses as legal nonconforming uses. The council did not identify additional changes to the ordinance at the meeting.
Sources: adoption reading and discussion on May 26, 2026; ordinance title read by City Attorney Adrian; planning staff presentation by Director Scott Hutter and Associate Planner Gabriel Gyles; public comments from Bobby Forbes and email comments (Janice Lillin).
