FORT BRAGG., 3/25/25 – A property that was last used as a dairy farm in the 1970s was approved by the Fort Bragg City Council as the site for the city’s biggest new development of the 21st century Monday night.
The council voted 4-0 Monday to approve the Fort Bragg Apartments, an 87-unit apartment complex on the west side of state Highway 1 just south of the Noyo River Bridge. Councilmember Scott Hockett recused himself because he has a financial stake in a nearby property.
Akoshdeep “Kosh” Grewal, developer of the project for his company Kosh Petroleum, is also an owner of the Emerald Dolphin Inn, located about 100 yards south of the new development on Highway 1.
This follows a unanimous vote by the Fort Bragg Planning Commission on March 12 to recommend that the City Council approve the project, along with 37 special conditions recommended by city planning staff.
Fort Bragg, like all California local governments, faces high pressure to approve new housing development from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration. The governor and the state Legislature have created a web of laws and regulation cutting designed to overcome what Newsom has publicly called NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) excuse-making by local governments.
The council and planners both said that voting no would have been very difficult. Marie Jones, the city’s planning consultant who oversaw the application process, also reminded the council of the current reality.
“If the city wants to deny this project and the applicant decides to take the city to court, fines can be up to $10,000 per unit plus any recovered attorney’s fees. So I don’t mean to scare you, but I just want the City Council and also the public to understand the state law constraints that we’re all dealing with,” Jones told the council Monday night.
The new project backs up to a peninsula of high ocean bluffs called Todd Point, which houses much of Fort Bragg’s swankiest housing.
The Highway 1 frontage, where the project is planned, is a different world. Next door is a boat repair shop, the Fort Bragg Outlet store and finally the trailers of Harbor RV Park. Across the street is a McDonald’s restaurant and The A Frame Expresso coffee shop.
The loudest objections have come from the residents of four large single-family homes on Harbor Avenue, a one-block gravel road that runs behind the future site of the Fort Bragg Apartments, as well as the Fort Bragg Outlet store, all within the city limits. On the other side of Harbor Avenue, the upscale homes in an unincorporated area begin.
Kathleen Zarrabi lives across that gravel road from the proposed development.
“I love this city, and I love the smallness of the city. It was mentioned that we will have to get used to this traffic. I don’t want to get used to traffic again. I came here to get away from that. Before you know it, it’s going to be, just like the Bay Area, just like San Francisco,” Zarrabi said.
“We rely on people coming here for the small town experience. Do they really want to be stuck at Ocean Drive and Highway 1 for 20 minutes?”
“I’m not against development. Go for it, but this is overboard. I think way overboard,” said Zarrabi.
Tim Bosma, an owner of Harvest Market, a superstore-sized local grocery a quarter-mile away, said the need for housing is critical.
“People love the idea of living in such a wonderful place as Fort Bragg. The fact of the matter is, unless you already have something lined up for housing, it is very difficult, at the very least, to find a place to be able to live. This is starting to address it. I have lost employees because they cannot find a place to live out here, and I have people who have to leave on a regular basis because they cannot find a place to start out,” Bosma said.
Harbor Avenue is also the boundary between the city and Mendocino County jurisdictions, meaning the apartments will be attached to city water and sewer, while the neighbors rely on wells. Neighbor Guy Burnett said the city’s storm sewer is already plugged up and causing minor flooding during high rains.
“I could see 100 gallons a minute going through my property, undermining my fences and my walkways,” Burnett said.
Jones, the city’s planning consultant, said the project will actually not create more runoff.
“We’re requiring tanks on four of the buildings that will capture the rainwater into a large tank, which will then later infiltrate that stormwater into the ground at a much slower rate. So it captures the big downpours and then allows it to trickle out later. Peak discharge is going to be less after this project than it currently is. Sounds crazy, but that’s what they can do with stormwater management now,” Jones said.
Many commenters feared that the project could switch away from rental apartments and turn into more vacation housing. Jones said the approval binds the developer to keep the property as rentals for 35 years, meaning condos and vacation rentals would be barred.
Councilmember Lindy Peters said the biggest continuing objection he had heard from local residents was that the maximum height of 38 feet was too tall. He asked the developer if there was any way the project could be reduced in height. The building footprint takes up 24 percent of the 2.7 acres in the current plan, city documents state.
“The way the project’s currently laid out is if we ended up taking away a story that would reduce the project size by 33 percent, and then the project would not pencil. If we had the same amount of units and we didn’t have the third floor, then there would be less space for parking, less space for common open space, less space for patios, less space for a playground and all that other stuff. So it wouldn’t be feasible,” said Grewal, the project developer.
Vice Mayor Marcia Rafanan remembered the view across Noyo Harbor from when she spent time on the Pomo tribal lands across from Todd Point.
“Across the Bay, we would see just one or two lights. Then one day I looked and Todd Point was filled with houses,” Rafanan said.
She said now those people who enjoyed partaking in that growth don’t want more growth and that is a bit unfair.
“People in this small town don’t like change, but we can’t keep on going on without change. Some say ‘this is not why I moved here’. But as locals, we need growth for our families, for people to be able to go to school here, and make a career here. We don’t want our town being just a place to come to retire,” Rafanan said.
Todd Point has a public walking trail that runs from Noyo River Bridge to the end of Ocean View Drive. This trail area and parking lot has become Fort Bragg’s sunset watching mecca, with dozens of cars regularly parked to watch the sun’s daily plunge into the great blue expanse of the ocean.
Neighbors implored the council to come out after 4 p.m. and see how much traffic there already is for the sunset. The Fort Bragg Coastal Trail ends at Ocean View Drive and people often walk up that road, which neighbors characterize as dangerous now and much worse with more people.
Caltrans, in its public comments on the project, pointed out that there was very limited access under the Americans with Disabilities Act to the Coastal Trail in that area and suggested all parties could work together to help provide that.
Jones responded to questions about the ADA access by saying it would probably not be appropriate to require the developer to help with something off-site.
One neighbor said the project could negatively impact Mendocino College’s Coast Center campus in Fort Bragg that is located on Todd Point close to the proposed development.
Councilmember Peters thought just the opposite.
“What we’d like to see is the college expand into a bigger college, a better college with more courses, with a nursing program, with a marine environment program, all sorts of great programs. Where are these students going to live?”
I’m concerned with the level of parking and Traffic there will be. The amount of garbage from the apartment complex getting into the ocean. Will there be safety for families with little ones not getting ran over by the main road? Will there be safety with the bridge so nearby? How would it impact the wildlife around the area? It would also block the view of the ocean… is that fair? I understand a need for housing but why can’t it be mixed elsewhere?
This is why housing never gets built in California. Everyone wants it somewhere else. Trash, traffic, roads, and bridges are all things we all need to be concerned about regardless of population density. The view from the McDonalds across the street, or maybe the RV park next door? Enough already, we need housing for working people.
Hartzell was seen cozying up to the developers at the meeting. He’s not the most unbiased reporter.
This is absolutely the best piece of land for a development like this. It’s close to the community college, grocery store, and a McDonalds. Traffic lights are already there and it is along the highway. We either want affordable housing or we don’t. Where are working people supposed to live?
I think traffic will be an issue . I live in the harbor rv park , that little access road is going to be insufficient, also the added nightmare on the 4th of July will be horrible . FB police better have a presence…