FORT BRAGG, CA., 4/10/25 – The California Coastal Commission took a major step towards maintaining Fort Bragg’s popular Coastal Trail and constructing the Noyo Center for Marine Science’s Ocean Science Center when it agreed to change the outdated timber-related zoning in the area at its meeting Wednesday.
The Coastal Commission unanimously voted to approve an amendment to the Local Coastal Plan (LCP) for the Fort Bragg headlands, a decision that changes the zoning for 104 acres owned by the City of Fort Bragg, including the Coastal Trail, to “Parks & Recreation.”
That acreage is part of the former Georgia Pacific mill site, all of which is still zoned “Timber Resources Industrial.”
Zoning for the Noyo Center’s 11-acre headlands property, which includes the Noyo Center’s Crow’s Interpretive Nest, will be changed to “Public Facilities.”
That designation allows the construction of a “Science Center,” broadly defined in the amended LCP as “a facility such as a museum, visitor center, or classroom building devoted primarily to scientific education and research, which includes interactive exhibits and technology to educate and provide a hands-on learning experience in one or more science subjects and which may include a research laboratory and incidental housing for researchers.”
The amended LCP also rezones five acres owned by the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians, already home to four residential units, essentially permitting these units and allowing future improvements.
The amendment does not affect the remaining 300 acres of the former mill site owned by the Mendocino Railway, aka the Skunk Train. The City of Fort Bragg, Skunk Train, and the Coastal Commission have agreed to put a hold on existing litigation over what regulations govern the Skunk Train’s development of its portion of the land while they try to resolve the issues out of court.
Robert Yuwiler, the Coastal Commission’s North Coast District coastal program analyst, said that most of the land subject to the amendment had been remediated from the “legacy contamination” left when Georgia Pacific closed the mill in 2002. A Coastal Commission staff report states that the LCP amendment “will ensure that public access and recreation is maintained and maximized” on the site.
Marie Jones, a consultant for the City of Fort Bragg who has worked on the mill site project for 20 years and spearheaded development of the Coastal Trail, urged approval.
“Today thousands of people, maybe even hundreds of thousands of people, enjoy this wonderful recreational amenity each year,” Jones said.
The LCP amendment “is a long-time coming and basically formalizes existing uses that are on the site, including the Coastal Trail, the tribal property and the Noyo center itself,” she said.
During public comment, Peter McNamee of the GrassRoots Institute said that the amended LCP “moves the headlands one stop closer to new development” despite the fact that testing for toxins on the site “was a sampling, not 100 percent.”
“Based on what we know” the land covered by the amendment is “probably” clean and safe, McNamee said, but he urged the Coastal Commission to pay “extreme attention to toxic hazards” as any development moves forward.
Leslie Kashiwada, a Fort Bragg resident and member of Project HERE, the Headlands Environmental Remediation Education Project, supported the amendment but echoed the concern that there be a more “complete characterization” of how much additional cleanup is needed as development on the site moves forward. The recently formed Project Here has received a grant from the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) to provide community education about the remaining contamination.
Coastal Commission staff responded by saying that they had coordinated with the DTSC, which was “satisfied” that the proposed amendment “will not hinder remediation efforts anywhere on the mill site.”
Fort Bragg City Manager Isaac Whippy called the Coastal Commission vote “a significant milestone in advancing our shared vision for the headlands.”
The action “not only strengthens our partnerships but also reaffirms the City’s deep commitment to public access, environmental stewardship, and honoring the enduring tribal connection to these lands. . . While much work remains for the rest of the mill site, this step lays the groundwork for continued collaboration and lasting community benefit,” Whippy said.
Good succinct article. Positive news.. welcome.