FORT BRAGG, CA., 10/13/26 — The Fort Bragg City Council is set to give final approval Tuesday to new rules for backyard cottages and in-home apartments in the city’s coastal zone. The rules keep a 31-day minimum rental for in-home apartments, a limit the state housing department said in 2024 has no basis in state law.
The ordinance is on the consent calendar for the council’s 6 p.m. meeting, according to the agenda. Consent items pass together in one motion unless a council member asks to pull one for discussion.
The ordinance covers two kinds of units. An accessory dwelling unit, or ADU, is a completely separate home on the same lot, with its own kitchen and bathroom, like a backyard cottage or an apartment over a garage. A junior ADU, or JADU, is a unit of up to 500 square feet carved out of an existing house or attached garage. It has its own entrance and a small kitchen but can share a bathroom with the main house, and the owner must live in either the house or the JADU.
The council adopted new ADU rules for both inland and coastal Fort Bragg in 2025. Rules for the coastal zone also need approval from the California Coastal Commission. The commission approved Fort Bragg’s coastal rules May 14, but only with its own changes. Commission staff had found the city’s version “inadequate to carry out” the city’s coastal land use plan.
The commission’s changes spell out which projects must be checked for harm to ocean views and sensitive habitat. They also require studies of the ground near known hazard areas and add rules to protect water quality.
The commission doesn’t approve each project. The city does. The commission approves the city’s rules and hears appeals on some projects. Under the new rules, the city’s planning director can approve the coastal permit for a project that only adds an ADU or JADU. There’s no public hearing, and no one can appeal the decision to the commission. State law already says cities don’t need a hearing for these permits and must decide within 60 days. The commission said it added the director-approval step because the city’s old permit process didn’t fit those deadlines.
The council first voted on the ordinance Sept. 14. It passed 4-0. Councilmember Lindy Peters was absent, according to the meeting minutes. The city has until Nov. 14 to accept the commission’s changes. Then commission staff will check that the city made them. If the commissioners don’t object, the new rules take effect, according to a May 15 commission letter to the city.
A dispute over rental minimums
Under the ordinance, ADUs and JADUs “shall not be rented for periods of less than 31 days.” It’s the JADU part that’s an issue.
State law lets cities require that ADUs be rented for terms of 30 days or longer. The state Department of Housing and Community Development, or HCD, reviewed the city’s draft coastal rules on Nov. 13, 2024, and said “there is no basis in State JADU Law to set a minimum rental term for a JADU.” State law requires the owner to live in either the main house or the JADU, the review said, “but does not otherwise restrict the ability to rent a JADU.”
The city kept the rule anyway. The ordinance says the city disagrees with HCD and that state law “does not require the City to make JADU’s available as vacation rentals.” The city bans vacation rentals in residential zones “to ensure the ongoing availability of housing for residents,” the ordinance says. It also says the city keeps any power the state hasn’t clearly taken away.
The Sept. 14 staff report, prepared by Marie Jones Consulting, the city’s contract planner, says “the revised ordinance has been approved by HCD,” in a passage about the city’s 2023 update. It doesn’t mention the state’s objection to the JADU rental limit.
The California Housing Defense Fund, a housing advocacy group, wrote the council Feb. 21, 2025, that the city’s proposed ADU rules still failed “to comply with state law in several ways.”
Size, permits and fees
The ordinance also caps detached ADUs at 1,200 square feet. The housing department’s 2024 review said state law sets no size limit for the ADUs cities must approve on lots with duplexes or apartment buildings.
Fort Bragg issued building permits for 13 ADUs in 2024 and 13 in 2025, according to annual housing reports the city filed with the housing department. It issued 12 in 2023, two in 2022 and one in 2021.
Other rules in the ordinance:
- No on-site parking is required for an ADU or JADU.
- Detached ADUs can be 16 feet tall, or 18 feet on a lot with a multifamily building or near a major transit stop. Attached ADUs can be 25 feet, and ADUs over a garage 28 feet.
- Side and rear setbacks are 4 feet.
- JADUs, ADUs of 750 square feet or less, and ADUs converted from part of a house pay no capacity or impact fees. Larger new ADUs pay part of the fees, based on their size.
The city’s 2026-27 fee schedule, posted on its website, cites a 2017 council resolution that says “The City will not require payment of water or sewer capacity fees for any ADU.”
The city offers two pre-approved ADU plans, a 720-square-foot one-bedroom and a 960-square-foot two-bedroom, according to its website. Applicants pay a $500 deposit, and review typically takes four to six weeks.
The council will also consider final approval of a second ordinance that makes Coastal Commission changes to the city’s rules for tiny homes.
The meeting is at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13, at Town Hall, 363 N. Main St., Fort Bragg, and on Zoom, meeting ID 852 9641 1977.