The Fortuna City Council on Dec. 1 held the first readings of two related ordinances intended to implement the city’s sixth‑cycle housing element and the Mill District specific plan.

Michelle Nielsen, contract city planner with Plan West, told the council the package includes text amendments to allow supportive housing, transitional housing and community care facilities for six or fewer individuals, to add definitions required by state law, and to update the code to clean up accessory‑dwelling language. She said the changes are intended to maintain compliance with state housing law and preserve eligibility for grant funding such as CDBG.

Nielsen explained proposed zoning‑map amendments would update two qualified combining zones (Q2 and Q16) so that multifamily development would be permitted by right where at least 20% of units are affordable to lower‑income households and would preserve single‑family uses in neighborhoods adjacent to the Mill District to avoid legal nonconforming status and rebuilding limitations.

Nielsen also addressed CEQA: she said the Area A map amendments were covered by a supplemental EIR for the Mill District specific plan and that statutory and general‑rule exemptions apply for the housing‑element implementing text amendments. She pointed out a typo in the staff report and corrected it (the text implements programs H‑12 and H‑18, not H‑8).

Council members asked about whether multifamily should be principally permitted to boost housing numbers and how affordability is measured; Nielsen said state guidance prefers incentives that encourage a 20% affordable set‑aside and that affordability is measured against area median income (AMI) published by county. No members of the public spoke during the hearing. The council voted to introduce and hold first readings of both ordinances and to continue the public hearing for second reading and adoption at the next regular meeting.