The Citywide Design Guidelines complement the standards contained in the City of Fort Bragg Inland Land Use and Development Code, and the Coastal Land Use and Development Code by providing good examples of appropriate design solutions, and by providing design interpretations of the various regulations. The guidelines are also an integral part of the Mill Site Specific Plan, and will help guide the design and redevelopment of the western third of the city. The guidelines are less quantitative and rigid than the mandatory development standards of the Development Code, and may be interpreted with some flexibility in the application to specific projects.

The City of Fort Bragg's current Design Guidelines were initially adopted by the City Council in 2004. While effective on many levels, the existing Guidelines have become outdated. They do not address current trends and are not entirely relevant to many proposed projects. In 2019, the Planning Commission considered revisions to the Citywide Design Guidelines at three public meetings related to reuse of the former Mill Site. However, this document was never formally adopted by City Council. As a result of these meetings, an ad hoc committee was appointed - composed of two Councilmembers (Albin-Smith and Morsell-Haye) and two Planning Commissioners (Andreis and Rogers), to refine and update the City's Design Guidelines. This ad hoc committee met multiple times from February 2021 to February 2022. The intent was not to start "from scratch," but rather to reorganize and finalize the work done in 2019. The current version of the Design Guidelines may be found below:

2022 FINAL Design Guidelines