DATE: February 10, 2026
TO: Board of Supervisors
SUBMITTED BY: Steven E. White, Director
Department of Public Works and Planning
SUBJECT: Amendment to Text of the Zoning Ordinance No. 390 (Applicant: County of Fresno)
RECOMMENDED ACTION(S):
TITLE
1. Approve Amendment to Text Application No. 390 and adopt Ordinance modifying the text of the Fresno County Zoning Ordinance to correct omissions, typographical errors and unintended ambiguities following approval of the 2024 Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance Update; and
2. Determine that Recommended Action 1 is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and direct staff to file a Notice of Exemption with the Fresno County Clerk’s Office; and
3. Designate County Counsel to prepare a fair and adequate summary of the proposed Ordinance and direct the Clerk of the Board to post and publish the required summary in accordance with California Government Code, Section 25124(b)(1).
REPORT
This item comes before your Board with a unanimous recommendation for approval from the Planning Commission (5 to 0 with two Commissioners absent and one Commissioner vacancy). The proposed amendments require final approval by your Board per the Fresno County Zoning Ordinance and State planning law. A summary of the Planning Commission’s action is included as Attachment A. The December 11, 2025 Planning Commission Staff Report is included as Attachment B. This item is countywide.
ALTERNATIVE ACTION(S):
If your Board elects not to pass the proposed amendments to the County Zoning Ordinance as recommended by the Planning Commission, your Board may continue the actions with direction to the Department of Public Works and Planning staff as to the necessary revisions to the proposed amendments. As an additional alternative, your Board may also outright reject Amendment to Text Application No. 390.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no increase in Net County Cost associated with the recommended actions. Sufficient appropriations for the amendments and agenda preparation are included in the Department of Public Works and Planning Org 4360 FY 2025-26 Adopted Budget.
DISCUSSION:
Amendment to the Ordinance is a legislative action requiring final approval by your Board. If approved, the amendments would become effective 30 days after the adoption date.
On February 20, 2024, the Board adopted amendments to the Fresno County Zoning Ordinance resulting in a comprehensive update to that document. The Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance Update (Update) amended the County’s Zoning Ordinance by modifying, deleting, or adding text and formatting text of the document to both modernize and bring it into compliance with the law. This Update also expanded the Definitions Section of the Ordinance and modified the language of some of the uses permitted by Unclassified Conditional Use Permit. This proposed request represents the fourth text amendment and second general correction item to the zoning ordinance document since its adoption, following the Board’s adoption of Amended to Text Application No. 389 in December of 2024 which modified Zoning Ordinance text to expand definitions and clarified Public Utility Facility uses, and subsequent text amendments approved on February 25, 2025 and September 9, 2025.
This County initiated zoning ordinance clean-up is intended to allow for needed corrections that were discovered as staff implemented the new Zoning Ordinance document during the past 23 months. Following the Board’s February 20, 2024 adoption action, Department staff compiled a list of ordinance changes that were due to either omissions, typographical errors or unintended ambiguities. These changes are provided in Exhibit A of Attachment B. The proposed revisions are intended to correct these errors or issues to allow for better administration of the Ordinance. A summary of these changes in each of the Ordinance’s seven Articles is also included in Attachment B. The Planning Commission’s December 2025 recommended action did not include any modifications to staff’s recommended changes.
Department staff recommends that your Board approve Amendment to Text No. 390 as the proposed revisions are intended to correct errors or issues to allow for better administration of the Ordinance.
California Environmental Quality Act
The revisions proposed to Amendment to Text No. 390 will make only technical changes to the Zoning Ordinance; they will not make any substantive changes to the land use regulations in Fresno County. Staff has concluded that it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the recommended actions may have a significant effect on the environment, and the recommended actions are not subject to CEQA. At your Board’s direction, staff will file a notice of exemption as allowed by section 15061, subd. (b)(3) of the CEQA Guidelines.
REFERENCE MATERIAL:
BAI #9, September 9, 2025
BAI #7, February 25, 2025
BAI #7, December 17, 2024
BAI #6, February 20, 2024
ATTACHMENTS INCLUDED AND/OR ON FILE:
Attachments A - B
Ordinance
On file with Clerk - Summary of Ordinance
CAO ANALYST:
Maria Valencia