diff --git a/k8s/argocd/apps/10-storage-observability.yaml b/k8s/argocd/apps/10-storage-observability.yaml
index ef9a212..15c370f 100644
--- a/k8s/argocd/apps/10-storage-observability.yaml
+++ b/k8s/argocd/apps/10-storage-observability.yaml
@@ -110,7 +110,9 @@ spec:
       selfHeal: true
     syncOptions:
       - CreateNamespace=true
-      - ServerSideApply=true
+      # ServerSideApply removed — it conflicts with managedNamespaceMetadata's
+      # forced namespace apply ("--force cannot be used with --server-side").
+      # The large monitoring CRDs are installed out-of-band instead.
 ---
 apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
 kind: Application