The fence that hid the ocean: Fort Bragg and Caltrans agree to change it

FORT BRAGG, CA., 8/18/26  — For a few weeks this summer, if you drove into Fort Bragg from the south, the ocean was just there. The old wooden fence along the west side of Main Street had come out for Caltrans’ sidewalk job, and between the Noyo bridge and Cypress Street, the headlands and the water sat in the windshield where a fence used to be.

Then the new fence went up. Considerably taller, by the reckoning of the people who drive past it every day. Solid. No more view.

On Wednesday the city had something to say about that.

“The City of Fort Bragg has heard the community’s concerns regarding the new wooden fencing installed along Main Street/Highway 1 south of Cypress Street,” a release from the city manager’s office said, “including concerns about its height, appearance, and impact on views of the Noyo Headlands and the ocean.”

City Manager Isaac Whippy said he had spoken directly with Alex Arévalo, an engineer in Caltrans District 1’s project management office, who “has been receptive” and “expressed a strong commitment to working with the City and Caltrans’ contractor to identify and implement appropriate modifications.”

“Alex has listened carefully and made it clear that Caltrans wants to make this right for Fort Bragg,” Whippy said of Arévalo in the release.

What the modifications are, and when, Caltrans will work out with its contractor. The city said it would pass along details “as soon as those details are finalized.”

The fence was supposed to match

The fence went in under a coastal development permit the city itself issued — Coastal Development Permit 7-24, approved by the Fort Bragg Planning Commission on July 10, 2024, on a 5-0 vote. The permit, the city said Wednesday, was issued “based on a project description calling for the fencing to be replaced in kind and in the same location as the previous fence.” After residents complained, staff went back and read their own file, “which indicates that the replacement fencing was intended to match the previous conditions.”

Caltrans’ project description, attached to the 2024 staff report, buries the fence in a list of curb ramps, drain inlets, relocated streetlights and 1,300 feet of new sidewalk: “There is an existing fence that would be removed during construction and then replaced in the same location.” And the staff report, working through the city’s coastal policy on scenic roads, found no problem, because there was nothing to find: “There are intermittent views of the Pacific Ocean from the roadway. These views will not be affected by the proposed improvements because the project does not include improvements that will screen the views of the ocean.”

A few pages later, in the findings: “The project will not impact visual resources as the improvements will not block views to or along the ocean and ocean bluff.”

Nobody argued. The one written public comment on the permit, from Fort Bragg attorney Jacob Patterson, was about pedestrian access at Noyo Point Road and said he was “excited about the project.” It didn’t mention the fence.

The plans in that same packet offer a clue to how a fence can be “in kind” and still be taller. Caltrans’ typical cross-section for this stretch puts the new fence at the back of the new 8-foot sidewalk, on finished grade above a 2:1 slope. Whether the boards themselves are longer than the old ones is a question for Caltrans. But a fence the same size as the old one, set behind a sidewalk that was built up rather than cut in, would stand higher against the road than the one it replaced — which is the argument several people on Facebook have been making with before-and-after photos.

The sidewalk was the point

The sidewalk itself is the whole point of the job. Caltrans’ Fort Bragg ADA project, a $9.5 million contract with Ghilotti Construction, began in mid-April and runs from Highway 20 to West Elm Street: new sidewalks to federal accessibility standards, retaining walls, storm drains. As of this week Caltrans’ construction map lists it 44% complete, with a finish date next May. The fence, the city stressed, “and its associated construction costs are components of Caltrans’ broader project contract and are not a separate City construction project.”

The city didn’t build it, didn’t pay for it and didn’t pick the boards. It permitted it.

On the Mendocino Locals Facebook group the fence has run for a week as the main event — more than 250 comments across three threads by Wednesday morning, split about evenly between people who want the view back and people who want everyone to stop looking at the ocean while driving.

“Keep your eyes on the road if you want an ocean view go walk the trails,” one wrote. “The fence is awful and oppressive,” wrote another. “It should’ve been built to match the same dimensions as the prior fence.” One commenter suggested a mural: “Perhaps a mural of the ocean we can no longer see.”

Somebody else pointed out that the view everyone is mourning is about 20 years old. Nicholas Wilson posted that until Georgia-Pacific closed the mill, its log decks — 20 feet high — “totally blocked ocean views there, and there was no public access to the coast anywhere between Noyo and Glass Beach. That was the situation for at least 100 years.”

That got 94 comments of its own. Several people said they missed the log decks.

Jim Heid kept returning to the one thing the argument about distracted drivers skips past: “The view isn’t just for cars. Remember, the entire project is aimed at building a new SIDEWALK for PEDESTRIANS.”

The land on the far side of the fence is the old mill site, which is the reason there’s a fence at all, and has been for a century.

What will Caltrans do about the new fence? Suggestions on Facebook run to cutting it down by half, pulling every other board, or leaving it alone and planting something. The city said it “will remain engaged throughout the process.”