Fort Bragg’s Highway 1 fence due to come down to about 4 feet, city says

FORT BRAGG, CA., 9/29/26 — The crew that’s going to change Fort Bragg’s new Highway 1 fence is due this week or next, City Manager Isaac Whippy told the City Council on Monday.

“For the fences, I got confirmation from Caltrans that it’s either this week or next,” Whippy said during his report to the council, according to a recording of the meeting. “I don’t have a specific date, but that’s the range that they had provided. They’re waiting for confirmation back from the contractor.”

At the council’s Sept. 14 meeting, two weeks earlier, Whippy said he had met with Caltrans’ project manager and with the property owner, Mendocino Railway.

“Caltrans has agreed to make modifications to the fence to be in line with the previous fence,” Whippy said then, according to the city’s video of that meeting. “So that’s around four feet, which is consistent with the fence going east to west there on Cypress Street.”

Why the fence has to change

The fence runs along the west side of Main Street south of Cypress Street, beside the former mill site. Caltrans put it up in August as part of its $9.5 million sidewalk and accessibility project, which runs on Highway 1 from Highway 20 to Elm Street and is scheduled to finish in fall 2027. Residents objected to the fence’s height, its appearance and its effect on views of the Noyo Headlands and the ocean, the city said.

In the Aug. 19 release, the city said Caltrans had agreed to modify the fence. The city’s coastal development permit for the project 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,” the release said. The release named the Caltrans engineer Whippy had spoken with, Alex Arévalo, whom Caltrans lists as the project’s manager.

That project description is part of the permit. Compliance is mandatory “unless an amendment has been approved by the City,” according to the Planning Commission resolution that approved it in July 2024.

Five days after the release, at the council’s Aug. 24 meeting, council member Tess Albin-Smith asked Whippy where things stood.

“Part of the permit requirement was the fence needed to be the same height as it was previously,” Whippy said. “Caltrans does have the budget, but they’re going to work with the contractor to come up with options that are the cheapest for them to make those replacements.”

Residents took it to the Coastal Commission

At that meeting, Annemarie Weibel asked the council for a say in whatever comes next. She said she’d told council members and members of the California Coastal Commission about the fence. “I hope that the public will be able to have input on this and that there will be a public hearing,” Weibel said.

At the Sept. 14 meeting, Donne Brownsey told the council she too had raised it with the Coastal Commission. “I did report this to the Coastal Commission through public comment up in Eureka last week so that it was on their radar,” she said.

Caltrans’ project page, last reviewed in September, lists the work underway now: curb ramps and sidewalk from Fir Street to Elm Street, and a mosaic tile walkway at the Cypress Street intersection, both through Oct. 30.

It doesn’t mention the fence.