FORT BRAGG, CA., 9/16/26 — On Tuesday, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors reviewed these proposed changes to the hazards section of the county’s Local Coastal Program: People who build on areas of the coast threatened by erosion, flooding or rising seas would have to record a deed restriction accepting the risk, and unless a project must be at the water’s edge, they would also give up any future right to a seawall.
The proposed changes came to the board as an informational report from Liam Crowley, a planner with Planning and Building Services. The board voted 5-0 to accept the report. The amendments will return for a public hearing Oct. 20, Board Chair Bernie Norvell said.
The county Planning Commission voted unanimously Aug. 20 to recommend the changes, according to Crowley’s memo to the board.
Under proposed Policy 3.4-15, anyone who gets a coastal permit for new development in an area subject to current or future hazards would have to acknowledge that the site is or may become hazardous. Private applicants would record a deed restriction. In it, they would agree to assume the risk of injury and damage, waive claims against the county and the California Coastal Commission, and cover the county’s costs if someone makes a claim over hazard damage.
Owners would also give up any future right to build a seawall, rock revetment or similar barrier to protect the property from erosion. Harbors, piers and other uses that must be at the water’s edge would be exempt.
Owners would also agree that a structure may have to be removed or moved, and the site restored, if coastal hazards make it unsafe. The same would apply if rising seas make it difficult or impossible to keep roads, utilities, sewage or water service running to the property.
As seas rise, the line between public tideland and private land will move inland. Under the proposal, any building or other development that ends up on public land would have to be removed unless the Coastal Commission lets it stay.
Other changes would require the county to factor in sea level rise when setting how far new buildings must sit back from a bluff edge. The county already bases those setbacks on a structure’s expected 75-year life and how fast the bluff is retreating.
Another new policy would require development to be sited and designed to minimize risk from erosion, flooding, storm waves and tsunamis, “including as exacerbated by sea level rise.” Hazard evaluations would use the best available science, including guidance from the state Ocean Protection Council and the Coastal Commission.
The county would also commit to updating its sea level rise strategy at least every 10 years.
Changes must be OKed by the Coastal Commission
Once the board adopts the policies, the county will ask the Coastal Commission to certify them. The county’s coastal program hasn’t been substantially updated since it was adopted in 1991, Crowley said. Staff hope to send a broader update to the Coastal Commission by the end of 2027, Crowley said.
The county published a sea level rise risk assessment in May. Workshops are planned for Westport, Fort Bragg, Mendocino, Point Arena and Gualala from late September into the first week of October, Crowley said. Residents will be asked to help rank possible adaptation projects. The memo says one virtual workshop is also planned. Dates will be posted on the Planning and Building Services website.
Williams credited the Grassroots Institute’s volunteer work group, which has met with county planners for years.
Williams asked staff to add language about saltwater intrusion before the policies come back. Saltwater intrusion is one of the problems that “will have to be mitigated,” Williams said. The document should acknowledge it even if the answers aren’t known yet, Williams said.
Supervisor John Haschak said a letter on saltwater intrusion from the Grassroots Institute and Peter McNamee should be incorporated.
McNamee told the board by Zoom that the Grassroots Institute’s Mendocino County Vision Workgroup supports the proposal as an important first step. The Coastal Commission listed saltwater intrusion as one of its three main concerns, along with erosion and flooding, McNamee said, but the proposed policies don’t mention it.
McNamee said “100-year storms now are decade storms,” and that the coast could see it this winter “when we face El Niño and high tides and atmospheric storms.”
Two people sent written comments before the meeting. Eileen Mitro wrote that the study of flooding, saltwater intrusion and high tides “is only a beginning.” Sojourna Lee wrote that the strategy doesn’t address septic systems on the coast. Lee wrote that those systems are failing as rising seas push salty groundwater inland and force fresh groundwater up.
James Jade Tippett of Fort Bragg, a member of the Project HERE community group, urged the board to account for the ponds in the central lowlands of the former Georgia-Pacific mill site. Tippett said the ponds are directly at risk from sea level rise, storm surge and tsunami.
The dam holding back Pond 8, the mill’s old log pond, was built in 1885, Tippett said. He said that behind the berm sit about 100,000 cubic yards of sediment contaminated with dioxins, PCBs, arsenic, petroleum products and heavy metals. Tippett warned that a 2015 study shows that if the dam and berm were breached, that sediment would slide into Soldier Bay.