City planning new fence at Kendall Frost Reserve in Pacific Beach

An apparent misunderstanding over the City’s plans to relocate a fence along Crown Point Drive in Pacific Beach has neighbors fearing their views at Kendall Frost Reserve could be destroyed.

Initial accounts had the City planning to tear down a six-foot tall, 1,000-foot long barbed-wire, chain-link fence, only to replace it with a new one upslope, disturbing the public’s now-unobstructed view of the sidewalk and Kendall Frost Reserve along Crown Point Drive.

In a recent newsletter, Pacific Beach Town Council noted it received a complaint from a resident about plans the City had for replacing fencing at Kendall Frost Reserve, which the resident described as “prison-like” and an “eyesore.” The resident claimed that would “create a foreboding barrier between the outside world and the wetlands contained within.”

But that interpretation is incorrect, said PBTC president Marcella Bothwell.

“We’ve done a fair amount of work on this and it is not a six-foot, chain-link fence, but actually a four-foot fence,” she said. “We asked for a meeting with the City. We all agreed there needs to be a fence there. But we don’t want it to be an ugly chain-link fence.”

Added PBTC in its newsletter: “We have asked that the City consider a more aesthetically pleasing fence design, something better than industrial-grade chain-link fencing, something worthy of the magnificent area it protects. The Parks and Recreation Department, responsible for the long-term management of the preserve, has been in touch with PBTC and has assured us they are working on a better fence design. We look forward to further updates, and will keep the community posted.”

Reacting to the situation, Andrew Meyer, director of conservation for the San Diego Audubon Society, said: “We support the concerns that some of the neighbors’ raised about making sure the fence doesn’t block people appreciating the beauty and value of the marsh. For us, the biggest need for the fence is to keep out disturbances to the water quality and bird habitat of the marsh. A fence that blocks trash, humans, and predators like cats from getting into the marsh is critical. And a fence that does that well can also not block observing the marsh.”

Added Meyer: “The City is doing this project because the fence down the hill is getting inundated by high tides and is blocking the marsh from migrating uphill and blocking the birds and other organisms from moving uphill with it. So it’s an interesting cost of sea-level rise already, and we support the City moving the fence uphill to benefit the marsh.”

Under a settlement agreement with the Regional Water Quality Control Board, the City is required to restore 2.2 acres of disturbed habitat in Kendall Frost, including the entire slope along Crown Point Drive south of the Crown Point Villas Condominiums. Besides moving the existing fence out of the wetland habitat, the work is also to include removing debris and invasive species and planting native vegetation.

The California Coastal Commission has also sided with PB neighbors, issuing a staff report noting it would grant approval of a fence at Kendall Frost no higher than 4 feet with no barbed wire.

Bothwell pointed out PBTC isn’t “asking something unreasonable. The area is beautiful and if we want to promote ecotourism, and this marsh and its educational facility, then it needs to be aesthetically pleasing so that tourists would want to come to it. It only makes sense.”

Concluded Bothwell: “Everybody has made some compromises so that this can be a much better place to promote ecotourism. It’s a win-win. If you really want to promote the estuary, you make it nice, you make it pretty. You set an example for the rest of the nation. You don’t put some ugly chain-link fence in there.”