Skunk Train operator sues city of Fort Bragg and California Coastal Commission over land-use authority
The operator of the popular Skunk Train attraction in Fort Bragg has filed a federal lawsuit against the city and the California Coastal Commission seeking a declaration of its independence from state and local land-use regulations.
The Aug. 9 suit is part of a power struggle that began when Mendocino Railway acquired the northern part of the abandoned Georgia Pacific lumber mill site at the Western edge of Fort Bragg.
The roughly 300-acre chunk of bluff-top property requires substantial cleanup but will ultimately redefine the coastal town when developed.
As a Class III railroad operating under the jurisdiction of the federal Surface Transportation Board, the Skunk Train’s owners claim they are exempt from building permits and other authorizations for rail-related projects, such as the conversion of the longtime roundhouse to use for equipment maintenance and repair.
Mendocino Railway President Robert Pinoli said the company has faced hostility, defamation and a frivolous state court lawsuit from the city, along with continual harassment from the Coastal Commission, resulting in the threat of hefty fines up to $11,500 a day if work on the property doesn’t stop.
“Line 1 (of the federal complaint) says it all: ‘It’s about state and local authorities’ illegal efforts to impose land-use permitting and preclearance requirements on federal railroad’s land-use activities in blatant violation of federal preemption principles,” Pinoli said.
Many around town and in city government say it’s not so simple. They question whether an operation that basically serves as a tourist attraction should legitimately hold so much power and whether that power is being applied correctly.
They fear the railroad’s status could be exploited to pursue more ambitious plans, including housing, tourist and commercial development that were part of the railway’s plans for the site until the city council’s “hostile actions” prompted it to put them on hold.
The rail company and the city had been part of the same long-term planning effort for many years after the mill’s closure in 2002 and the Skunk Train’s sale in 2004 to what’s now Mendocino Railway.
But their relationship quickly frayed in 2021, when Mendocino Railway used eminent domain to acquire 210 additional acres from the mill site — property the city had hoped eventually to buy itself. The railway’s use of eminent domain, the power to condemn property for its own use, stems from its status as a common carrier and “public utility.”
The city later sued the railway, which in turn sought to have the case thrown out. The request was denied. Two appeals, including one to the California Supreme Court, were unsuccessful.
Pinoli says the issue can only be heard in federal court, even though the state case is still pending.
The new suit, filed in U.S. District Court, Northern Division, unfolds against a landscape of controversy that includes the city’s pending lawsuit challenging the Skunk Train’s legitimacy as Class III railroad and ability to exercise eminent domain.
A Willits man, John Meyer, also is fighting the railway’s attempt to condemn 21 acres he owns outside town. That case is set for trial Aug. 18.
The railway also has antagonized some with its plans to make a bid for 13 miles of rail line running north from Willits, a route intended as part of the Great Redwood Trail. Mendocino Railway could still persuade the Surface Transportation Board not to bank the rail but instead keep it active so the Skunk Train can haul gravel roughly between Longvale and the Highway 101/Highway 162 junction and Willits — presumably the transfer and loading facility it wants to build on Meyers’ land.
Members of the Coastal Commission, which met in person at Fort Bragg Town Hall in July during active construction at the roundhouse and an Alder Street office site, raised questions about the boundaries of the railway’s independence.
In an Aug. 10 letter telling the railway to cease its work on the property and submit a full description of all projects underway by Aug. 26, the commission’s North Coast District Enforcement Analyst Josh Levine referenced earlier letters, including one in 2020 stating the commission was “unconvinced that Mendocino Railway’s (“MR”) railholding are necessarily still appropriately considered to be a part of the interstate rail network … and thus believe that the proposed development plans at the former Georgia-Pacific Mill site may be outside the jurisdiction of the Surface Transportation Board.”
Pinoli has argued that the railway also hauls freight — loads of aggregate for stream restoration, equipment, a large steel structure for folks along the line — in addition to out-and-back trips from Fort Bragg and Willits into the redwoods. (A tunnel collapse about three miles outside Fort Bragg has closed down trips between the towns.)
He says the railway understands that only rail-related projects can proceed without authorization from local and state coastal authorities.
“We would be subject to all of the jurisdictions that any other developer would be subject to,” he said. “We have no problem delineating. We know clearly where the boundaries are. These agencies have no boundaries.”
But Fort Bragg Mayor Bernie Norvell said, “A lot of it is, What is railroad and what isn’t? Do they (Mendocino Railway) decide what’s railroad and what isn’t? I just can’t imagine that because you are a railroad that you can go buy a piece of property anywhere and then go be exempt from everything.”
As for eminent domain, “Those laws were put in place in order to get the train from one side of this country to the other,” Norvell said. “That was going to happen. All those laws they put in so nobody could stop it.”
Norvell noted that the Coastal Commission’s three-day meeting at town hall occurred against the noise of construction on the Skunk Train’s property nearby.
“I don’t know if that’s arrogance or confidence or what,” he said, “but when you fly it in the face like that, you have to expect some sort of reaction.”
You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.
Editor’s note: This story has been changed to more accurately reflect the location of the Skunk Train tunnel collapse.
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