Fence blocking Thornton State Beach along Daly City coast to come down, city says

By John Ramos

A fence remains around some property at the Daly City coastline, blocking access to Thornton State Beach. Now, as the city said it is moving ahead with the removal of the fence. The man who erected it may have some ownership of at least a small portion of the land.

The fence went up abruptly a few weeks ago, and visitors to Thornton State Beach had an equally abrupt reaction.

“I haven’t been here for a while,” said visitor Roger Pokorny, “So, I drove up, I’m like, was there always an ugly fence?  Was there always this ugly fence around here?”

“It’s depressing,” said dogwalker Jeannine Yep.  “When I had the dogs at the beach, it’s so sad that someone would want to close this off so we can’t enjoy all of this.”

“Whoever did this seems to be mean-spirited, that’s all,” said a woman named D.A. “Doesn’t want people to enjoy nature.  What kind of a mind would want to block people from enjoying this beauty?”

The man behind the fence, living in a trailer on the vacant land, is Luke Brugnara.  

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said he was once a successful real estate investor in San Francisco. But in 2015, he was convicted of fraud in a deal to purchase artwork and sentenced to seven years in prison. He acted as his own attorney and was also charged with contempt of court during the trial, but the attorney at his appeals hearing, Dana Young, told the judge his actions may have been the result of a mental illness.

“Mr. Brugnara is willful, is one of the most obnoxious people I’ve ever met, frankly,” said Young. “And that was presented to the court. But we can’t say that just because somebody is obnoxious, somebody does have these things, that that is not a function of his underlying mental illness.”

The judges rejected that argument, and his appeal was denied.  

On Saturday, Daly City officials announced that they are taking action to remove the fence. They said it “was built without required permits and appears to extend into public areas,” blocking portions of the public right of way down to the beach.  

The city also said it is working to confirm property ownership to ensure that all owners are notified.  

The area inside the fence is actually multiple parcels with multiple owners, and there is a question of what land, if any, belongs to Brugnara.  

But on Sunday afternoon, Paul Nagy in North Carolina said he transferred his small portion of land to Brugnara because he was tired of the unsuccessful efforts to sell the property.

“I decided, well, the majority of people don’t seem to want to sell it, so I’m going to just basically give him the title to my portion of the property. To maybe motivate the other owners to sell,” Nagy said. “It was an outright gift, on the provision that I would get a proportion. Once the property was sold, I would get a proportion, I would get my proportion in share.”

Nagy said he believes city officials planned on taking the land over eventually through eminent domain and that he is disgusted that they never made the owners an offer.

“It’s not even forcing an issue,” he said. “I’m just washing my hands of it. This is me being Pontius Pilate, washing my hands of the whole issue.”

Any fence on the coastal bluff property would also require a permit from the California Coastal Commission, which was never issued.  

Daly City said the commission supports their enforcement efforts, and they have given a 10-day notice to remove the fence voluntarily or the city will take it down themselves.  

In the meantime, some residents are concerned about whether Brugnara poses a physical threat. Early on, a crude sign was posted, threatening to shoot anyone trespassing on the land.  

The sign is now gone and published reports say he was arrested by police on Jan. 22 and booked into San Mateo County Jail, but released the same day.