DIABLO — Across the Bay Area, fences divide more than property lines.

They also pit public access issues against private property rights, setting off protracted conflicts around the state, as community members lash out against what they see as wealthy landowners taking away the rights of other locals to enjoy public areas by blocking pathways. Many of these fights end up in court, the subject of costly lawsuits.

As the battle over public space rages on, cyclists in Contra Costa County say they’ve secured a key win against a six-foot black iron fence that inspired community ire two years ago when it cut off access to a popular path connecting Mt. Diablo State Park to the wealthy enclave built into the foothills.

View of a path in Diablo, Calif., on Monday, Aug. 4, 2025. The path, which runs between Alameda Diablo and Mount Diablo Scenic Blvd, has been used for many years by residents and visitors to access Mount Diablo. A lawsuit was filed to challenge the blockage, and a court ruled in favor of reopening the path. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group) 

A Superior Court judge last month ordered that at least 2.4 feet of that fence be removed before the first day of fall; the judge agreed to restore the “last peaceable, uncontested status” to allow cyclists, hikers, dog walkers, birdwatchers and other East Bay residents to once again traverse a route that has for decades linked the community of Diablo to the state park’s trails and vistas.

Many say the quiet, private roads near the Diablo Country Club are safer than Diablo Road, which lacks any shoulders, sidewalks or bike paths to separate cyclists and pedestrians from fast-moving motorists winding through Danville.

Dave Hammond, who started riding his mountain bike through the easement in 1994, has spent nearly two years and a half-million dollars fighting for public access to be restored. He said he had no choice but to sue, arguing that the 6-foot fence created an imminent, grave threat by forcing the community to use a more dangerous route.

“Sometimes people who have money and who want their privacy try to skew things to make it seem like they have a right to keep the public out, when, in many cases, they don’t,” Hammond said.

Despite living a few towns over in Alamo, the retired hedge fund manager is quick to point out each property, gas and sewer line near 2354 Alameda Diablo where the fence was built — rattling off facts and timelines he’s memorized since he and Hal Siebert, a Diablo resident who lives on the east side of the cut-through, sued two weeks after the fence’s installation over a September weekend in 2023.

“I realized that there are not too many people who could tackle it, not only from the standpoint of the research required, but also the funding,” Hammond said, referring to the costs of public access litigation, which has ensnarled Diablo for nearly a decade.

“This is a piece of cake — the law’s on our side,” the 71-year-old continued. “There’s been this small group that have just tried to gum up the works as much as they possibly could, but we keep beating them back, and we keep winning.”

While many hillside residents embrace ways to sustain public open spaces in their backyards, Hammond said, the pushback they’ve faced mirrors many of the attitudes that have driven fierce public access lawsuits in other picturesque communities across California.

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In April 2024, Marin County officials confirmed that the owners of six ocean-facing homes in Stinson Beach violated local code by cordoning off their properties with rope and posts, pushing for residents to either remove or file permits for compliant barriers.

The California Coastal Commission slapped the Rio Del Mar Beach Island Homeowners Association with a hefty $5 million fine in December 2023, voting unanimously to penalize the HOA for its colorful attempt to privatize a coastal pedestrian path along Seacliff State Beach.

A San Mateo County Court judge handed a significant legal loss to Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla last fall, denying Vinod Khosla’s attempts to throw out a lawsuit from the California Coastal Commission and the State Lands Commission, which sued him in 2020 to force more public access to a scenic stretch south of Half Moon Bay.

On a guided tour back in Diablo, Hammond recounts a flurry of public records and legal documents tied to the gravel path’s creation, including initial 1916 maps for a vehicle toll to the summit, an offer of dedication for “hiking and riding” on the 25-foot-wide easement in September 1979, and four, nearly century-old bollards and braided wire rope that still line the since-rerouted road stub.

As the lawsuit waded through court, Hammond said support began trickling in from Diablo residents and others in the East Bay. More than 60 community members ultimately testified as part of Hammond’s request for a preliminary injunction — arguably some of the most compelling evidence in their case to remove the fence, according to Judge Benjamin Reyes’ July 29 order.

Reyes said there’s a “significant likelihood of success” for Hammond’s claims to prevail — largely due to the absence of any genuine evidence disputing the “extensive use of the cut-through for walking, hiking, horse and bike riding by Diablo residents and the general public for decades, at least 30 to 40 years.”

Now, the clock is ticking for the owner of the property underneath the controversial fence, who will have to restore the land to its prior “status quo.” DeEtte Sipos has until the end of August to remove a minimum of 89 inches of the fence blocking the longstanding gravel path — a 30-day window triggered after Hammond filed the $100,000 bond that was required as part of the preliminary injunction.

The case is scheduled for its first trial conference Sept. 15.

Attorneys for several of the defendant parties did not respond to requests for comment on the July 29 order, and no one answered the door at Sipos’ home this week.

“(The defendants are) trying to make everybody believe this is more complicated,” Hammond said. “There’s an awful lot of people in Diablo that would like to enjoy their mountain and community — walking to the post office and the country club, or biking to friends’ houses and just enjoying where they live — as opposed to fighting with each other.”