Daly City residents are urging city officials to take down an eight-foot-tall fence that recently appeared, blocking a public path near Thornton State Beach and featuring a handmade cardboard sign with a drawing of a gun and a message stating trespassers will be shot on sight.As KRON4 reports, San M ateo County Supervisor David Canepa sent a letter Friday to the California Coastal Commission requesting that the property owner be ordered to remove the large, metal fence, which blocks a public path to Daly City's Thornton State Beach used by local beach-goers, hikers, horseback riders, and dog walkers.“On the fence was a hand drawn sign with an image of a gun warning that trespassers would be shot on site,” wrote Canepa, per KRON4.“There is only one trail down to the beach from Olympic Way,” Canepa continued, per KRON4. “This multi-use trail is a popular destination for recreation extending from the scenic bluffs and cliffs overlooking Thornton State Beach all the way down to the water.”Per Reddit, the fence is located on property owned by Olympic Way LLC, which sits on the bluffs between the beach parking lot and the equestrian Mar Vista Stables. According to a campaign created by residents, Olympic Way LLC had previously planned to develop a private religious retreat on the land, which was shut down by the commission in 2021, as the SF Examiner reported at the time. Comment byu/slappySF from discussion inDalyCity According to a comment on a change.org petition about the fence, some residents believe the fence was installed as retaliation for shutting down the project. “There was zero need for the property owner to sabotage public access to a State Park by fencing off the path that borders his property other than to intimidate and seek revenge because the surrounding community did not want a religious outfit to build upon the property and take over the space,” wrote Tina of San Francisco on the petition. “The state should purchase the property and add to the park. Keep it open and voice the need for path access to Daly City, San Mateo County and the State of California Parks system,” Tina continued. “This is such a pathetic attempt to intimidate neighbors and the use of public property.”Per KRON4, the fence brings to mind a similar incident in which billionaire Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, tried for a decade to keep Marins Beach in Half Moon Bay to himself, as SFist reported at the time.While most assume the property owner erected the Thornton Beach fence, some residents suspect a longtime squatter installed it, due to the highly threatening, handmade sign, per Reddit.  “Kind of darkly funny that people are calling out billionaires when in contrast some are saying this was probably done by a mentally unstable squatter who is apparently well known to people in the area,” said Redditor m0llusk. “Property owners still have responsibility for this situation, just not in the way  many are thinking.”   “I am urging the California Coastal Commission to stand up once again and oppose any efforts to restrict access to public beaches by private landowners and to have the property owner specifically to dissemble the fence restricting access to Thornton State Beach,” concluded Canepa, per KRON4.Per Reddit, Daly City residents are encouraged to attend a city council meeting on Monday evening and leave a public comment before 4 pm Monday.Image: Jin Chen; Bay Area Hikers/FacebookRelated: Silicon Valley Billionaire Wants $30 Million For His Beach Access, National Media Shames Him ...read more read less