The Water Towers of Mendocino

The Water Towers of Mendocino

April 25, 2026

If you spend time walking around Mendocino, you notice the water towers. They are part of the village streetscape and part of what makes Mendocino recognizable as a historic coastal town.

Many of these towers were built when homes depended on gravity-fed water systems. They were practical structures at the time. Over the years they became part of the character of the historic district and part of the way the village looks today.

Recently there has been discussion about the future of one of the Main Street water tower structures. I filed a CEQA petition asking the court to review whether the approval process for demolition properly considered the structure as a historic resource.

The petition included a noticed preliminary injunction request, which I believed satisfied CEQA’s hearing-request requirement, and the case proceeded actively from the beginning. At the recent hearing the court sustained the demurrer on procedural grounds related to CEQA’s hearing-request requirement and did not reach the historic resource question itself. As a result, the case has not yet been heard on its merits.

Procedural rulings are part of how CEQA works. They are different from a decision about whether a structure contributes to the historic character of Mendocino.

That larger question is still being discussed locally and is also the subject of a separate preservation case that remains active.

Water towers remain one of the recognizable features of Mendocino’s historic district. They reflect an earlier period of construction and infrastructure and continue to shape how the village is experienced today.

However this particular situation turns out, I expect the conversation about Mendocino’s water towers will continue.

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