Council Ups Fence Height Limit : Higher Front Barrier Must Have a Peek-a-Boo Top

When is a front yard hedge not a hedge, but actually . . . a fence?

When San Diego city officials think it’s time to start regulating the size of the hedge.

If some city officials have their way, that thriving shock of green hedge in the front yard somewhere down the street would be declared a legal fence. Let it grow taller than height restrictions allow, and city officials will cite you for a zoning violation for failing to trim it back. Policing the hedges that might be fences would cost an estimated $114,000 in city employee salaries.

So it goes when city government regulates some of the less-glamorous--but vital--matters of its citizenry. And with San Diego’s population booming, the mundane matter of fences is taking on new importance for citizens hoping to stake out their corners of solitude and privacy.

Thus, the San Diego City Council Tuesday found itself haggling over new fence regulations by exploring such philosophical puzzles as the virtues of hedges and the aesthetic problems posed by--ugh!--chain-link fencing.

At issue Tuesday was the city’s 20-year-old fence ordinance and the idea that every property owner has an inherent right to put a wall between himself and the rest of the world.

City zoning officials asked for the review of the fence ordinance because they say there is a steady drumbeat of problems with homeowners who just ignore the fence height limits and build what they want. Of the 2,000 zoning violations currently being investigated by the city, 17% involve illegal fences, said a zoning official.

For more than a year, city officials have been studying what makes a good fence, and the final decisions were made Tuesday by council members who acknowledged a San Diegan penchant for self-imposed isolation.

“We don’t live in past ages,” Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer said. “We need security. We need privacy. We need buffering from dirt and bottles being thrown over. We need buffering from automobiles and noise.”

With that, the most significant change voted by Wolfsheimer and her colleagues was to allow taller fences along the front property lines of a single-family home lot.

Under the old ordinance, fences along front property lines, and along side yards facing the street, were limited to a height of three feet for traffic safety and other visual reasons.

The only way a person could have a higher fence would be if he built it about 15 feet back from the front of his property line, a prospect that would render most of the front yard useless and make the lot look more than a little silly.

Tuesday’s council decision kept the three-foot fence limit for areas in a person’s front yard that are located on street corners or driveways, where motorists need an uninterrupted line of sight for safety reasons.

But it otherwise allowed certain six-foot fences up to the front yard property line. In fact, Wolfsheimer was so enthusiastic about the change that she said she could live with giving everyone the right to a “solid six-foot fence in the front yard, if the council finds this suitable.”

It didn’t.

“I’m just thinking about the neighborhood that I’m living in,” said acting Mayor Ed Struiksma of Mira Mesa, taking part in a council discussion that could have been entitled “In Search of the Perfect Fence.”

“I could just see a walled-off area adjacent to the sidewalk. My mental picture of it is not inviting,” said Struiksma.

Walling up front yards may also increase the chances of home robberies, since the police and neighbors would not be able to see criminals breaking into a residence, it was suggested.

The other extreme--an all-open fence--received an equally cool reception. There were other council members--such as Mike Gotch--who expressed a distaste for front-yard fences comprised strictly of basic metal chain-link. That was OK for the backyard, but San Diego’s environmental sensitivity dictated something else for the front yards, council members said.

That brought on other questions. Since chain-link fencing is the least expensive, was it fair for the council to outlaw them in front yards, making six-foot fences costly for those in low-income areas, where higher crime rates make tall fences more desireable?

One council member had her doubts.

“I know it is not the prettiest thing, but there is a need . . . ,” said Councilwoman Judy McCarty. “I feel uncomfortable saying ‘Thou shalt not put a six-foot chain-link fence in your front yard.’ ”

So Council members opted for a compromise that called for a fence hybrid. The new fence ordinance requires any six-foot fence on the front property line be built so its bottom half (up to three feet) is solid and its top half is chain link. The chain link must have a color or black coating.

The only exception to the hybrid fence would be for people with front yards facing major streets or highways. To block out traffic noise, those people would be allowed to build a solid six-foot high fence.

The compromise didn’t thrill a fence expert, however. John Clark, president of San Diego Fence Co. and a fence industry spokesman who attended Tuesday’s hearing, said he was “disappointed” with the hybrid created by the council.

“We’ve taken away the most important fence that the industry has been able to develop to provide low-cost fencing for people that will last for years in an abrasive climate in San Diego,” Clark said after the meeting. “It seems to be that we’re really not serving all the people of San Diego with that ordinance.”

Meanwhile, the council’s deliberations left others wanting more fence regulation. Caryl Iseman, a member of the city’s five-member board of zoning appeals, told council members she thinks the city should begin issuing permits for every fence that is built--a practice that was followed in the past but discontinued because its was too cumbersome for city officials.

Iseman reasoned that reinstituting the permit system would head off fence problems before they become the subject of intense arguments between neighbors. Currently, the only time a violator is caught is if his neighbor turns him in or if the violator applies for a variance after the fence is built.

Faced with a virtual fait accompli, Iseman said zoning officials face telling the violator that he must tear down an errant fence, which sometimes has been specially designed by architects to accent homes in some of the city’s ritzier areas. And untangling neighborhood fence disputes can be messy.

“Not too long ago we had a case that was a corner lot and this guy had more fences than I’ve ever seen,” said Iseman. “He was actually imprisoning his property.”

When zoning board members went out to look at the property, the complaining neighbor came out of his house next door.

“They couldn’t be civil to each other. They came out and nearly got in a fight,” said Iseman. “Bad fences, yes, do make problems.”

And so do tall hedges, Iseman said. She said zoning board members want the council to declare that hedges are fences, thus bringing them under the six-foot height regulation for the front yards.

Regulating hedges and similar “living material” as fences would cost the city about $114,000 for an additional three zoning officials and a clerk, the city’s planning department has estimated.

Iseman maintains that hedges, some of which loom as high as 12 feet in some front yards, are the real culprits in the city’s quest to regulate fences.

“What is the different between that living material that is 12 feet high and a fence?” Iseman asked rhetorically outside the council chambers.

Council members were unable to decide, and they referred the hedge question to a committee. The rest of the changes will become effective a month after the new fence regulations are approved by the council on a second reading.