Fence Rules Given ‘Decent Burial’

After eight months of study, the Glendale City Council this week unanimously killed a proposed ordinance that would have established rules for building walls and fences in front yards.

The city’s current law, adopted in 1922, prohibits all walls and fences in the front 25 feet of a yard without a zoning variance. But the law has been widely ignored for decades and thousands of illegal walls exist throughout the city.

After a series of public hearings, city planning commissioners and the council concluded that they are unable to draw up workable and enforceable rules regulating fences. Councilman John F. Day, who had proposed the ordinance last April, on Tuesday asked that it be given “a decent burial.”