HUNTINGTON BEACH : Resident Allowed to Keep Illegal Fence

Despite opposition by some neighbors, the City Council has allowed a homeowner to keep a 6-foot fence he built illegally around his house.

The council, however, is requiring that Mehran Ahrestani paint and add landscaping to his brick and wrought iron fence to make it blend better with the rest of the neighborhood.

In doing so, council members overturned decisions by the city zoning administrator and planning commissioners, who agreed with residents that the fence is unsightly and does not match its surroundings.

Last fall, Ahrestani built the fence with 7-foot-tall columns around his Manitoba Lane residence, near Ellis Avenue and Delaware Street.

He said he built the fence mainly to protect his home from burglars. And because his residence is at the bottom of a hill, he said, he fears a drunken motorist may fail to negotiate a bend in the road and plunge onto his property. In such an occurrence, he noted, the runaway car would slam into the fence instead of his house.

Under city building codes, however, a residential wall may be built no taller than 42 inches, unless it is set back more than 15 feet from the sidewalk. Ahrestani’s fence does not include the required setback and exceeds the height limit.

A neighbor opposed to the fence alerted city planners that it does not meet city codes. Before the Planning Commission hearing on the matter in May, 23 residents signed a petition opposing the fence, and Ahrestani collected 47 signatures supporting it.

None of the opponents, however, turned out for the council’s public hearing on the issue Monday.

In overturning the commission’s recommendation that the fence be torn down, council members ordered Ahrestani to paint the brick columns--which are now white--to a tan color that more closely matches the shades of neighboring residences. The owner will also be required to create gaps in the fence and add plants, bushes and trees through and around the fence.

In addition, city staff members have required Ahrestani to install a gate along a section of the fence that now blocks a city sewer easement.

Ahrestani will have about four months to complete the changes, which then must be approved by the city’s Design Review Board, said Michael Adams, the city’s community development director.