[MassHistPres] How do you handle Fences in Historic District?

[Ralph Slate]

Hi Polly --

Fences are often a problem because they can be erected without a 
building permit, so there is no opportunity to head them off.  I 
sympathize with your reluctance to make someone remove something they 
have spent considerable money on.

I suggest the following approach:

1) Get publicity about fences being controlled in your districts. If you 
have a small number of properties in the districts, a letter might 
suffice. If you have a town paper, write a press release and send it to 
them. Get the concept out into the public's consciousness.

2) After doing this, if someone puts up a fence, make an example of 
them, but in a minor way. Cause them some inconvenience without making 
them remove the fence. For example, require that they put shrubs in 
front of it, or make them paint or stain it a different color (if it is 
a wooden fence). Make them do things that require effort on their part, 
but not necessarily expense. Word will quickly get out that you are 
enforcing the rules.

3) Make it clear to the homeowners who have erected fences that their 
fences are not approved, and that they are not grandfathered. This is 
important because in 20 years, when the fence is in bad condition, they 
need to remove it and can't replace it on the grounds that it is 
grandfathered.

4) If the fence is particularly egregious, make them remove it. In 
Springfield, we went to court against a homeowner who erected a six-foot 
tall aluminum fence in front of her property, at the sidewalk line. It 
took almost two years to resolve, but the fence is now gone. It was a 
horrendous fence without even a gate. The owner was not someone who you 
might sympathize with, she was confrontational and brash, and felt like 
she could do whatever she wanted because it was her property. That was a 
lot easier to pursue than, say, an elderly widow who just spent her 
savings on a fence. Before taking her to court, we asked her to remove 
it multiple times, and she refused.

The main reason people want fences in Springfield is for "safety". We 
allow fences, but only if they are behind the front foundation line of 
the house. On several occasions people have put in front yard fences, we 
have listened to their reasons, and occasionally permitted them for a 
limited time period (say, five years), usually when a house has been 
abandoned for a number of years and people have gotten used to entering 
the property. We will often put a restriction on the approval that the 
fence must be removed upon transfer of the property. Other times we have 
required the homeowners to simply move the fence back behind the 
foundation line, which does require an expense of the homeowner, but 
they don't have wasted material.

One other avenue is to contact the fence installers - on Cape Cod, there 
may be just a handful of them - and let them know that fences are 
controlled in Provincetown.

Hope this helps.

Ralph Slate
Chair, Springfield Historical Commission

On 1/18/2013 9:19 AM, Polly Burnell wrote:
> Our HDC has a problem; we have a Fence guideline in our bylaws which 
> is frequently and, we see, innocently overlooked. �
>
> We've come to see that it doesn't occur to most property owners that 
> they need to come before us when they put up or replace a fence; all 
> the guidelines refer to the exterior of the building and this is the 
> only one that doesn't. �Naturally, we don't expect everyone to read 
> bylaws; I'm sure it's easy for you to see why we have this problem in 
> our district..
>
> People need to get a building permit if they install a fence higher 
> that 6', and that it the only thing that seems to trigger awareness of 
> any rules. �Thus we discover inappropriate vinyl fences, and other 
> oddities around Provincetown, which is densely settled and offers 
> hundreds of possibilities for fence-ignorance. �Short of having a 
> "fence police" it's nearly impossible to find all the "wrong" fences 
> on the numerous tiny side streets. �There are several that have been 
> brought to our attention that are already installed; it seems wrong to 
> us, given the above, to force people to go to the large expense and 
> trouble to remove and replace the fence to meet our bylaws.
>
> Does anyone else have the same problem? �What were your solutions? �We 
> would love to get suggestions from other Historic Districts. �Thanks 
> in advance...
>
> link to our 
> bylaws:�http://www.provincetown-ma.gov/DocumentCenter/Home/View/325 �
>
> Polly Burnell
> Provincetown Historic District Commission
>
>
>
>
>
>
> �
>
>
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