Picket Fences

[Glomer]

Remember the old movies, where kids (Leave it to Beaver) would skip along on the sidewalk with a stick against the picket fences???? Why don't cities (at least my city) allow this.

Our ordinance says that fences and walls exceeding 36" in height must be set back 15 feet from any property line fronting on a public street.

Those nice picket fences in those movies were a little over 3' weren't they? Why would anyone want a fence in the middle of their front yard and have to mow on each side of it.....looks dumb. Maybe that is the reason we have this regulation......to talk people out of putting up fences to close themselves off from the rest of the world.........I don't know.....it's friday and I was just reviewing some changes we made to our ordinance and stopped to think about the rationale behind this reg.

 

[giff57]

The only fences we allow in front yards are ones that are only 50% solid and no taller than 3ft. They cannot be on or across the property line.

 

[Glomer]

So in other words, your ordinance would allow a white wood picket fence 2' from the sidewalk along the front lot line.....at the same time it prevents ugly chain link fences in the front yard.


My point is that the only thing our ordinance does is prevent neat looking fences from being erected, while allowing ugly chain link fences to be placed in the middle of the front yard.

 

[Downtown]

We actually don't have any fencing regulations, on location or on height. I think that as long as it wasn't creating a sight distance problem, someone could erect an 8' high stockade fence on their front lawn.

 

[Glomer]

What!!!!!

We have some weird people in our town, and if we didn't have any regulations.......we would have 10' fences made from beer cans.

 

[giff57]

Glomer wrote:
So in other words, your ordinance would allow a white wood picket fence 2' from the sidewalk along the front lot line.....at the same time it prevents ugly chain link fences in the front yard.

I suppose under our code, one could place a 3ft tall chain link fence in the front yard if they wanted to.

Fences are a big deal in our town. Read this http://www.mgc-vastu.com/

 

[Jen]

planning in accordance with Natural Law?

Very interesting link, there giff The vedic homes are beautiful.

I wonder how many planners are devotees of Maharishi Sthapatya Veda design - Is it this cosmic life principle that is lacking in our built environment?

Is Vedic Iowa a typical subdivision?

 

[Cardinal]

I've just come back from vacation. Yesterday I made a comment about a great stone wall in one yard, just off the sidewalk, 3' high. Why not?

 

[giff57]

Re: planning in accordance with Natural Law?

Jen wrote:
Very interesting link, there giff The vedic homes are beautiful.

I wonder how many planners are devotees of Maharishi Sthapatya Veda design - Is it this cosmic life principle that is lacking in our built environment?

Is Vedic Iowa a typical subdivision?

Vedic City was a rural subdivision recently incorporated as it's own city. No it's not typical. There are vedic homes in Fairfield, on three acre lots, and there are even a few manufactured vedic homes.

Only about 1/3 or so of our citizens are TM'ers, so it makes things fun. Or zoning ordinace was adopted before this Vedic design thing really took off, so that can be fun too.