Fencing is still a fight in Chesapeake Beach

Council split on ordinance vote

Friday, Jan. 29, 2010

After months of discussion, debate and clarifications on amending the town's fence regulations, the Chesapeake Beach Town Council did not offer enough votes to pass the ordinance at its meeting last week.

Displaying disappointment during the Jan. 21 meeting, Mayor Bruce Wahl said, "We may never get a fence ordinance. We've tried."

Over the past year, the council and the town's planning and zoning board have heard complaints about fences and have talked about eliminating fences around the town that are considered an eyesore — fences constructed with materials that rot, are too high and chain link fences. The town wrote an ordinance that amended the zoning code to regulate the placement and maintenance of fences, addressing these types.

The ordinance included a $250 fine for nonconforming fences with each day out of compliance being considered a separate offense.

Several residents voiced their opinions at a lengthy public hearing held on the ordinance last October and the town attorney revised the ordinance with suggestions from residents. Planning and zoning board members returned with the revised version at this month's council meeting.

Town Attorney Elissa Levan reviewed the changes that included being able to repair 50 percent of a nonconforming fence, 42-inch height restrictions on front and side fences and not allowing woven material in chain link fences among other issues. Current fences will be grandfathered from the new regulations. The constructions of new fences along with fences that need more than 50 percent in repairs, requires permits that comply with the new restrictions.

For nearly an hour, town council members sought clarifications of the new amended regulations and resident Gary Coldsmith addressed several concerns he said he had with the amendments. Coldsmith spoke about his concerns with language in the ordinance regarding retaining walls, screening and hedges, construction provisions, corner lots and purchasing homes with nonconforming fences.

"It confuses me," he said of the wordage several times when he brought up these issues and Levan tried to clarify the definitions.

Coldsmith's main concern was the discretion of the zoning administrator when determining if certain property may require a higher fence beyond the regulations of the ordinance.

There should not be an arbitrary determination of what's legal, he said, and council member Pat Mahoney agreed and moved to take out the zoning administrator's leeway.

Three council members voted for Mahoney's motion and two against. The amended ordinance was slated to pass, but, later on in the meeting, Levan realized that the vote needed a quorum and not a majority vote so they could not vote on the ordinance with Mahoney's proposed amendment.

When the fence ordinance came up for a vote during the meeting, the same three council members who voted for the amendment eliminating the discretion of the zoning administrator — Pat Mahoney, Valerie Beaudin and Ingrid Lamb — all voted the ordinance down. Council members Stewart Cumbo and Bob Carpenter voted for the ordinance and with Julie Spano absent, the ordinance did not have enough votes to pass.

With no other discussion as to what will happen to the amended fence ordinance, the mayor moved on with the agenda.

charvat@somdnews.com