Christine Vermeulen Hanchey is in a fencing match with the city of Orange.
City officials told her and her husband their 28-foot-long wooden fence violates the city ordinance forbidding tall, opaque fences in front yards.
But the residents of the Old Orange Historic District contend the fence at 711 Eight Street is along their back yard. Hanchey said if the city makes her take the custom-designed wooden fence down, she’s going to sell the house and the two 1940s apartment buildings on Fifth Street she has renovated. The apartments are also in The District.
“I’ve never seen anything like (the fuss) over 28 feet of fence,” she said.
To Hanchey, one of the most puzzling aspects of her disagreement with the city is that the fence is not in the front of the house. The house is in clear view of the street.
The fence battle can be traced back to the drought and a Blue Heeler dog named Bear. Hanchey said her back yard runs along the alley and part of it is along Eighth Street. The drought a few years ago killed some hedge bushes that hid a chain link fence. After the bushes died, the “dog kept getting out,” Hanchey said. The hedge had hidden an old rusting and twisted chain link fence, she said.
They wanted Bear to have a place to play; so they built a wooden fence.
The top of the fence is in scalloped waves. Hanchey said it took hits and misses to construct the fence as she designed.
“I didn’t know I needed to get a permit to redo a fence that was already there,” she said.
City Planning Director Kelvin Knauf said a member of the city staff drove by and noticed the new wooden fence along Eighth Street.
“Under city ordinances, it’s not allowed,” he said about the opaque fence. The ordinances apply throughout the city and not in the special regulations for The District.
The ordinances allow something like a picket fence or an iron fence in a front yard that can be seen through. Knauf said The District has exceptions to allow a “historically significant” fence. Such an exception would have to be approved by the Historic Preservation Commission.
The Historic Preservation Commission has members appointed by the city council to oversee demolitions and renovations of the exterior of houses within The District, which was established 20 years ago.
The Hancheys are taking their fence appeal before the commission. Two weeks ago, the commission postponed a decision to allow the fence after hearing points from both sides.
Hanchey said one problem is that her house originally faced Orange Avenue, but somehow through the decades the door on Eighth Street became the front door. She believes the U.S. Postal Service may have changed the address to make mail delivery easier.
The front of house is obviously on Eighth Street and the fence is on the side.
Knauf said if they move the fence back to be even with the side of the house, it would be acceptable.
Hanchey said if they moved the fence back, Bear would lose most of his back yard to romp in.
The fencing match started a few months ago. Hanchey said she thinks the disagreement got off to a bad start. Her husband had been ill and was in the process of being diagnosed with cancer. When the city staff member came knocking at the door to tell them the new fence was against the ordinances, she said her husband told him off.
Knauf said the city delayed pressing the fence matter for personal reasons for the Hancheys.
Hanchey said the city didn’t push the issue while her husband went through treatments for his cancer.
The fence is set to go back before the Historical Preservation Commission again in March. Knauf said the house has an advantage by being in the Old Orange Historic District. The commission can make an exception to allow the fence.
Hanchey said she hasn’t had any complaints from neighbors in The District. “Everybody does appreciated it except the city of Orange,” she said.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
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