Fencing setbacks/regulations-what are they like in your town?

[Badfish740]

Since I can't seem to get a straight answer from the zoning department in my town I thought I would ask here about a specific issue I'm having. My back yard is approximately 100' x 75' and I need to fence it because we want to be able to let Hank run without needing to always be on a line. Needless to say a 6 foot fence is in order all the way around the property if I expect to keep him in once he is fully grown. The regulations in my town read that a 6 foot non-transparent (basically anything other than chain link) fence must be set back 2' from the property line, which is perfectly reasonable. However, I have neighbors on both sides with two different fences. On one side is a 6 foot stockade fence which belongs to my neighbor and runs nearly the length of my property line. This is a bonus for me since it's about 80' of fence that I don't have to buy, but the way the 2' setback rule reads it doesn't seem to follow that I could butt my fence up against his (for instance at the corner of the property) in order to create an unbroken barrier for Hank.

On the other side is a four foot chain link fence which belongs to my other neighbor. That fence is fine for now but will not serve as much of an obstacle to the dog once he is fully grown. I want to run 6' stockade fence down that side of the property, but again, reading the 2' setback rule literally, it sounds as though I would end up with a 2' gap between my neighbor's chain link fence and my stockade fence which would first of all be unsightly for my neighbor and second of all be nearly impossible to mow making it even more unsightly. Am I reading too much into the rules? Has anyone here dealt with a similar situation in their town?

 

[billb3]

It's 3 inches to the line here. My neighbor has a 4 foot chin link a foot from the line and I put up a plastc 6 foot stockade fence a foot from the line. Which means there's a foot wide strip of mulch to spray weed and grass killer on once or twice a year. A skinny person like me just about fits in there to remove branches and trash that gets deposited by the wind, and remove leaves in the fall.

Two fences running parallel seems like a waste but it minimizes the chance your dog or thier's can bite a taunting finger sticking through any cracks.


Two feet seems like a lot. Is that due to vague property lines ?


I'd run the fence to the property line by the rules and then given your neighbor's blessing run an extension to his fence. Removable, so if he moves and the new guy who moves in starts spouting the rules and complience , it's easy to remove.
If a permit requires an inspection the extension may have to be put up after.
Sometimes the person in charge of enforcing the rules has similar examples of how to bend the rules to make the current property owners happy and compliant < enough>.

 

[zzr7ky]

Hi -

I had some issues with the local township code folks. I relied on a fence contractor for advise since he had lots of experience. It turned out reviewing and filing a good drawing of the plan and the specification sheet from the fence material was a good idea... I filed for and was approved for a permit. Then I built it to spec. All the fence NOT along the perimiter is lighter duty (14ga.) woven wire. A 'very special' nieghbor (friend of ex-wife) raised an issue about the woven wire. I was OK, and the detailed plan made it easy to handle the issue over the phone.

I went with 6' stockade on the perimiter and woven on the interior. It looks more open from the house and street that way. I set the woven wire about 4" in the ground, more at the corners.

My MIL has a fence 2' from her nieghbor's fence.... Now I know why! My BIL uses Roundup, to keep it simple in that area...

ATB,
Mike

 

[Gooserider]

Supposedly the reason for the offset is to make it so you have room to maintain the outside of the fence w/o trespassing on the neighbors land...

In practice, it probably would be a good idea to negotiate w/ the abutters and see if all can come up with a plan that makes everyone happy and then present that to the gummint authorities and see if they will approve...

The other option that some of our relatives and friends use on their dogs is the "invisible fence" with the buried wire and a radio collar - they say it works well. (One friend w/ a border collie-whippet cross found that a 6' fence was only a minor inconvenience to the dog; the invisible fence stops him...)

Gooserider