CITY ENFORCING 80-YEAR-OLD FENCE LAW.

Byline: Nicholas Grudin Staff Writer

GLENDALE - The city is preparing about 1,500 letters for January mailing demanding that front-yard fences be removed in order to comply with a long-ignored, 80-year-old anti-fence law.

Most fence offenders will be given a five-year grace period to remove the barriers, but specified fences will be ordered removed immediately, said Neighborhood Services Director Sam Engel.

``Fence owners have had the benefit and enjoyment of their fences for a while - it's now time to bring your property to code as it always should have been,'' Engel said.

Throughout the city's history, there has been a ban on front-yard fences in Glendale, but it went unenforced for years, Engel said.

And for just as long, it has been disputed, said Brian Ellis, a founding member of the Northwest Glendale Homeowners Association, which lobbied the City Council for fence enforcement.

``We are reaffirming the commitment to a 1922 ordinance,'' Engel said. ``It is still appropriate that walls and fences be prohibited.''

Starting in January, many fence owners will be subject to misdemeanor charges of code violations that could result in $500 fines, Engel said.

The fences that must be removed immediately - the law bans fences in the front-yard setback of a home, generally 15 to 25 feet from the front edge of a property - include chain-link fences, barbed wire fences, fences in disrepair and any fences constructed after a 1999 city notification not to build any new fences.

All other front-yard setback fences will be left alone for five years or at point of sale, whichever comes first, Engel said.

Joanne Hedge, president of the Glendale Rancho Homeowners Association, helped persuade the City Council to grant the equestrian Rancho District an exemption because of the large animal population there.

Hedge still doesn't think the ordinance should be so sweeping.

``I continue to question the constitutionality of banning front-yard fences,'' Hedge said. ``For us, our fence is the only barrier from the public - for kids and animals, it adds a lot of security.''

Councilman Frank Quintero considers the fences to be like other city regulations.

``It's just like any other building code,'' Quintero said.

Proponents of the ordinance believe that Glendale's scarcity of fences adds to the unique community feel of the city and even raises property values.

``The community garden is everybody's front yard. The streets are so much more attractive when there are no fences,'' Ellis said. ``It's private property being used for the common good.''

Glendale is one of the few communities - and the only major city - with such a fence ordinance, Ellis said.

Sara Norona, a Glendale resident for her entire life, was at her mother's house in the 500 block of West Dryden Street on Friday where a partially built fence still stood in the front yard. The city told her parents to stop building the fence, so now some legal brick posts remain.

The home next door has a wrought-iron fence with brick posts.

``This is Glendale - it's supposed to have that small-town, community feel,'' Norona said.

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Sara Norona stands in front of her mother Hortensia's home in Glendale, next to the partially built fence whose construction was halted by city officials.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News