COUNCIL WEIGHING BARRIERS CITY CONSIDERS AMNESTY FOR EXISTING LEGAL FENCES.

Byline: Alex Dobuzinskis Staff Writer

BURBANK - After sitting on the fence for years, city officials are finally moving to strengthen a nearly 40-year-old ordinance to control the proliferation of ugly barriers between homes.

Fences in Burbank come in all shapes and sizes, despite rules limiting them to three feet high along the street and eight feet high on the sides and the back of residential property.

``There are just a myriad of fences, most of which don't meet the code,'' said City Councilman Jef Vander Borght.

The city hasn't changed its fence regulations since 1967, and many say the need to make the rules tougher and more enforceable is long overdue. The city is considering changes and hopes to have new rules in place within a year.

To stop the spread of unattractive fences, city officials are looking at limiting the kinds of materials homeowners can use to wall themselves off from their neighbors. For example, barbed wire and chain-link fences are allowed under the current code but city leaders on Tuesday considered banning them.

Mindful of the expense many homeowners have incurred building their fences, the council also discussed offering an amnesty to homeowners with fences that are too high. Homeowners would only be asked to tear down a noncomplying fence when they sell their homes.

``That way we don't have to go out and enforce hundreds of noncomplying fences and require people to tear down a fence that they've built as recently as four years ago,'' said Mayor Marsha Ramos.

The city issued about 30 notices to homeowners with problem fences in the past two years, always after receiving a complaint from a neighbor. But the complaint-driven enforcement process often snowballed when homeowners angry about a notice they received submitted stacks of pictures to council members showing neighboring homes also had fences that were too high.

City officials took preliminary steps to change the regulations in the hopes of making sure city streets stay attractive.

``Do you want your community to feel the streets are nice and open and it's a whole community thing in the front yard? Or do you want to look around and see these tall fences and say, gosh, this must be a dangerous part of town?'' said Principal Planner Joy Forbes.

Vander Borght, however, acknowledged that residents are attached to their fences, which they believe protect them and their privacy.

``Clearly fences are always a controversial issue. People have really divergent opinions,'' Vander Borght said.

Another dilemma facing city officials is what to do with properties that have yards with steep grades. Some homeowners have retaining walls and then build a fence three feet high or more starting from the top of the retaining wall.

The City Council asked that the ongoing concerns and proposed changes in fence regulations be presented to the Planning Board, and called for a public outreach program to inform residents about the possible changes.

Alex Dobuzinskis, [phone]

alex.dobuzinskis(at)dailynews.com