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After months of discussion by the Farmville town council, a majority have settled on a fence ordinance they can agree on. But since it’s changed from the original version the planning commission saw, the process now starts for a second time. 

Not everyone supported the idea of creating a fence ordinance for Farmville. Council member Sallie Amos was in the minority, as she wanted to get rid of the idea. In previous meetings, Amos had said she felt the council was overstepping and getting too involved. 

“I want to cancel it altogether,” Amos told the rest of the group, pointing out that months of discussion have been spent over something that started between two neighbors. Originally, Town Manager Dr. Scott Davis brought the issue before the council after a dispute over a fence on Longwood Avenue. 

“I believe the reason that was given was that a fence was erected that was impairing a neighbor’s sight of traffic,” Amos said. “I asked, was the fence erected because there was bickering? And I believe it was alluded to, the fact that yes, it was. Was it bickering? Because we’ve been through a whole long process here for just bickering (between neighbors). We just need to scrap this altogether.”

Amos pointed out that at the mayor’s roundtable discussion a few weeks back, business leaders told the council they needed to make things easier for citizens. Instead, Amos argued, she felt like the council is just making things more complicated by giving more rules to follow. 

Some rules are needed 

Davis said it was more than just bickering between neighbors that made this an issue for council. While researching the rules because of that spat between residents, he found Farmville doesn’t have any kind of ordinance regulating fences in residential areas. And that could be a problem in the future, Davis pointed out. 

Another question council members had was if it would be legal to require any type of conditional use permit for fences? Davis said yes, with some limits. If the council sets requirements for fences, say some type of height limit and then a resident wanted something larger, they would have to go through the conditional use permit process. The current proposal wouldn’t allow a fence larger than 8 feet high on the side or rear yard and no higher than four feet in the front yard. If a resident wants to go higher than any of those limits, they would have to pay $500 and go before the planning commission and then the town council, to get approval.

The current proposal also makes it clear the owner would have to do some cosmetic things to keep the fence up long-term. The proposal calls for all fences to be maintained in good repair and in a safe and attractive condition. “The owner of the property on which a fence is located shall be responsible for maintenance, including, but not limited to, the replacement of missing, decayed, or broken structural and decorative elements.” In other words, if part of the fence breaks or if it’s worn down and looks like it’s seen better days, you wouldn’t be able to leave it like that. The property owner would have to repair or replace the damaged parts. 

Majority of Farmville council signs off

A majority of Farmville council members said they were fine with that idea. Council member Donald Hunter said his focus was safety. He didn’t want a 10 ft. fence in the front yard blocking sight, so that police officers have a clear line of sight when they go to serve a warrant. He wanted to make sure officers couldn’t get ambushed. Thomas Pairet agreed, saying this sounded like a good middle ground, something they could compromise on. 

In the end, that majority won, with Amos in opposition. Now it’ll go back before the Farmville planning commission, which will schedule a public hearing and then decide if they recommend approval. That will take two meetings, one to introduce and discuss, the second to hold the hearing, so it would likely be at least January before this would come back before council.