Planning Commission gives fence amendment go-ahead

By Kara Chalmers

In the past, Saratogans living in the hillsides have complained about deer and other wildlife endangering their pets and ruining their landscaping and gardens. To address the problem, residents in September showed up at a joint City Council and Planning Commission meeting to ask that the city relax its strict rules limiting hillside fencing.

Although no one showed up at a Jan. 12 Planning Commission public hearing on the issue (one resident wrote a letter), the commission voted to recommend to the City Council an amendment to Saratoga's fencing ordinance.

The current ordinance limits the area that fences can enclose in the hillsides to no more than 4,000 square feet. As with most of the city's ordinances, exceptions can be made, both in cases when the fence is hidden from other properties' views and in cases where safety calls for it. The city was receiving so many requests for exceptions--12 between 1994 and 1999--that Council members in September suggested that increasing the area might help cut down on them and still leave a lot of open space in the hillsides.

The commission is recommending that the amount of allowable enclosed area be increased to 20 percent of the property, regardless of the property's size. They came to that figure after discussing increasing the amount to 33 percent, which is the average amount of property enclosed in the exceptions that have been granted. Commission members decided that percentage is unnecessary if the exception process remains in place.

"Twenty percent is a good number," Commissioner George Roupe said. "It still leaves a lot of open space. We want to accommodate wildlife, but the wildlife has to live with us as we have to live with them."

In addition, the commission is recommending that another exception be added to the list: agricultural purposes. That way, vineyards and orchards could be more protected from animals.

As a kind of tradeoff, all fences will now have to be set back 20 feet from the back and side property lines and 30 feet from the front, so that there will always be 40 feet of open space between properties, for fire trucks and deer. All fences are open material-style, wire mesh or wrought iron, for example, so that small animals can pass through them easily.

The one resident who wrote a letter said she thought the ordinance is fine the way it is.

Commissioners discussed whether to place a cap on the amount of allowable area to be enclosed but decided against it. They also discussed the turnout for the item and hoped that more people plan to comment on the ordinance amendment when the City Council deliberates it.

The amendment also has a segment that clarifies the roles the community development director, Planning Commission and the City Council play concerning appeals. The current zoning ordinance allows any administrative decision made by the community development director to be appealed to the Planning Commission. What it doesn't make clear, however, is that the Planning Commission decision is then final and cannot be appealed to the City Council. The commission is recommending that the amendment clarify this and also clarify the fact that only discretionary decisions made by the community development director can be appealed.

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