There Ought to be a Law

T he code enforcement committee met on August 11 to discuss the Neighborhood Association's efforts to deal with city code violations within the neighborhood. It was decided that the first action of this committee would be to start a series of educational articles for the Pecan Press and the Neighborhood Association web site.

    In order to make our city ordinances more understandable, we thought that publishing a city ordinance each month would help our collective memory and remind us as neighbors of what the ordinances are for. City ordinances can protect us from criminal acts, but they can also protect our neighborhoods and our city by protecting our quality of life.

    When Monroe Shipe developed Hyde Park and Shadowlawn, his dream was to create a community with homes and perfect shade. He built sidewalks, planted trees, and deed restricted front yard fences to 42 inches high. These deed restrictions were our first neighborhood laws, and we were one of the city's first planned neighborhoods. Most of those early neighbors thought they were enlightened and that life in a planned community went beyond perfect shade. Front porches and sidewalks brought neighbors together, and Shipe believed in fences that you could see over in front yards.

    There is an old saying -- one which figures prominently in Robert Frost's poem, "Mending Wall" -- that "good fences make good neighbors." And Frost had a point, at least up to a point. Fences that are on the property line provide both owners with a demarcation line. Some neighbors want their privacy and fences can provide that privacy. Meeting at the fence line with neighbors can also be a socially enlightening experience. So the next time you see a new fence in the neighborhood, ask yourself, "Should that fence be there?" There are of course ordinances that govern fences in the City of Austin:

In the Hyde Park Neighborhood Conservation Combining District (N.C.C.D) the neighborhood has its own ordinance (City of Austin Ordinance No. 020131-20).

5.

A fence located in a front yard may not exceed a height of four feet and shall have a ratio of open space to solid ma-terial of not less than 1 to 1.5.

6.

This section applies to a fence located in a street side yard that faces an avenue and is greater than four feet in height. The portion of a fence that is greater than four feet shall have a ratio of open space to solid material of not less than 1 to 1.5.