File #: O-30-24    Version: 1 Name:
Type: Ordinance Status: Public Hearing
File created: 10/1/2024 In control: City Council
On agenda: 4/14/2025 Final action:
Title: Fence Permit Requirements Related to Use and Development Standards in the City Zoning Code Title 21 - For the purpose of creating additional standards related to home fencing along forests and open spaces; clarifying undue obstructions related to fencing; stating Council preference for extra consideration regarding fences on an up-slope; and generally related to fence regulation in Title 21.
Sponsors: Rob Savidge
Indexes: Planning Commission, Rules and City Government Committee
Attachments: 1. O-30-24 First Reader, 2. O-29-24 and O-30-24 Staff Report, 3. O-29-24 and O-30-24 Staff Report UPDATED, 4. O-29-24 and O-30-24 Staffing Impact Report, 5. O-29-24 and O-30-24 Fiscal Impact Report, 6. O-30-24 Amendment 1 - Savidge, 7. O-30-24 Amendment 2 - Savidge, 8. O-30-24 Amendment 3 - Savidge, 9. O-30-24 Staff Report to Planning Commission with Attachments, 10. O-30-24 Planning Commission Findings, 11. O-30-24 Capital Gazette Affidavit, 12. O-29-24 Signed Copy (b&w)

Title

Fence Permit Requirements Related to Use and Development Standards in the City Zoning Code Title 21 - For the purpose of creating additional standards related to home fencing along forests and open spaces; clarifying undue obstructions related to fencing; stating Council preference for extra consideration regarding fences on an up-slope; and generally related to fence regulation in Title 21.

Body

CITY COUNCIL OF THE

City of Annapolis

 

Ordinance 30-24

 

Introduced by: Alderman Savidge

 

Referred to:

                                          Planning Commission

                                          Rules and City Government Committee

 

AN ORDINANCE concerning

 

Fencing Requirements for Permits Related to Use and Development Standards

in the City Zoning Code

 

FOR                     the purpose of creating additional standards related to home fencing along forests and open spaces; clarifying undue obstructions related to fencing; stating Council preference for extra consideration regarding fences on an up-slope; and generally related to fence regulation in Title 21.

 

BY                     repealing and reenacting with amendments the following portions of the Code of the City of Annapolis, 2024 Edition:

                                          21.60.070

 

SECTION I:                     BE IT ESTABLISHED AND ORDAINED BY THE ANNAPOLIS CITY COUNCIL that the Code of the City of Annapolis shall be amended to read as follows:

 

Title 21 - PLANNING AND ZONING

Division V - Regulation of General Applicability

Section 21.60.070 - Fences and walls.

 

E.                     Fences and walls shall not be located to unduly obstruct light and air from neighboring properties or public ways.

1.                     Privacy fences or other fences with less than two inches gap between boards, excluding lattice-type fencing, shall not be installed along areas that are backed on one side, the applicant's side, by forests or open space that does not have homes located on or within 50 feet of the fence.

2.                     Undue obstructions could include, but are not limited to, fences that are over four feet tall that include no lattice or have gaps smaller than two inches between boards, that are proposed to be located within 10 feet of a neighboring property’s rear windows or that are backing undeveloped forest.

3.                      Fences located on up-slopes behind homes may be more obstructive to light and air and should be modified as needed to alleviate this issue, especially when there are no homes on the applicant’s side of the fence.

 

SECTION II:  AND BE IT FURTHER ESTABLISHED AND ORDAINED BY THE ANNAPOLIS CITY COUNCIL that this ordinance:

1.                     Shall take effect upon passage; and

2.                     Apply to all projects and applications without final approval from the Department.