Council to Tackle Thorny Hedge Law

By Blair Clarkson
Staff Writer

June 7 -- In an attempt to resolve the thorny conflict between the rights of individual property owners and those of the community, the City Council on Tuesday will re-examine a controversial law regulating the height of private hedges and fences.

After lying dormant on the books for years, the longstanding ordinance has pricked many homeowners during the past year with formal notices of non-compliance and threatened them with fines of up to $25,000 a day until the offending branches are trimmed.

Furious their right to privacy is being trampled on, residents bombarded City Hall with complaints after officials began stepping up enforcement of the law, which currently limits hedges and fences to three and a half feet in front yards and eight feet in side and back yards.

In response, Council members Herb Katz and Bob Holbrook requested City staff to provide a report on the enforcement practices at Tuesday night's meeting, when the council will discuss possible amendments to the ordinance.

"I want to review it and take a look at it," Holbrook said. "There's been a lot of adjustments over the years, and I want to see if those are appropriate for today.

"If two neighbors share a hedge and they both like it and both agree to it," he added, "then why are we forcing them to remove it?"

Because, according to the City's land use objectives, fence and hedge limits "reinforce the urban design principle that open front yards contribute to the neighborhood aesthetic and are enjoyed by the entire community even though they are privately owned."

Proponents of cutting back on the offending growth argue that towering hedges make fortresses out of properties, limiting the social interaction between neighbors and reducing the community’s quality of life.

Some neighbors have also complained that tall side and back yard hedges and walls reduce the airflow and sunlight into their properties, requiring them to use more electricity and air-conditioning.

More importantly, City officials contend, is the need to reduce hedge and fence heights to create safer conditions for pedestrians near alleys, side streets and driveways, and for homeowners who can't see oncoming traffic as they back out of their own driveways.

"We're concerned about things like a little kid on a Big Wheel, when a low-profile person on a sidewalk darts by a driveway at the same time someone is backing out and there's no sightline," said City Attorney Marsha Moutrie.

But property owners are up in arms in defense of their hedges and fences, arguing that they're needed for privacy and security, beautify neighborhoods and increase property values.

Many have complained they are being singled out and forced to comply in a city lush with offenders.

In some cases, the prickly issue has pitted neighbor against neighbor, as defensive residents have assumed 'if-I'm-going-down-you're-going-down-with-me' attitudes.

"Apparently, some people are so outraged about receiving notices of non-compliance that they have very purposely gone up and down the streets of Santa Monica and listed dozens of addresses" of other violators, said Holbrook.

"People, either wittingly or unwittingly, in an effort to show that (their properties are) like a lot of other properties, have caused hundreds of other properties to get cited as well," Holbrook said.

While fence heights have been kept relatively in check over the decades, the regulation of hedges has never been strictly or uniformly enforced due to limited staff resources and the sheer volume of violations.

That is, until this year.

Following staffing increases in the Planning Department and direction from the council, Planning Commission and Architectural Review Board to step up zoning code enforcement, the City began proactively citing hedge and fence violations for the first time in decades.

As a result, the number of cases initiated bloomed from 52 in 2002-03 to 253 through May of this year, according to estimates compiled by Planning Director Susan Frick's office.

This surge in regulation and enforcement has irked Holbrook, among others.

"This City Council is extremely rule-conscious," he said. "It loves to regulate people. We adopt a new ordinance every nine days. Fines and fines and fines, it's all to drive this great big powerful income-producing machine."

Although he has misgivings about the regulation of back and side yard hedges, Holbrook would like to see a better warning system put in place that would alert residents who are not complying, before frightening them with penalties.

"It's pretty darn scary when the City tells you you've got thirty days to do this or you're facing (a) $25,000 (fine)," he said.

The ordinance also regulates the height of flagpoles, and several offended residents have been told to shorten theirs.

City officials expect Tuesday's meeting to draw vociferous crowds from both sides of the fence.

"Given that there are obviously competing viewpoints," said Moutrie, "and the fact that the law has been on the books for some time, and for most of that time has not been enforced, I think it's a good thing that the council is going to take another look at the policy."