Hello guys and gals,

We're moving into a home, and we can't decide between a privacy fence
or a chain fence - we fear, since it's on a corner lot, that we'll have
to take a chain fence; let me give you guys the snippet of code first
though, then what I think it means

a. Two and one-half feet in height within ten feet of a street
right-of-way ( property line ). Open fences, such as chain link or
those of similar nature are permitted to be six feet in height,

b.Six feet in height in the remainder of the front setback ( leading
edge of house ).

c. Eight feet in height within the required side or rear setback (side
and rear yards).


Most of the questions lie on A) - it reads as if the property line was
actually the ten feet of street right of way, but when I asked about
this the code office person (not sure if he was "the" officer or
whatever) said he wasn't sure what the street right of way was - a
little while later he said he thought it was 10 to 30 feet from the
middle of the road.... the property line, per the sheet we received
from the code office, is exactly 15 feet from the middle of the road.

However, A) can also be read as ten feet *past* the street right of way
- ie, so if the street right away is 20 feet... I'd have to put a fence
10 feet in, which would be 15 feet inside my own property!?

Also, what is this whole front/rear setback and leding edge stuff?
Sorry, I'm not familiar with it...

Any explanation would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

I would interpret this to mean that in (a) they mean the 10 ft area
measured from either the property line, or the street right of way,
whichever is greater. In some cases they may be one and the same. But
it's possible for a town to have the right of way for a wider road,
which could extend onto your property. I've seen cases of this where
property owners were required to agree to this right of way for
possible future use in order to receive sub-division of a lot,
variances, etc. It's basicly a way for the municipality to strong arm
folks so that the town doesn't some day have to pay for it. So, I
would find out for sure what the road right of way is.

The setbacks are the mimimum allowed distance for a building to the
property line. For example, if the sideyard setback is 30 ft, then you
can't build or enlarge a home closer than 30 ft to the properties on
either side, without a variance. I guess I should caution that it's
usually to the property line. You'd have to read it all in context.
In the case of a front yard, they may measure the front yard setback to
the road right of way, per above, if it's inside the property line.

Thanks both of you guys, took me a second but I got it, thanks!