Residents

of Stonebriar subdivision at Lester and Old

Norton roads in Fayetteville may be able to put

up privacy fences after all.

City

Council Monday tabled requests for an exception

to the city's normal regulations, and asked

residents to work with their homeowners'

association to come up with a fence design that

will be acceptable to the association and to the

council.

Newton

Galloway, presenting arguments on behalf of his

former wife, Teri, said the city's ordinances

have his family in a catch-22.

Several

home sites along Lester Road, and Teri Galloway's

home on Old Norton, have back yards that face the

roads, while their front yards face the

subdivision street Verdon Hills. For legal

purposes, city ordinances define the homes' back

yards as front yards, and city regulations don't

allow fences in front yards.

Six-foot

privacy and safety fences already are in place in

the subdivision, because residents didn't know

about the city's ordinance banning fences for

double frontage lots.

During

recent Planning Commission, resident Larry

McMichael and Galloway argued that the city's

rules leave their back yards open to traffic and

create a safety problem.

And

Galloway argued that the city's aesthetic reason

for banning fences on the "double

frontage" lots is flawed.

"Aesthetically, the city is better served by

allowing some fencing," he told City Council

during a work session last week, adding that back

yard furniture and children's toys are less

attractive from the road than a fence would be.

But

owners often don't maintain their fences, and

they become eyesores, argued Councilman Al

Hovey-King. "Unless that fence is properly

maintained, I dare say you could drive around the

city and csee a number of wood privacy fences

that are in bad shape," he said.

In

tabling the matter Monday, council members

directed Galloway to meet with the homeowners'

association and bring back a specific

recommendation for a type of fence that all

homeowners in the subdivision with double

frontage lots would use.

The

type of fence, landscaping and maintenance

requirements should all be addressed by the

association, council members said.

Council

will take the matter up again at its Monday, Aug.

2 meeting, 7 p.m. at City Hall. A work session to

discuss agenda items for that meeting will be

Wednesday, July 28, at 7 p.m.

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