Sunday, November 10, 2013

A Neighborhood-Altering Proposal

On Friday morning, there was another challenging proposal before the Historic Preservation Commission. The current owners of 39 South Fifth Street are seeking a certificate of appropriateness to install a six-foot high privacy fence around the yard beside the house, where South Fifth Street curves into East Allen Street.


When shown a picture of the type of cedar fence to be used and told it would be painted white, HPC member Peggy Polenberg opined, "Very nice. I like it." Other HPC members, however, were concerned about the height of the fence and how it would block the view of the building and interfere with the sense of openness. 

In the late 19th century, there was a fence around the property, but it was low picket fence, open in its design, which could be seen over and through.

The HPC urged the applicant, who was there representing the owners, to look at other examples in the city where the desired goals of privacy and security were achieved in ways that were "more of an enhancement than a barrier." A wrought iron fence, a picket fence, and a privet hedge were suggested as possible solutions.

The application was determined to be incomplete because it lacked a site plan that showed exactly were the fence would be positioned and an image that showed what the fence would look like in context. The HPC will continue its consideration of the application at its next meeting on Friday, November 22.
COPYRIGHT 2013 CAROLE OSTERINK

4 comments:

  1. Any idea of when the older picture was taken? It appears to have been taken from the location of 38 South 5th St. where I grew up. My parents owned the house from 1954 until they passed in 2004 - 2005.

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    1. Peter--The picture is from Historic Hudson's Rowles Studio Collection, and it was taken sometime in the latter half of the 19th century.

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  2. I imagine a low fence backed with tall evergreens would satisfy all the issues....

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    1. Agreed. I think a 6 foot fence belies a lack of imagination.

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