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One does not normally place the bottom of a wooden fence directly on the ground, to <br />avoid rot and insect damage (addressed in #5 above and in the expert quotes included in <br /># 12 below), and nowhere did the city's written regulations stipulate a height limit above <br />the ground that fence tops may not exceed. Leaving a few inches between the ground <br />and the bottom of the fence was an idea suggested to us by city staff, who did not instruct <br />us to remove several inches from the top of the fence to avoid extending beyond six feet <br />above the ground. Leaving space between the ground and the bottom of the fence is also <br />a practice recommended by expert fence builders (see quotes in #12 below). So, at their <br />closest points to the ground, our fence sections are several inches off the ground. Given <br />that our property descends sharply (six feet) from east to west along the common lot line <br />between the Schneiders and us, and that the fence sections are designed to be horizontal <br />rather than each following the contour of the land, there are places where the gap from <br />the ground to the bottom of the fence is several inches more. When the Schneiders <br />complained, city staff contacted us about this issue and determined that we were building <br />our fence "within the spirit of the law." We made further accommodations to comply <br />with the regulations, however, including the removal of a foot of material from all <br />remaining vertical fence panels (making the eastern half of the fence only five feet high), <br />and placement of the panel bottoms closer to the ground. <br />7) There was never any damage to the Schneider's property. The one inch of concrete <br />that came close to the lot line at four of the posts was removed within 24 hours and <br />verified by city staff. All the post -holes were dug at least six inches inside our property, <br />and the soil from the holes was used to partially fill in the crater left by the Schneiders on <br />our land when they removed a bush they had planted there. They made no attempt to <br />repair the mess they left behind in removing their bush. Our builder also leveled and <br />raked the ground around all the posts once they were installed, and there was absolutely <br />no damage to the Schneiders' property or mess left to clean up on their side of the <br />property line when he was finished. Any claim to the contrary is erroneous. <br />8) In "stepping" the fence, the builder was just following the contour of the slope as it <br />rises sharply (six feet) from west to east. See photos #1 and #2 [Exh. A] . There was <br />nothing either "arbitrary" or "willy-nilly" about it. Perhaps in the best of all possible <br />worlds, our lot would be level and our fence would not need to be stepped. But <br />unfortunately our common lot line is far from level, and the fence needed to be stepped. <br />9) No trim is called for along the top of this fence. See our photos # 7 and #8 [Exh. G] <br />of the same fence as installed on the west side of Lexington Ave. on the north and south <br />sides of Amble Drive. Note the post heights which exceed six feet; the builder of that <br />fence was not required to trim the posts off at the six-foot level. <br />Post -caps are optional, not a required component. It had originally been our plan to use <br />post caps but city staff encouraged us to cut off the posts level with the top of the fence <br />because of the Schneiders' complaints. We did so. Unfortunately now post caps are all <br />but impossible to install. But the fence is finished and looks beautiful as is. <br />3 <br />