When I build my fence, it should be 2 feet from the boundary, right? This is a question I get from clients on innumerable occaisions.
If so, where will your neighbor build their fence. Do you think they will put it 2 feet from the boundary, leaving a 4 feet wide demilitarized zone? Or will they take full advantage of the land that has been granted to them?
The latest client is upset because they built their fence by the 2 feet rule (it must be true, I heard it at the barber shop) and the neighbor just continued the fence along the offset boundary.
Well, duh...
A nearby small city decided to enforce that fences were to be treated the same as structures. Meaning they must adhere to building set back lines. How stupid is that?
leaving a 4 feet wide demilitarized zone
I laughed.
M.G.L. Chapter 40 are the actual rules, Paul. There are a few towns that put some little setback in their zoning by-laws for fences even though a fence shorter than 8' is not considered a structure for zoning purposes in Mass. My opinion is those setback by-laws are repugnant to Ch. 40 and therefore invalid.
Not a good plan.
In the HOA bylaws of a community that I used to live in had a rule that fences had to be 1/2' from the property line. there were 1' gaps between fences that no one could tend to, so there were 6' tall weeds sprouting up in that 1'. Another example of stupid stuff, when NYSDOT was rebuilding and upgrading NYS Rt 55 through the Town of Poughkeepsie, the towns wanted plantings in the median, nice gesture, but I think they never defined who would maintain the median and it turned into nothing but an eyesore.
