Neighbors Request Fence To Separate New Development; Council Wishes Concerns Were Expressed Before Site Plan Approval

BERLIN – As Cannery Village nears completion, neighbors of the new development continue to advocate for a fence to prevent trespassing.

On Monday, several residents of Flower Street approached the town council with a petition seeking the installation of a fence between Cannery Village and their properties. Town officials, however, say that because the project already has site plan approval and is in fact nearly finished, it’s too late to require more from the developer.

“We cannot go back and make them put a fence up,” said Dave Gaskill, the town’s attorney.

Flower Street residents Barry Jarmon and DJ Lockwood approached the council Monday to share their concerns regarding Cannery Village, the rent-to-own community under construction. Located on the new street Cannery Way, the development sits behind many existing Flower Street homes. Jarmon said several residents had signed a petition calling for the installation of a fence between their property and the new development.

Lockwood said the new 44-house development would be home to numerous school children and he was concerned they’d be cutting through his property to get to Flower Street.

“There’s no way to think we’re not going to have cut-through traffic,” he said.

Lockwood said his property was just 25 feet from the Cannery Village community center.

“We don’t want to have to take that risk of new residents not respecting our privacy,” he said.

Mayor Gee Williams said that the town had been made aware of residents’ concerns some time ago and had contacted the school system regarding the possibility of setting up bus stops on Cannery Way, within the community. He said the school system had been receptive to the idea.

Williams went on to say that issues like the one brought up by Jarmon and Lockwood should have been shared with the town’s planning commission when the project was up for site plan approval.

“Their job is to deal with this stuff …,” he said. “Now the horse is out of the barn and we’ve got to figure out what we can do when we have no legal authority.”

He said that if the fence issue had been shared with the planning commission before site plan approval was granted, it could have been made a condition of the project’s approval.

“We’re not kings and queens here,” Williams said. “We don’t make laws as we go. There’s a system in place and it was missed.”

Nevertheless, Andrew Hanson of Osprey Property Company, the project’s developer, said the company was willing to work with nearby residents. He said a fence the requested length of 2,500 linear feet, however, would be expensive at about $100,000. He added that he wanted Cannery Village residents to be a part of the community.

“I’d like to not welcome them with a six foot privacy fence,” Hanson said.

Williams suggested a fence for roughly 200 feet, between Cannery Village and the homes that directly abut it, and then some vegetative screening beyond that.

Hanson indicated that he would be willing to work with the adjacent property owners to come up with some type of solution.

Town Administrator Laura Allen is expected to host a meeting between town officials, Hanson and the property owners in the coming weeks.

Councilman Dean Burrell said the situation illustrated the importance of ensuring residents adjacent to a proposed development were made aware as soon as the project entered the planning stage.

“If we could inform those properties, maybe we wouldn’t have had this situation with the fence,” he said, adding that had the residents known exactly what was planned for the community adjacent to their homes they could have shared any concerns with the planning commission. “The fence could have been handled in that planning phase.”

At the council’s request, Dave Engelhart, the town’s planning director, agreed to look into the possibility of updating the code to include more notification for neighboring property owners.