The Finkas Family Fence
2029 Westover Drive
Our first home, 2029
Westover Drive, is at
the busy intersection
of Westover Drive
and Pleasant Hill
Road with only one
direct neighbor, Al
Saadeh, whom we are
friends with.
At this busy corner,
there is heavy
pedestrian and car
traffic, making our
kids susceptible to
several different
dangers.
Also, bright lights
from the traffic and
new street lights
shine into our home
daily.
In April 2022, we decided to make some
landscape updates to our yard, which included a
6’ high fence. Regrettably, we were unaware of
the need for a permit for the fence.
What we were certain of was that the fence would provide our family with a sense of security that our girls can play comfortably outside while we are gardening or washing our cars out front with a barrier for protection.
This is a screenshot from the code enforcement visit recording from April 15, 2022. We only had the gate left to complete. The gate posts and framing are made of metal and all other posts are standard pressure treated wood posts.
This is a similar view of the completed
fence but at night.
The headlights from oncoming cars and
the bright lights from the new LED street
lights installed after the Pleasant Hill Road
Improvement project completed in 2021
shines into our bedrooms at night at the
front and side of our house.
Living at this corner, we have seen:
- cars running red lights,
- drunk driver crashing into the median in the middle of the night, and - sideshows/street racing/cars doing donuts at the intersection.
In 2018, an accident happened at the intersection just in front of our home. Thankfully, it wasn’t a serious one as you can see from the photos provided here.
Site Layout Drawing
Per City:
Our property has a 20’
setback that begins at
30’ from the marker on
Westover Drive.
In order for us to have a
6’ high fence, it would
need to be 50’ away from
the center of the street,
where the dotted yellow
line is.
This would leave us with
approximately 5’ of space
from our house.
A recent view of the
fence and its proximity
to the street.
Listing photo from 2017 with the old Ash tree out front per letter from the original owner’s (Ken and Nancy Clark’s) kids.
Request for City Council
- Please consider the shape and location of our lot and the difficulty we would have conforming to the letter of the existing ordinances while trying to keep our children safe. - Taking our particulars into account, please grant us an exemption and allow us to keep our fence at its current height and location.
- Please consider the need for an ordinance update for homes/corner homes at busy streets.
We are certainly not the only ones who would like a buffer from street traffic (see next slides).
We hope you can agree that feeling safe and living comfortably is paramount to thriving and we hope that our family can continue to thrive in Pleasant Hill.
Thank you for your time,
The Finkas Family
Kevin, Christine, Sofia (8), Amelia (5) and Claire (5)