BLYTHEWOOD (Sept. 22, 2016) – The Board of Architectural Review (BAR) finally got its fence, though not exactly the one it wanted. After negotiating for months last year with the developers of The Pointe apartment complex to install a decorative fence (instead of the developer’s proposed chain link fence) on three sides of the Main Street apartment project, the developer, Prestwick Developers, backed out at the last minute, pointing out that the zoning ordinance did not require a fence.
On Monday evening, Harold Boney, who owns the property on the west side of The Pointe, came before the BAR offering to build a fence between the two properties if the Board would approve a 6-foot tall, black vinyl-coated chain link fence that, he said, would be hidden in the landscaping. The 450 linear feet of fencing would stretch from a previously determined setback point near Main Street straight back to the back property line of the adjoining properties.
“It’s a liability issue for me,” Boney said. “There will be lots of children over there and if they are playing on my property and get hurt, I’ll be liable.”
Boney said the fence is part of an agreement he has with Prestwick.
“They needed a place to bore under Highway 21 for sewer connections,” Boney said. “So I let them bore on my property in exchange for them paying for the fence.”
Boney said Prestwick has already paid him for the cost of the fence, which is estimated at $7,980.
As a condition of their approval, BAR members asked Boney to add a decorative column on the end of the fence nearest Main Street, and that the brick on the column match the brick on the apartment buildings. Boney agreed.
“We appreciate very much what you’ve done for us. (The fence) is something we’ve wanted,” Jim McLean told Boney. “My disappointment to some degree is that Prestwick has had us again, because they knew a chain link fence was not going to be approved for them. So they went into this agreement (with Boney) deceitfully.” Though McLean was quick to say the Board did not blame Boney.
The Board voted unanimously to approve the fence on the conditions that the setback from Main Street that was previously approved would be used, and that specifications for the decorative column could be hammered out.