Beyond Bricks: How Tall Masonry Fences Shield Residential Serenity from Commercial Chaos
Does it seem pleasant to have the fragrant mist from 20 aerobic septic tank sprinklers spritz your face as you are enjoying your first cup of coffee in the morning? If not, then you may be a strong advocate for St. Paul’s strict commercial fence ordinance. Fortunately for you, ordinance 8-2 requires a large, solid fence for commercial properties that border residential areas:
Where a commercial zoned area or lot abuts a residentially zoned area, an 8 Ft. masonry wall is required as a visual barrier and buffer between such lots or areas.
An eight foot wall is huge! But, if you are unfortunate enough to live next to someone who wants to turn their lot into one covered by a Specific Use Permit (typically for a Church which can’t be outright refused by the council according to state law), they will need to abide by this ordinance according to our code. This protects residents by:
Blocking the blinding security lighting that will most likely be installed on a commercial-like building.
The aforementioned septic spritz surprise
Unpleasant visual elements if and when the Church is converted into a full-fledged commercial property. According to the code, you are at the mercy of the council if the owner decides to flip the property to a commercial business.
Providing a minimal noise barrier
Protects property values
And last but not least, it means the developer will need to put money into the property to convert it from residential so maybe that will convince them to avoid the conversion altogether.
St. Paul properties typically don’t have access to sewer lines, so they often rely on septic. A commercial/Specific Use property relying on a septic system can be quite the challenge, considering the sheer magnitude of, well, "business" it needs to handle.
Now, on the downside, you may want to keep your view of your neighbor’s nice lush field and believe me, that field that will be well fertilized. Also, you may prefer not to look at a huge fence in your backyard and that is completely understandable. But, for the reasons mentioned above the juice just isn’t worth the squeeze. A Specific Use Permit being approved next to residential is not an ideal scenario in the first place, so choose the lesser of two evils and encourage the council to you know, actually enforce the ordinance. You may even get lucky enough that the SUP requester backs out completely since masonry fence prices are no joke.
Reminder: The city council meeting is Monday Jan 8th at 7:00 PM at the St. Paul Town Hall. Citizens are allowed to comment for 3 minutes as long as they sign a form that is on display when they come into the building.
Image generated by Bing Image Creator
Written with assistance from ChatGPT 3.5