JACKSON TOWNSHIP, NJ – A homeowner in Jackson faced an uphill battle with the township zoning board on Wednesday when trying to build a five-foot-tall aluminum fence around his property to keep his children safe, even in the front yard.
The zoning board said the law only permits a four-foot fence and there are restrictions against fencing along Butterfly Road.
The homeowner said he wants to make the property safe for his children to play on the busy Butterfly Road where his home is situated.
The zoning board said even though the man wanted a five-foot high fence, a four-foot high fence would ‘accomplish the same goal.’
“Four feet is an easy fence to climb over,” the applicant told the board.
The zoning board recommended the man build the five-foot tall fence around his property, but the front of the fence had to be four feet tall.
The applicant argued that he would like to keep the fencing uniform for aesthetics.
“That is not going to look right in the neighborhood,” board member Jeanine Kaunitz Fritch told the father. “Tell your children not to run out into the road.”
At another recent meeting, Fritch told an applicant seeking to close in their front yard to have their children play in the backyard.
The zoning board told the applicant his children should not be playing in the front yard, and the fence can only be placed in the backyard.
In the end, after being told by the board that if he didn’t agree to their proposal, he would never be allowed to build a five-foot-high fence.
The board approved the application after the front yard portion was excluded, and no frontage protection will be afforded to him along Butterfly Road.
The amended application was unanimously approved.