2 Feet, 4 minutes, 1 Decision

What's two feet?

When dealing with government zoning codes, two feet can often mean a lawyer, an official hearing, and a ruling from government officials.

Sometimes, if contested, a fight over two feet of anything covered by zoning can be drawn out over two months or two years.

But Hickory Investors only needed four minutes with the Bel Air Planning Department–a rare venue for such hearings–to get permission to add two feet to a fence at the rear of its Ma and Pa Road apartment complex.

"We have a residential property, and the adjoining property is a former sanitation site," said Richard Braver, who represented Hickory Investors' apartment complex. "[This will allow Hickory] to screen from the two different types of properties."

The problem was this: Hickory Village Condominiums is governed by a residential zoning rule that allows only 8-foot-tall fences. But its commercially-zoned neighbor on the other side of the fence is permitted to erect a 10-foot-tall fence.

To get those same rights for its condo development, Hickory Investors needed the Department of Planning to grant them a variance to Article 2, Section 10, Subsection 165-69B of the code.

On Sept. 2, in a brief, four-minute hearing, the department gave Hickory the approval it needed to attach two feet of lattice fence to further shield its residents from the site of a former Harford sanitation yard.

"From a practical standpoint if the abutting property owner were to ask for a 10-foot fence … that would be permitted," Senior Planner Robert Syphard said after the hearing.

Syphard said it would not make sense for a residential property to be denied the luxury of a 10-foot fence when the code allows a commercial property the additional two feet on the same fence line.

"I will approve this request on the condition … that the existing fence permit is amended to accommodate the additional height that you've requested and any modifications," Syphard said.

Braver said Hickory will make the approved changes to the fence "as soon as possible." He estimated that the changes will take three to four weeks to complete.

Syphard said that this is only the third administrative variance hearing in the Bel Air Department of Planning and Community Development. Most cases are heard before the planning commission.

Hearings such as these allow for minor cases to be heard in a swift manner.