Residents get license to build fences

Residents in Mansfield Township’s Mapleton Development will now be able to build fences in drainage easements.

By: Eve Collins
   MANSFIELD — The Township Committee voted last week to allow residents in the Mapleton development to put fences in easements located on their property.
   The vote was 3-2 at the May 14 meeting in favor of the measure, with committeemen Charles Schubert and Ray Stupienski voting against it. The committee now must adopt an amendment to the township’s ordinance to include language stating that residents must sign a license agreement before erecting fences in an easement.
   The agreements are needed because residents will be liable for any damages to neighboring properties and the fences themselves if any problems arise, township officials said.
   The committee members had asked Township Engineer Len Fiola to look at the feasibility of residents building fences in township-owned drainage easements in February, and asked Solicitor John Gillespie to review the current ordinance on fences in easements.
   Mr. Fiola strongly recommended that the township not change the ordinance, saying the easements exist for a reason, and if a problem occurs, the township has the responsibility to go in and fix it.
   Despite this, Mr. Gillespie determined that the township would not be liable for any damage to fences or homes.
   Officials have heard several requests over the past few months from residents in the Mapleton subdivision who wish to build fences at the rear of their properties. The residents say the ordinance does not give them use of their entire property, cutting off 7½ feet from the property line. Easements are divided equally between neighboring properties in the owners’ deeds.
   Mr. Gillespie determined that the ordinance could be amended to allow fences in the drainage easements, as well as in shade tree and landscape easements.
   Although this may resolve the issues regarding fences in Mapleton, it may cause other problems, township officials have said, because the amended ordinance would then allow residents in the rest of the township the same freedom.
   Mr. Fiola determined that there are 370 lots in the community that have drainage easements on them; 174 of those are in Mapleton. Mr. Fiola did not include landscape and shade tree easements in that study because, he said, he did not know they also were in question.
   Township officials and other residents have said the property owners should have known the easements were a part of the package.
   In response to a question from Mr. Stupienski as to whether Mayor Art Puglia and Committeeman Patrick DeLorenzo had a conflict of interest because they own property with easements on them, Mr. Gillespie responded that there was not.
   "You make so many decisions that affect you as residents, I don’t see a conflict," he said.
   Mr. Stupienski said the panel was concerned for the other homeowners in Mapleton who could be negatively affected in the future.
   "Although the township may not have any liability down the road for what we do here, I have a real concern because ultimately it’s going to come back," he said.