Buffalo Grove agrees to 6-foot high fences

Buffalo Grove residents now have the chance to see even less of their neighbors.

This week, the village board changed its fence code to allow 6-foot fences in residential areas without a variance. The previous standard was five feet — anything higher required approval from the Zoning Board of Appeals and village board.

The new law also limits the height a fence post may extend over the fence itself to eight inches, including a decorative cap.

In the past, the change would have been unheard of, but public opinion, although still divided, gradually tilted in favor of the amendment, as shown in a recent online poll.

The police department recommended the fences be solid or opaque, which the board agreed with.

Only Trustee Steven Trilling objected to the height change, saying fences that high “begin to close up the village.”

“People become privatized ... in their own environments,” Trilling said, adding he’d prefer the village examine 6-foot fences on a case-by-case basis.

“It doesn’t create open space. It doesn’t create relationships between neighbors.”

Trustee Michael Terson replied that one of the things he loves about Buffalo Grove is how people talk to their neighbors.

“I don’t want a 6-foot fence myself,” Terson said.

“However, I don’t think it’s our place to tell someone else what’s right for them on their property,” Terson added. “Fences provide people with a certain level of comfort and security and privacy, and if someone feels that a 6-foot fence is good for them, I don’t want to tell them otherwise.”

Trustee Andrew Stein, who was on the ZBA more than five years, said he met residents who would have preferred getting a 6-foot fence without having to come to a public meeting and share personal details, “like the fact that they have certain illnesses.”

He added 6-foot fences are more the standard for home improvement outlets, the five-foot variety requiring a special order.

Stein and trustees Jeffrey Berman and Beverly Sussman all said they would not agree to anything higher than 6 feet.

Berman called Trilling’s point of view “an expression of his opinion on what an ideal neighborhood, an ideal situation would be.”

However, Berman said, “We don’t live in a perfect world,” adding while this may have been the standard decades ago, the public’s expectations have changed over time.