Whether good fences make good neighbors was up for debate at Monday’s Valparaiso City Council meeting, with sparring over whether a housing development needs a fence for its shared border with the Valparaiso Family YMCA.
Officials with the Y have requested a fence be installed to separate its northern property line from an “attainable housing” development proposed by Paradise Community Homes.
The council heard the first reading of an ordinance that would amend the zoning map to accommodate the 27-home development being called Cumberland Corner from Business Park to Urban Residential.
The Valparaiso Plan Commission voted at its June 2 meeting to recommend the change. The 4.79 acres in question are located at the southeast corner of Cumberland Drive and Bullseye Lake Road.
Plans call for nine market-rate homes and 18 attainable homes in the $250,000 to $300,000 price point for 1,200-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bath homes with one-car garages that will be sold at cost.
Council President Ellen Kapitan, D-At-Large, asked Paradise Community Homes President and CEO Bill Oeding if anything was being done about the Y’s concerns. Oeding said he had reached out to the Y twice and had a meeting scheduled for Wednesday.
At the May 5 Valparaiso Plan Commission meeting, Valparaiso Y CEO Sharon Johnson said the shared boundary between the Y and the backyards of the future homeowners, if the development is approved, would create “new, unavoidable access” to the Y property and would make supervision of children difficult for her staff.
“This is the point in the process where these boundary issues can be addressed safely and thoughtfully,” she said then, after asking for some type of fencing and full disclosure to prospective buyers.
Oeding said the shared boundary would be 632 feet long. At $32 per linear foot, he said a 4-foot-high fence would add $1,700 to $1,800 to the cost of each home. “We don’t believe it’s necessary,” he said. “We’re fighting to cut pennies and they’re wanting us to spend dollars on fencing we don’t believe is necessary.”
“I think if you have the CEO of the YMCA saying, ‘We need to put up a fence,’” Kapitan replied.
Oeding said if they felt a fence was necessary, they were certainly at liberty to put one up.
Besides Kapitan, Council Vice President Emilie Hunt, D-At-Large, Peter Anderson, R-5th, and Council Member Barbara Domer, D-3rd, appeared to side with the Y.
“The CEO of the YMCA wants to put up a fence and the CEO of Paradise Homes doesn’t believe it’s necessary,” Oeding said.
Council Member Diana Reed, D-1st, agreed. She said that while the Y is a nonprofit, they operate as any other business. A membership for a two-adult household with dependents is $100 to join and $86 per month.
“If they are desiring a fence to separate themselves from another location, it is my position that they should pay for that fence,” Reed said.
Hunt pointed out that Oeding was the city administrator when the city granted Paradise Community Homes $500,000 in Local Income Tax funds. He resigned as city administrator just five days before the Plan Commission held a public hearing on the rezoning request May 5.
“It does seem like a strange line is being drawn in the sand over this $21,000 (Oeding’s estimate for a 632-foot fence),” Domer said.
Mayor Jon Costas agreed with Oeding and Reed that Paradise footing the bill for a fence was unnecessary.
Anderson asked Costas if he really wanted the risk of a neighborhood dog biting a kid during a soccer game, and Costas said there are already dogs brought to the area in question on a daily basis.
Anderson told Costas and Oeding they were acting “ridiculous.”
“You said tonight that this fence is unnecessary, so why even have a meeting?” Anderson said.
Costas commended Oeding’s organization for filling a need for lower-cost housing that he said has been called for for some time.
Reed chimed in. “It’s creating owner-occupied homes that will generate tax dollars, and we don’t have another nonprofit that is doing that,” she said.
A public hearing on the matter will be held at the next city council meeting at 6 p.m. on Monday, June 22.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
