Sam Fletcher reports from the Oak Harbor City Council workshop of Tue., Jan. 28, 2025 for the Whidbey News-Times.
When Oak Harbor staff brought options to revise the fence height code to the city council in a workshop this week, most council members preferred to delay a decision because of an overlapping controversy with the mayor’s fence.
Mayor Ronnie Wright received a notice of violation for his fence being over a foot above the city limit in October, though he said he delayed fixing the violation until March when the weather may be better. His neighbor brought the issue to public attention by criticizing the mayor at council meetings.
The background complicated the discussion at the workshop Tuesday since the proposed changes could potentially give the mayor time to change the code before having to pay to fix his fence.
They Said It
Councilmember Bryan Stucky said the issue isn’t about a 6-foot versus a 7-foot fence rule.
“Let’s acknowledge we’re also in a little bit of an awkward situation with controversy or whatever you want to call it regarding the fencing,” he said, “and while I might consider increasing the height to 7 feet, I think it’s a better discussion for a year from now.”
Councilmember Jim Woessner agreed. While deer may be able to hop over a 6-foot fence, he has not heard a complaint about that from his constituents.
“It seems like we’re discussing a problem that’s not a problem,” he said. “I mean it doesn’t seem like this is coming from code enforcement as a problem. It doesn’t necessarily sound like it’s coming from planning as a problem. I’m not aware of this being brought forward as a complaint from citizens.”
Councilmember Eric Marshall also didn’t like the timing. He said typically code changes go through the planning commission, and the commission’s recommendation is brought to the council. This one came to council directly from staff, and staff are not recommending a change.
Mayor Pro Tem Tara Hizon said that if they agreed to take action on this, it would first go to the planning commission.
