Penchant for taller fences 'affecting make up of suburban communities'

[Perry]

Dr Imran Muhammad, associate professor of urban planning and design at Massey University, said tall fences were a noticeable feature of many new subdivisions and were a concerning trend in New Zealand's residential environments.

His comments come after Lower Hutt residents last week aired their concerns over a fence being built along the border of a new subdivision in Avalon. The offending structure was built on top of a retaining wall and towered over existing fences on the boundary.

I'm interested in Forumites views on this. Not the planning / regulatory / compliance aspects. Rather, the perspective about society and cohesion and sense-of-community and so on.

Have we become so 'PC-alised' by the contemporary socialist sociopaths such that everyone else's self-inflicted problems are not their responsibility, but ours? And, if that's the case, better we do not see those other people and their self-inflicted problems, so that we do not get (or have to be or forced to be) involved?

[donna]

I'm thinking more of why they exist - rather than how it's affecting us.

It's the intensification of those new suburbs - where the area per section is so small, some times as little as 300 odd sqm. It makes sense the fences are high as they can be, esp. when your house can be within 2 metre of houses on either side. Who wants to be looking into someone else's bedroom? Living in a fish bowl etc. But is it any different to apartment living? Who knows their neighbours in apartments?

cheers,

Donna

[Davo36]

I'm thinking more of why they exist - rather than how it's affecting us.

It's the intensification of those new suburbs - where the area per section is so small, some times as little as 300 odd sqm. It makes sense the fences are high as they can be, esp. when your house can be within 2 metre of houses on either side. Who wants to be looking into someone else's bedroom? Living in a fish bowl etc. But is it any different to apartment living? Who knows their neighbours in apartments?

cheers,

Donna

I was going to say the same thing.

[donna]

Very tall fences make good neighbours

[DaveW]

Security too.
And it's becoming more common when entering these subdivisions you have to enter through a guarded gate.