Thursday, September 9, 1999 Older Editions

Fight over a fence

By Rebecca Lipchitz

Perry Raffi says good fences make good neighbors. Raffi's neighbors say the wrong fence will ruin a neighborhood.

That may simply sound like a good old-fashioned turf war in a good old-fashioned neighborhood. But it is no ordinary dispute in no ordinary neighborhood.

Raffi has lived at 13 Center St., across from the historic Ballardvale Green, for nine years, and after difficulties developed between himself and his new next-door neighbors, Ron and Michelle Kravette of 11 Center St., he requested permission from the Ballardvale Historic District Commission to erect a stockade fence along 30 feet of his property.

"It's a privacy issue, which stems from a personal issue," Raffi says, adding that he also needs a fence to contain his dog.

What complicates the neighbors' conflict is that they are more than just next-door neighbors. Both Raffi and Kravette are members of the Ballardvale Historic District Commission. Yet another commission member, Diane Derby, lives on the other side of Kravette.

The dispute between neighbors in the heart of the Ballardvale Historic District was the subject of a tense meeting of the commission last week, until commission members persuaded Raffi to seek mediation with neighbors before seeking a decision from the board.

Commission member Chuck Murnane told the neighbors he would rather see them mediate than vote on the proposal.

"If we vote tonight, the battle lines will be drawn. Just get together. Is there a way to make this happen?" he asked Raffi, who agreed after some deliberating.

Raffi was reluctant at first to allow the commission to continue the hearing on his fence proposal. He says that if it were approved, he would need enough time to put the fence up before the ground gets too cold.

Chairman Dennis Ingram agreed that mediation would be better than a vote. He said the 20-day appeal period, and likelihood that Raffi's proposal would be appealed, would probably prevent a permit from being issued on the fence before a frost anyway.

Raffi agreed to have his proposal continued, and try mediation, with the option to return before the commission Sept. 15 for a vote if the mediation doesn't seem to be working.

While discussions about the historic appropriateness of the type of fence Raffi proposed were held during the meeting, both Raffi and Kravette have other reasons for supporting or opposing such a fence.

"We're not arguing that the fence shouldn't be there. We're arguing that the eight-foot fence is unnecessary. It's going to look like the great wall of Ballardvale," says Michelle Kravette.

A portion of the fence would run along the back of the Kravettes' back yard, and block the view of Clark Brook. That view is one reason they chose their home, and part of why it cost as much as it did, they say.

Between their home and Clark Brook lies a stretch of Raffi's property that extends out along the back of several lots along Center Street. They also say the fence won't keep Raffi's dog out of their yard.

Raffi disagrees, and says that an eight-foot fence is not only like many other fences in the neighborhood, but necessary for his privacy.

While stockade fences are specifically not recommended in the historic district bylaws, Raffi says an exception should be made in this case because it is the only kind of fence that could provide him privacy. Raffi who is 6 feet 9 inches tall, says a lower fence over which others could see him would not afford him enough privacy.

Raffi, a founding member of the BHDC, also seemed to feel his character as a neighbor was in question, and in support of his petition to erect a fence, included letters of character reference from past and present neighbors. But Ingram told Raffi and several neighbors in the audience who attended last week's meeting that discussions should only be about the fence, since the board could not address conflicts between neighbors.

While Kravette did not make any comments about the nature of Raffi's character as a neighbor at the meeting, he did charge members of the commission with conflict of interest.

He had complained prior to the meeting that Derby had never shown him a copy of Raffi's application for the fence, which he says he should have received as a member.

And at the meeting, he charged that Raffi had done some work for commission members, which resulted in favors.

"Perhaps at certain times there was not a quorum because (Raffi's) friends did not want there to be a quorum," he said.

That comment immediately upset commission members, one of whom left the room, and prompted a rebuke from Ingram.

"You are out of line," he said.

After a short recess later in the meeting, Kravette apologized to the board and asked them to understand that to a new member, "the appearance of impropriety exists to someone who doesn't know anyone."

The Kravettes moved to Andover more than six months ago. Ron Kravette joined the BHDC in late July.