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.

Ray Heltsley, the city’s code enforcement officer, said his philosophy is to use the lowest possible force necessary to help citizens remain within the city code. While the website lists a strict timeline with penalties, Heltsley instead works with people to create a plan to fix the problem in a timeline that works for them.

“Sometimes I’ve actually had to ask them, ‘Please don’t make me write you a ticket,’” he said.

Almost all of the surrounding cities and counties have a 6-foot height limit for a fence just like Oak Harbor. The exception is Anacortes, which allows up to 7 feet.

Development Services Director David Kuhl said this change in Anacortes is because of deer hopping higher than 6 feet.

Six feet is kind of a standard, Kuhl said, likely due to the height of people, but it is not set in stone.

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.”

Kuhl said his first choice would be to keep the code at 6 feet, though he doesn’t see a technical problem with changing it to seven.

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.