Gift of wood ends Tampa man's fence fight

The donation satisfies a historic preservation group, but the homeowner still prefers a chain link fence. "It's more sturdy,'' he says.

By PATTY RYAN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 22, 2002

TAMPA -- All Leroy Chatman wanted was a chain-link fence.

Even now, that's all he wants.

But come March 3, the wood will arrive, and the workers, bringing an end to Chatman's five-month struggle to put a fence around his Tampa Heights yard without riling the city's Architectural Review Commission.

Chatman spent $1,200 on a chain-link fence in September, only to learn that chain link was illegal in Tampa Heights, one of Tampa's four local historic districts. The commission asked him to remove the fence, but Chatman said he couldn't afford to replace it.

The 49-year-old disabled farm worker quickly became a symbol for low-income homeowners caught up in the sometimes expensive bureaucracy of historic preservation.

Thursday, Tampa City Council candidate Steve White announced that he had persuaded a Tampa fence builder -- Redman Wood Production -- to construct a $2,695 wood fence at no cost to Chatman. Redman, in turn, persuaded Robbins Manufacturing Co. to donate the lumber.

"Mr. Chatman lives in the heart of the district I'm running for, and he will be a future neighbor of mine," White said, explaining why he got involved.

White said he may also enlist neighbors to help paint Chatman's new fence.

Chatman expressed gratitude for White's efforts -- calling him a "good Samaritan, a good citizen" -- but said he disagrees with the commission's insistence that a wood fence is more compatible with the neighborhood's historic flavor.

"I, for one, might want to surround myself with the history of the chain link," he said. "Why should I put up PVC or wood if that isn't what I want?"

Chatman, given his druthers, would keep the chain link, he said. He worries that a wood fence won't hold up.

He found a record on the Internet of a chain link fence, still standing, that was erected in 1891.

"Do you think there's a wooden fence still standing that was put up in 1891?" he asked. "I'd go with a chain link. It's durable."

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