By Mark Wineka

mark.wineka@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — For now, members of the Salisbury Historic Preservation Commission are saying don’t fence them in.

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church at 130 W. Council St. applied to the commission for permission to install 215 linear feet of fencing in the front yard of the church closest to Council and Church streets, primarily to serve as an area where children could play safely on Sundays.

The fence would be black and made of powder-coated aluminum. It would be 4 1/2 feet high and basically follow the interior side of the perimeter landscaping, so the vegetation would provide more screening and limited visibility of the fence.

The church plans also called for two 5-foot-high brick columns and a swinging 5-foot-wide gate to mark the entrance to the fenced-in area. The columns, which would have concrete caps, would be set back 8 inches from the sidewalk.

The Rev. Robert Black presented the proposal to the commission Thursday. He said the fenced area would not be a playground, but the congregation wanted to provide a safe place for children in an area that’s close to the street.

The 54-inch height of the fence is an industry safety standard for children in playgrounds, Black said, and the church felt much of the fence would be screened by the existing azaleas and other plantings.

The fence proposal was not popular among the commission members, who ended up tabling the application and asking Black to take it back to his church for possible revisions.

Though he and others said they understood the safety issues, Jon Planovsky expressed concern that “essentially what we are doing is creating a playground in the front of the church.”

“What is being proposed, essentially, is a small corral,” Planovsky said.

Planovsky said the fence doesn’t go with the church’s Gothic style. It would be too high, he said, and probably should be wrought iron, not aluminum.

The brick piers also would make it permanent, and “the location doesn’t make sense,” Planovsky said. He also questioned whether it fits the commission’s guidelines on fences.

One of those guidelines says, “Generally, construct new fences or walls to follow property lines and not to abut existing buildings.” The proposed fence was not following property lines but was going inside landscaping, Planovsky noted.

Elizabeth Trick also expressed concerns that the 54-inch height of the fence would be too tall and the azaleas would not always hide it.

“It is going to look like a pen,” said Andrew Walker, chairman of the commission.

He said eyes will be drawn first to the fence and not to the integrity of the church building itself, the oldest part of which dates to 1827-28. “Jon’s got a valid point,” he said.

Walker agreed he didn’t think the fence would be hidden. “It’s going to look very visually unappealing,” he said.

Jon Chamberlain said he thought the church, after this proposed fence were in place, would come to hate it. “It’s going to be a hot mess,” Chamberlain said. “It will look like a dog kennel inside a black fence.”

The commission agreed to table St. Luke’s request for a certificate of appropriateness when it became apparent the application would be denied otherwise.

Contact Mark Wineka at 704-797-4263.