Pittsburg lifts ban on electric fences

PITTSBURG -- The city is lifting its ban on electric fences for businesses in industrial areas after being asked to do so by a company that sells them.

The City Council voted 4-1 in favor of amending its existing ban on electric security fences to allow conditional use for businesses in industrial-zoned areas, provided those business apply for a permit and agree to meet certain standards.

Both City Manager Joe Sbranti and Councilwoman Nancy Parent alluded to problems the city is having with ensuring that business owners adhere to existing conditional use standards for a similar ordinance on razor wire fences. Razor wire fences are banned unless they adhere to certain standards, but city officials said some businesses have installed razor wire fences that aren't up to code. Specifically, Sbranti said that many of the fences aren't adhering to the city's requirement that such fences be at least six feet above ground level and that some have been installed in areas where they aren't permitted.

"(The razor wire ordinance) is already not enforced," said Parent, who cast the lone "no" vote. "Are we just doing this because we don't enforce razor wire and somebody wants to do something worse?"

Sbranti said businesses that have been burglarized will sometimes install razor wire for security without checking with the city first, and such code violations aren't as high a priority as graffiti or safety code violations, in addition to being harder to detect.

A city staff report states that the original request to lift the ban was submitted to the planning commission by Carol Bausinger of Electric Guard Dog, a company based in South Carolina that sells electric fences and other security equipment. Nathan Leaphart, a spokesman for Electric Guard Dog, said they made the request after hearing from a Pittsburg business that wanted a fence.

"This would give us an opportunity to go to some of those folks who request the use of razor wire -- because they don't feel they can secure their property without it -- and be able to say to them, 'If you want another alternative, you could take this approach, which would be wall/electric fence approach and would perhaps have a greater effectiveness,'" Sbranti said.

Another city staff report on the issue says lifting the ban was necessary because "incidences of theft have increased since the beginning of the recession in 2007," but FBI crime statistics show that theft rates have been steadily decreasing since 2008 and are approximately 33 percent lower than they were in 2007. Sbranti acknowledged this but said the city has had a consistent problem with metal thieves targeting storage areas and that he thought electric fences were a safe, prettier alternative to razor wire.

"If you have a storage yard that's housing copper or metal, that's going to be a target for a thief," Sbranti said.

The way the ordinance works, companies that want to install an electric fence must first obtain a permit from the city's planning commission and agree to adhere to certain standards. The electric fences must be surrounded by a nonelectric fence that's no shorter than eight feet tall and has no space or gaps. They're also only allowed to be activated when "the public does not have legal access" to the site, even though specific time parameters aren't outlined. Leaphart said electric fences are safe and designed to avoid causing medical harm -- though touching them will hurt momentarily -- and that they exist mainly to scare people from trespassing.

See the article here:
Pittsburg lifts ban on electric fences