The first day I moved in, my new neighbor came over. I introduced myself by saying, “Well, how do we share clipping the hedge?” THAT probably got thingsd started off on the right foot!

Actually the hedge is on my neighbor’s property, but for the remaining ten years of his life we shared hedge clipping between us. Never a problem.

He was a twice a year clipper, which kept the clipping easy. The hedge was about five feet tall and about three feet wide, and on a slope on my side of the property. That made clipping somewhat difficult to do.

When my neighbor died, the next year I cut the hedge down to two feet wide and three feet high. The 5×3 size meant 13 feet to clip, while the new size means 8 feet to clip — a substantial reduction in work and it’s easier too because you don’t have to reach so high.

The house hasn’t been occupied since my neighbor died in 1995 —- so I soldier on clipping by myself. I used to tell his son that his dad haunts me if I don’t clip the hedge “Will, it’s time to clip the hedge. Twice a year, the middle of May and the middle of October”!

I just got done with another hedge clipping effort, my second, and I just have to clip part of the top to complete the job. Probably a couple hours work with electric hedge clippers.

Never seen a laurel flower, seed or seedling. I imagine that the twice/year clipping eliminates that as a problem.

I’m one of the bad guys I guess. I’m having a horrible time with the woman who lives behind me, and for completely opposite reasons as our original poster here. ;)

I live in the Northwest, in a very urban neighborhood that while beautiful (old houses, tree-lined streets, sidewalks, close to downtown), has lots that don’t offer much space between the houses. There is no window that I can look out of that doesn’t look into others’ windows or offer some privacy – except for in the back yard – or at least the potential for privacy is there anyway! There is a very old, well-established laurel hedge that runs along the back of my property. The older people who owned our house before us told me their mother had planted it years ago. It looks very much as though it’s on our property but there’s the chance it’s on the line (haven’t had it surveyed yet; the woman behind me says it’s on the line cause she had some workers measure from an official stick/post that was put in the ground by her front sidewalk when they were putting in a garage and needed to do some zoning-related measuring).

This neighbor behind me wants the laurel cut down to about, oh, 10 feet or so, and for it to stay there, at that height. Before we moved in 10 years ago, she always kept it short. We’ve allowed her to keep cutting it each year but only cause she acts like a bully and as if she owns the bush and I never had the nerve to ask her to stop cutting it so short, until recently (last few years). She says if it’s tall it blocks her Eastern, morning winter light from her first floor where she paints (she’s an artist). The hedge sits at the back of her back yard (not right up next to her house). She says she likes to see the sun come up between my house and my side neighbor’s house. It’s hard for me cause I’m an artist at heart and I “get it” while at the same time she’s SO hard to deal with and acts very selfish about it. She’s extremely stubborn and uncompromising (I’m willing to compromise) and she talks as if she has this huge sense of entitlement, and in this really whiny, pathetic tone. Yet SO disagreeable at the same time – it’s almost funny – only, not. It’s like the “poor me” thing is just an act…it comes across as so manipulative and like she’s just used to getting her way. I honestly would let her have her way if I myself didn’t have my own issues which to me are – at least I feel – equally valid.

I love living the urban life and I love my neighbors in general. But let’s face it, it’s noisier and less green than living out in the country. Still, most of my neighbors have a lot more space and see a lot more trees and vegetation. My situation just happens to involve seeing a lot of buildings and a lot less greenery, unfortunately. I’m working on it. While an urban neighborhood was my choice, I yearn for privacy and have an emotional NEED/severe craving for a special place on my property that is just really green and serene and gives me the illusion at least that I’m removed from the rest of the world. I don’t think it’s too much to ask while at the same time I admit it’s almost like some sort of emotional disability! I’m “mental” about this need. It’s like craving coffee in the morning, if any of you can relate. Ok bad metaphor. It’s like craving oxygen, perhaps? ;) I know my neighbors aren’t staring in at me – they have way better things to do. I wouldn’t even care so much if they did look in and wave on some occasions! But everywhere I look I see houses and windows and cars – and the houses all seem so much taller regardless of whether or not they actually are – and so close to me. While I could move to a different sort of neighborhood, I think compromising by having just one side of my yard be/feel private (and then getting all the amazing, incredible bonuses that come from living close-in near the city), is reasonable. My rear neighbor just has the unfortunate position of being on the side that offers me most of this opportunity – ANY of this opportunity, actually.

I’ve told her that while I’d like the hedge to be much taller, I’d be willing to compromise on height to some degree (shorter than all the other neighbors’ laurel; we have it all over the block – but taller than 10′ or whatever that lower height is). I really made a big effort on a couple of occasions to come to some mutually beneficial resolution – and even more in her favor than mine, just cause I sort of felt sorry for her since she acts like such a victim I guess! This same woman by the way tore out a quarter to a third of the entire hedge out by the roots when she was having her garage built and the hedge was inconveniencing her workers (she wanted her garage to be wider than all the other garages in the neighborhood – so her garage extended into the back yard – not just the side). So you see it’s always, ALWAYS, all about her and only what she wants. Anyway, she said no — that she needs the hedge to be shorter and isn’t willing to compromise. Then she told me I could plant hops which would die down in the winter and provide her more light. But then where will my meditative nature space (and yes sense of privacy) be in the winter? I don’t just want the hedge for when I’m outside in the summer…I love the green, old English, foggy, other-wordly feeling in the winter, from my windows, too! Doesn’t that make any sense? I could plant more trees on my side but already the laurel takes up so much of the property because as I said before – it’s on my property in every obvious way. I said we could consider taking out the laurel if we both agreed to plant a couple of fast-growing trees and a fence but she said no to that too – that she likes the laurel too much to do that. It just has to all be just so, for her. Already I did plant a quaking aspen tree on my side of the laurel (I was hiding the new ugly garage). She said passive-aggressively that I wouldn’t have survived a day in a city like San Francisco and implied I shouldn’t live in the city, due to my desire for privacy. But I told her it’s not just privacy, and it’s not at ALL about trying to “hide” from HER in particular – it’s also about wanting to see nature in an urban space, instead of a house so close.

Maybe she is the one who needs to live out in the country if she can’t recognize that neighbors shoved tightly together like this are each going to have their own individual needs and rights. In my opinion it all comes down to facts and legalities at this point since we both have our own opposing but valid viewpoints and preferences/needs, and we’re only going around and around in circles otherwise. She keeps implying I could change instead of her but she could just paint upstairs couldn’t she? God forbid her having to compromise along with me! She’s not elderly (though older than I am) so she could go upstairs – that’s where her bedroom is in fact – and her only sunlight problem is in the morning of the winter. Maybe she could just not paint in the winter – haha. She does also like to look out over the hedge into the trees on the other side of the block on my front side, far into the distance, which I understand but it’s not like it’s a neighborhood with “views” of anything in particular and again, I’m not suggesting it be as high as I’d like – just higher. I’ve been in her house and she has loads of gorgeous trees to look at from all sides, unlike me! I’d love to see the trees in the distance beyond her house, when looking out the windows of my first floor but unfortunately between her tall house and enormous garage I can’t see anything besides her buildings, when the hedge is cut down as low as she’d like.

Done ranting for now. Go ahead and tell me what you think if I haven’t scared you away with all this writing!

Get yrself a good land use attorney. Then tell the fire department that your lawyer is empowered to negotiate a satisfactory resolution of the dispute for you, and that you’re prepared to go to the local TV station to make your grievance known. Personally, I think you’d have a good case in the court of public opinion. And I doubt they’ll want something like this to go all the way to court. In addition, I’d try to get yr attorney to negotiate conditions for use of the fire station so that it will negatively impact you as little as possible.

My wife knows the San Francisco city attorney and might be able to help if you need a referral to a good local attorney wherever you live.