The remains of a hedge that Ocean Ridge ordered Jay Wallshein to trim to 6 feet in response to a complaint. It
turns out the town has no such ordinance. Coastal Star staff
By John Pacenti
When the smoke cleared on the Hedge War of 2024, Ocean Ridge apologized to a resident who was forced to unnecessarily cut his beloved hedges. In turn, the resident exposed the erratic nature of how the town enforces its code violations — or whether it even knows its code at all.
“We’ve been talking about a 6-foot hedge code for 20 years, and it turns out it was never put on the books,” said Vice Mayor Steve Coz. “Unbeknownst to the enforcement people and unbeknownst to everybody in town, there is no code.”
Poet Robert Frost once pondered if indeed good fences make good neighbors. But what about the hedge, that South Florida way of keeping prying eyes diverted through the use of ficus, clusia, areca palm or yew pine?
Enter one Jay Wallshein of 119 Marlin Drive.
“How else can I look at it, but that I was targeted? How else can I see it?” said Wallshein, who has been living at a nearby property while he rebuilds his dock for the 6,000-square-foot house.
On Aug. 20, a neighbor across the canal on the back of his property complained about what she said was unsightly construction debris. He received a violation notice that was at his doorstep — not just for the debris but for the height of the hedges.
Wallshein was given seven days to remove the debris and cut his clusia hedges on the sides of his house from 16 feet to 6 feet. That’s a tall order — literally and figuratively — so he contacted Town Hall and asked for a few more days to comply, “so I can do this properly.”
Resistance is futile
He felt it odd that his hedge was too tall considering what he saw towering around other Ocean Ridge homes. He told Town Clerk Kelly Avery as much.
“I say, ‘Well, if mine’s over 6 feet, then the whole town is over 6 feet.’ She says, ‘The whole town’s not my problem. The complaint’s against you.’”
Wallshein said he was told to comply by Sept. 11 or face up to a $500 daily fine.
Well, you can’t fight Town Hall and all that. A barge removed the construction debris and he chopped his hedge.
“I planted them when I moved in, I would say, like in 2009 or 2010. I think it took me five years, six years, maybe seven years to get them that tall, to get them to privacy height like everyone else has, right?” said Wallshein, clearly still in mourning.
A Bobcat tractor had to be brought in to remove what was cut down, tearing up his yard and destroying his sprinkler system, he said. Wallshein estimates he spent at least $4,000 to remove the construction debris, $3,000 to remove the clusia cut down — and now he must re-sod and redo his sprinkler system, an expensive endeavor.
Fighting back
In the meantime, he went to work, filing complaints with photographic evidence of any hedge in Ocean Ridge that was over 6 feet tall. He then moved on to public rights-of-way, taking photos of obstructions on town property in front of homes.
Wallshein said town officials told him that code enforcement officers are obligated to cite residents if they see violations.
“How could code enforcement miss all these rocks and stones that people put along their property so that people can’t park on their lawn?” Wallshein asked.
He started filing the complaints. About a dozen were provided to The Coastal Star in response to a public records request, but Wallshein said he found 150 violations.
The complaints certainly got the attention of Mr. Wallshein’s fellow residents — one who went in front of the Town Commission and asked it to suspend the height requirement.
“Ocean Ridge has been hesitant to enforce this ordinance unless a neighbor files a complaint, which pits residents against each other,” Victor Martel said at the commission’s Sept. 9 meeting.
“As a result, many residents are unknowingly in violation of this and other ordinances. This specific ordinance has been on the books for well over 20 years.”
At the time the code was adopted, most of the homes in Ocean Ridge were one story, Martel said. Now many residences are two or more stories. “By selectively enforcing this code the town is stripping individual residents of their right to privacy which we all want to enjoy,” he said.
Martel wanted the commission to use a 2023 state law that allows parties to challenge municipal ordinances and get enforcement suspended while they are under review.
Misreading the code
Now the commission took notice of the hedge war and put Town Attorney Christy Goddeau on the case. Goddeau discovered Ocean Ridge never limited the heights of hedges at all — that Wallshein’s hedges were more than legal at 16 feet.
“Our code enforcement, called community standards, is driven by complaints. So when he (Wallshein) submitted the complaints, I told the clerk, ‘Well, start looking them up. We’ll have to go cite those people whose hedges are over,’” Goddeau told The Coastal Star.
Then she started looking into the 64-44(c) and found that though it starts out saying that hedges are regulated — it never gets back to them.
“Where it sets a maximum height, it just has walls and fences,” she said. “So, if you don’t read it closely, you would miss that they took out hedges.”
Goddeau sent Wallshein a Sept. 16 letter, saying that in fact, the town has no code on the heights of hedges — just fences and walls.
Oops.
“Since it appears the hedges violation was issued to you under mistake of fact and in violation of subsection 64-44(c), the town has advised me that it apologizes for any inconvenience,” Goddeau wrote.
Now Wallshein is contemplating legal action, but it seems more of an afterthought to him. His concerns are about the true victim in this story, the clusia hedges — one of which hid the window of the master bathroom.
“It will still take me three years to get them back up,” he said. “I mean they grow fast but not that fast.”
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