Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan vetoed a recently approved ban on metal palisade fences Tuesday, referring to it as "government intrusion."
The ban, approved by the Anchorage Assembly in a 6-5 vote last week, was essentially a moose-protection measure. South Anchorage's Jennifer Johnston proposed it at the request of constituents who were alarmed by reports and photos of moose gored on sharp pales.
"While the ordinance is well-intentioned, the cost/benefit analysis does not warrant this level of government intrusion," Sullivan wrote in his veto message.
Sullivan said he would encourage voluntary efforts to remove or repair metal palisade fences. He said he planned to ask the municipality's public facility designers to avoid that particular style of fence in future municipal projects.
Biologists estimate between two and four moose a year are gored on the fences, an incidence Sullivan referred to as "very, very low." The fence ban was supported by Anchorage-area state wildlife biologist Jessy Coltrane, who testified at the Assembly hearing last week and said the moose gorings were both traumatic and preventable.
Johnston's ordinance banned metal palisade fences shorter than 7 feet. Property owners cited security and aesthetics as some of the main reasons for opposing the ban. Sullivan noted the measure required existing fences to have the spikes or pales removed within five years, which he said would "destroy the aesthetics of the fencing."
He also wrote in his veto message the total financial impact to property owners for removing the spikes or pales outweighed the benefits of "saving a few moose.
"We could save a lot more moose by practicing safer driving habits on our roadways, at no cost to taxpayers and property owners," Sullivan said. "Or, by not planting trees that are an attractive nuisance to moose -- trees that draw moose into roadways or actually make moose sick."
Strictly speaking, the requirement for property owners to remove spikes or pales within five years was not supposed to be in the ordinance the Assembly approved. Johnston said at last week's meeting she would amend the ordinance to grandfather in existing fences. But she said in an interview Wednesday she accidentally failed to delete a second clause about the five-year requirement for repairing or replacing fences in the adopted ordinance.
At the same time, Johnston said, "I doubt if I would change his (the mayor's) mind on the veto no matter what I did."
But, asked to respond to the clerical error in the grandfather clause, Sullivan left the question open.
"I still believe it is an overly broad approach to what has been identified as a very limited problem," Sullivan said in a text message. "(H)owever I am willing to look at any new language that might come forward."
He said that language would have to be considered in the form of a new ordinance. In the meantime, it would take eight votes from the Assembly to override the mayor's veto.
This story has been updated to include comments from Jennifer Johnston and Mayor Sullivan regarding the grandfather clause of the ordinance.