> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # ‘Hedge community’ grows on City Hall - URL: https://www.smdp.com/hedge-community-grows-on-city-hall/ - Published: 2004-10-14T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T05:17:34.000Z - Author: John Wood - Tags: Government & Politics, Santa Monica, #archive-import *Hedge law to return to council in early 2005* CITY HALL — A 56-year-old hedge law that sparked outrage in Santa Monica and drew an upwardly mobile group of residents into the local political fray appears to be on the chopping block. Four months after the self-proclaimed “hedge community” beat down City Hall’s door and demanded change, City Council members Tuesday night agreed to revisit the controversial law, which limits front hedge heights to 42 inches, and side and back yard hedges to eight feet. Now a central theme in the Nov. 2 local election, the hedge issue first sprouted up last year after more than 100 residents were told to cut their hedges or be fined up to $25,000 a day. Facing complaints from hundreds of community members, the council in June decided to reconsider adjusting the side and back yard limits, but indicated the front yard restrictions should stay. The reason, council members said, is high hedges block out light and create a “walled fortress” effect. Hedge activists responded in force. They held meetings, researched laws in other cities, even placed two candidates on the Nov. 2 ballot. And they showed up Tuesday to reiterate their concerns. “Frankly, I do think it’s outrageous, and that’s my British roots understatement, for you all to tell us what to do,” said resident Britt Allcroft, who lives on the busy Nielsen Way in Ocean Park. “I would ask that you please leave us alone to nurture in our own individual way what God, however you wish to interpret God, has given us. And concern all your talents and our taxpayer money on issues that you need to look at, and with our help. Otherwise, I fear that this city will slide in some kind of permanent abyss.” Allcroft was one of nearly 40 people to speak to the council in favor of hedges, each wearing a green ribbon pinned to their shirt. Included among the speakers were council candidates Bill Bauer, Kathryn Morea and Bobby Shriver, who has led the hedge crusade. Just two people spoke in favor of the old law. “I feel like in civilized societies there are circumstances in which we give up some of our individual rights or desires for the good of the community,” said 27-year resident Cynthia Cotton. “I am here tonight to plead with you to uphold the historical Santa Monica value for open space in front yards.” The comments made by Cotton and her husband, who also favored the hedge law, were drowned out by members of the hedge community, some of whom suggested there be no law at all. “I happen to think that some hedges are pretty good looking,” said resident Ed Solomon. “I actually think they’re usually better looking than these ridiculous houses that are going up. In fact, I wish you would impose mandatory hedges. If you’re going to have any ordinance about hedges, please do that.” Aaron Mendelsohn, who lives north of Montana Avenue, said City Hall had been after his hedge for two years. “I don’t usually come to City Council meetings and I’m really surprised to see you all look like really nice people, because based on my interaction with you, I thought you were a bunch of sandbox bullies,” Mendelsohn said. “Now it’s come to this, where people feel very strongly and there’s going to be a lot of people working to make systemic changes in the City Council, because we don’t think you’re reasonable. “You advance with steel and then, when you encounter steel, you respond in this way... which was Lenin’s old tactic,” he added. “I always liked Lenin, but his five-year plans never got done.” The message apparently got through. Not only did three of the council members apologize from the dais Tuesday for the way residents had been treated, but the entire council reversed course and agreed to look into allowing existing hedges to stay, as well as higher hedge heights in front yards. City staffers said they would return in early 2005 with analysis and suggestions for a new law. Meanwhile, officials disagreed over the cause of the hedge dispute. “The ordinance was written in 1948,” said City Councilman Kevin McKeown, after apologizing for the way residents were treated in the hedge debacle. “In 1948, I was one of those toddlers in the front yard playing with a hose. So it’s not this council that wrote the ordinance, we sort of got backed into this.” Once McKeown had finished delivering his comments, City Councilman Herb Katz jumped in. “What I just heard absolutely throws me,” Katz said. “With the idea that the reason this happened was complaint driven and that’s gotten us in trouble. It is just the opposite. Just the opposite. When we didn’t do it, when we left it alone except by complaint, we didn’t have a problem. This council went on record saying, ‘We’re going pro enforcement.’ That’s what started it.” *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 14, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/101404.pdf?ref=smdp.com)