As we expected, the City of Santa Barbara did not approve of the
News-Press‘ brand new green fence, which was fully erected
(by such hard workers as The Fence Factory’s Martin Duran, shown
here) last Friday. 
development director Paul Casey sent a letter on
Monday afternoon directly to the News-Press CFO
Randy Alcorn (the most clear-headed person in the
paper’s top brass, we understand), who apparently had spoken with
city administrator Jim Armstrong earlier that
morning.
Rather bluntly, Casey writes, “I wanted to let you know that the
fencing on Anacapa Street in front of both News Press parking lots
is not allowed and should be removed immediately.” Technically
speaking, Casey explained that a building permit is required for
any fence more than three-and-a-half feet tall. If the fence was to
be permanent, and not temporary as the subject-head of the email
suggested, then the city’s Historic Landmarks Commission (HLC) would have
to be involved. And we sincerely doubt they’d go for an ugly green
fence on one of the city’s prettiest thoroughfares.
Casey finished up the letter with, “Our zoning enforcement staff
will follow up with a formal enforcement letter in the next day or
so. I hope that the fence will be removed in a matter of days. If
not, the City may administer administrative citation fines to
achieve compliance.”
That’s about as strong a language as can come out of City Hall
without outright threats. So let’s take some bets. How fast will
the News-Press take it down?