Up one day, and down the next. Some neighbors in North Las Vegas feel like they are on one side of the fence with their homeowners association and the city of North Las Vegas on the other side after a fence they paid for was removed.
Only the scars remain on the pavement of the $12,000 barrier, which closed off a small street near Tropical Parkway and North 5th Street.
"It was amazing, you don't have a traffic, the kids will come around, and ride their bicycles people walk their dogs around here, I felt very safe,” said Jasmineva Arroyo, a resident of the Creekside II neighborhood.
Arroyo said her sense of security was taken last week after the fence mysteriously vanished.
"We even called the mayor to complain, because we saw somebody coming to take the gate down, and none of us were informed, nobody got to do anything, we need to get a say as neighbors,” added Arroyo.
A North Las Vegas spokesperson said there was no mystery about it.
The city had battled with the Creekside II Homeowners Association since 2012, when city officials discovered they had incorrectly given approval for the fence.
A North Las Vegas city worker came and removed the fence after the city gave notice in May 2017 that the fence had to go.
"The approval was giving on inaccuracies; again, should we have double checked that? Absolutely. But should it have been represented accurately, yes,” said Delen Goldberg, spokesperson for North Las Vegas.
Goldberg points to the original application and a building plan dated 2012. The city said both documents list the street in question as "private."
Gary Carmena Street in North Las Vegas is a "public right-of-way," according to the city, and therefore subject to strict guidelines and qualification for closure.
Shortly after the fence was installed, the city said complaints came in from neighbors reporting pedestrians climbing over the wall and trespassing in yards.
The city also said the fence posed Americans with Disabilities Act compliance issues as well as a serious access issue for emergency first responders.
A city spokesperson blamed a series of approval errors by various departments, and high turnover within city administration for the 6-year mix-up.
"The arguments they are bringing forth are not valid,” said Dwayne Kurr, president of the Creekside II Homeowners Association.
Kurr disputes the city’s claims that the road was misrepresented.
"The first step in the process was meeting with the fire department, the police department, and the public works department. Each time they came out they reviewed the area that we want to put the gates and they approved it,” Kurr explained.
Contact 13 was provided a series of documents from the HOA.
Email timestamps are months and even years before the submitted building plans. As early as 2008, public works, police and fire departments had no objection to the fence, according to the emails.
Contact 13 asked whether the city failed to do its due diligence before approving the fence.
"It was misrepresented,” Goldberg said. “We are a fast-growing city. Should we have the resources and the time to double check every assertion that is given to us? Absolutely. That would be great, that would also come at a cost and time to taxpayers."
Contact 13 requested the original application, but neither the city of the HOA were able to immediately provide the document.
However, the fence is down, traffic is flowing and neighbors are not happy about the fence they paid for is gone.
The HOA board president said this fence battle is not over and have enlisted a lawyer to weigh legal options.
