LETTER: Homeowner Urges City to Modify Fence Code for Deer Management

On an open letter to Interim City Manager Brian Shea, Manursing Way and 32 year resident Shankar Narayan implores the City to modify its code to allow for higher fences so private property owners who choose to do so can effectively keep deer off their property and out of their gardens. Narayan’s two plus acre property boasts native and exotic plantings, all damaged by the abundance of deer.

The City’s current code limits fencing to four feet in the front of a property and six feet after a required setback. Most experts agree a fence must be at least eight feet tall to reliably exclude deer. Experts at the Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences say “dealing with deer needs a community-wide effort” but that property specific recommendations include fences – “for large gardens or landscape plantings, an 8-foot fence is best”.

Narayan’s letter:

From: Shankar Narayan
Date: Mon, Aug 25, 2025
Subject: Deer management in the City of Rye
To: BSHEA [Interim City Manager, City of Rye]

Dear Mr. Shea,

I have not had the pleasure of your acquaintance despite living in this fair city for over thirty two years but am glad to write this email to compliment you on the creation of the deer management committee. This is a step that has long been necessary to me because I have lived in two of the most deer afflicted parts of Rye: the communities adjacent to the Marshlands and the Edith Read sanctuaries. While there are many ideas out there, the easiest to implement and the least controversial is not ever discussed.

The ordinance governing fences and walls in the City of Rye is one size fits all that is haphazardly enforced on homeowners. It creates a four feet height limit along the street on fences and walls. This limit is utterly inadequate to prevent deer from inflicting their violence on gardens. Especially when homes abut the sanctuaries named above as mine do on Soundview avenue and Manursing Way. The deer jump over my fences and have caused thousands of dollars of damage over the years.

It is also enforced based on the whims of antagonistic neighbors and passers by who often have their own agenda in complaining to the Rye Building Department. As evidence I have cited the case of my neighbors on Manursing Way. While the Building Department insisted on a four feet limit because of what they said was a neighbor’s complaint, they did nothing about my neighbor further next to me [that has eight foot fencing]. The reason, according to the Inspector, was that “no neighbor had complained”. In fact, he invited me to file one, saying that they could then cite that neighbor. I demurred because I understood that the neighbor, just like me, faced multiple deer jumping from the street into the property. As of now, while I am restricted to a four feet high fence, despite having the longest property line along the street, many of my neighbors have fences noticeably higher than mine.

As many deer management professionals will attest, deer control is best done by having high fences. Culling, spraying and splaying all play roles, but the best and easiest is just building fences that are high enough.

This is easily encouraged by modifying the code to allow for discretion to the homeowners living in areas that are close to the deer breeding grounds. It will have the ancillary benefits of transferring the cost to homeowners such as me who do not wish to have these disease infested beasts feasting on their gardens. The animals will not prowl the streets looking for green lands and so lower traffic incidents.

Those residents who are so inclined should of course lower their fences so as to multiply these herds and spread infestations of ticks as well as other diseases to their kith and kin.

Thank you

Shankar Narayan
Manursing Way