How a backyard fence dispute cost a subdivision property owner’s association $200,000: “They just wanted to fight us on it”
Good fences don’t always make good neighbors as a neighborhood in De Pere, Wisconsin, discovered last year. A drawn-out court battle resulted in each of the nearly 100 property owners in the Nazcr Trac neighborhood on the hook for $1,350 to settle a five-year-long dispute over one household’s desire to put up a fence.
Those payments were the result of a federal court’s ruling that the Nazcr Trac Property Owner’s Association (NTPOA) board improperly denied Newman family’s request to construct a backyard fence. It left the community divided over the actions of the board and pointing fingers, reported NBC 26 at the time.
The $200K dividing fence: “They just wanted to fight us on it and I don’t know why.”
The dispute kicked off in 2019, when the Newmans asked if they could build a backyard fence so that their five children, all of whom have been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, could play outside safely. “They also have physical medical complexities,” Lisa Newman explained to the local news outlet.
It had been determined by the children’s doctors and caregivers that a fence would be the best option so that the kids could get sensory exposure from the outdoors without the concern that they may walk off and get lost. They request was denied based on the HOA’s restrictive covenant that states “No fences of any kind shall be allowed.” The board members also based their decision on past fence denials.
“They just wanted to fight us on it and I don’t know why,” Newman told NBC 26. Disability Rights Wisconsin advised them to get a lawyer, and they filed a lawsuit in 2021. The following year, a judge granted them a preliminary injunction under the Fair Housing Act and they built their fence.
Newman described that moment as “very exciting.” Then in August 2024 a settlement was reached which ordered the NTPOA to pay the Newmans $200,000. This would be paid by all members of the homeowners’ association. Newman says she doesn’t feel great about her neighbors having to fork over $1,350 each.
“It’s just a really unfortunate situation, I think, for everybody involved, and the board kind of made that decision for everybody,” she told the news outlet.
One homeowner who agreed to speak with NBC 26 on the condition of anonymity told reporter Karl Winter: “They made the decision and never gave the decision to the affected homeowners.
“If the board had polled us as members […] a large amount of the members would have said, ‘Absolutely, let the family do what they need to do to take care of their family,’” another told Winter.
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