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Dennis and Mary O'Dell are engaged in a dispute with their Stafford County neighbor Roger Payne over access to the O'Dells' property. |
Mary O'Dell and her husband are building their dream home, a log house with a green roof off Caisson Road in Stafford County.
Their neighbor Roger Payne also plans to build his dream home, on 5 acres of cleared land that sits in front of the O'Dell property.
But when their houses are built, it's unlikely the new neighbors will borrow cups of sugar from each other or swap recipes.
An ongoing dispute between O'Dell and Payne has led to police calls and accusations of intimidation. They're arguing over O'Dell's driveway, which runs adjacent to Payne's land.
After Payne put up a wooden fence separating the driveway from his property, O'Dell accused him of narrowing it and blocking fire-and-rescue access to her home.
Payne, a veteran fireman, said the fence is simply a border, and leaves plenty of room for a fire truck or emergency vehicle.
O'Dell's driveway is 20 feet wide for the first 100 feet but then narrows to 10 feet.
She said her troubles began when Payne began to mark the driveway with orange spray paint.
"We immediately felt violated," O'Dell said. "We took that as an intimidating type of thing."
Soon, O'Dell said, Payne began to put up stakes to build the fence.
O'Dell wondered if the fence would block an emergency vehicle. She called the White Oak Volunteer Fire Department, which came over with one of its pumpers.
"They brought a truck over, and it could barely squeeze through," O'Dell recalled. "It would either have to knock the fence down or get caught up in the fence."
O'Dell, 45, has reason to be worried. She suffered a minor stroke on Memorial Day and faces open heart surgery next month.
"They're shutting my heart and my lungs off for five to six hours," O'Dell said, her voiced filled with emotion. "Anything can happen after a surgery like that."
She thinks it's "absurd" that Payne is a Fredericksburg fireman but is inhibiting safe access to her home.
"He's got an example to set," O'Dell said. "His fellow firemen can be at risk. What if one gets caught up at the fence?"
Payne insists he did not put the fence up out of malice.
"I'm getting ready to start building my house there, so I laid the fence out to make it all look nice around there," he said.
Frustrated, O'Dell researched the county's fire code and learned that fire lanes or driveways must be a minimum of 20 feet wide for fire or emergency access, but the regulations apply only to commercial buildings or multifamily dwellings such as apartments.
The county can't enforce fire regulations when it comes to accessing a single-family home, said Stafford Fire and Rescue Chief Rob Brown.
"In a perfect world the code would give us access to all residents to make sure everything was safe," he said. "It's an unrealistic wish, because we would never have the resources to go out and inspect all the homes."
It's not unusual to find obstacles at an emergency. There have been times when firefighters had to cut down trees or fences to gain access to a burning home, according to Brown.
"If they get there and there's a fence that's blocking our ingress, we're going to take it down," he said. "We're pretty ingenious when someone's life is in danger. We're going to do what we need to do to get there."
O'Dell wants the county to condemn the extra 10 feet she needs to widen her driveway. Payne owns the land, but O'Dell has an easement to use and maintain the driveway, and does not want to offer Payne money for a wider easement. The county views her dispute with Payne as a civil matter and will not get involved.
However, the county is hoping to prevent a situation like O'Dell's in the future. On Wednesday, the Planning Commission will consider amending the zoning ordinance to require residential lots to have 20 feet of unobstructed access before they're subdivided.
"This is an attempt to avoid this situation happening again," said Planning Commissioner Steve Pitzel.
He wants the county to take a more "aggressive stance in enforcing a fire code across commercial and residential" properties.
The feud between O'Dell and Payne erupted when Payne trimmed border trees that backed up to O'Dell's property.
O'Dell said she and her husband, Dennis, 52, considered it trespassing.
"He took away the privacy and the shade we had," she said. "He made them like lollipops all the way up."
Payne said he trimmed only the branches hanging over his property.
"I cut the limbs on my side, so I could cut the grass around it and install the fence," he said. "Him and his wife were screaming and yelling at me because I was over clearing the property."
Payne called the police, but, like the county, they decided it was a civil dispute and didn't get involved.
O'Dell said she just wants safe access to her home.
"It makes me feel powerless," she said, "and I don't understand the motivation."
On a recent afternoon, it was relatively quiet at the O'Dells' residence, except for the banging and knocking of construction.
Sitting on her home's unfinished steps, O'Dell said she feels as if Payne shattered her tranquillity.
"What we loved about this house was the privacy," she said. "It was our little corner in the world, and he took that."
Payne said he doesn't have a problem with the O'Dells.
"It's up to them whether it ends," he said. "They're the ones that keep pushing the issue."
Kafia Hosh: 540/735-1977