Fence fight: Woman paints fence neon colors after neighbor complains to county

NEWTON COUNTY, Ga. — Neighbors in Newton County are on opposite ends of a fence fight. A dispute over a woman's fence being too high has now turned into a commotion over color.

Donna Yopp Paul told Channel 2's Berndt Petersen she installed a privacy fence on her lot along Trotter's Walk over the summer to separate her yard from the folks next door.

"It cost me a lot of money to put up that fence," she said.

But a couple of neighbors complained to the county about the fence's 6-foot height. The county's rules allows a 6-foot fence or even higher along the backyard. But the front yard limit is 4 feet.

So Paul shortened the fence. But that's not all she decided to do. She started to paint the fence bright colors.

"It's not to make them mad. It's to prove a point," she told Petersen. "It's a control thing. They are trying to control things that I do on my property."

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Paul said she learned the county can regulate the height of the fence, but not the color. So, she selected neon pink, green, purple and yellow on the side that faces her neighbor.

Most of the neighbors Petersen spoke with did not want to pick sides, but not everyone stayed on the fence.

Dick Hopkins told Petersen the first time he laid eyes on the fence, one thought came to his mind.

"The whole thing is absolutely silly," said Hopkins, who lives a few doors down. "I don't know what her problem is. But she certainly doesn't have respect for a lot of the neighbors."

Paul admitted that she and her neighbors haven't seen eye-to-eye for more than two years.

She said the county incorrectly told her the 6-foot fence would have been fine. But after she installed it, the complaints came in and the county told her to shorten it.

There is currently no homeowner's association in the neighborhood, but a few neighbors told Petersen they want to look into creating one.

Cox Media Group