POWAY - Calling it a matter of common sense and public safety, the Poway City Council rejected two Green Valley couples' appeal of a city requirement that they get development permits for fences they erected across a creek behind their homes.

The 4-0 decision, made with Mayor Mickey Cafagna absent, might seem unremarkable on the face of it. But the City Council's decision during its meeting ended a tense hour that saw Green Valley neighbors facing off against each other.

The dispute extends well beyond the chain-link fences that Don and Lee Tartre and Alex and Diane Armstrong put up at the back of their Avenida La Valencia properties last summer.

City staff had already decided the fences were illegal, because they are in a 100-year flood plain. The couples were ordered to either take the fences down or apply for development permits.

They were also told they would have to have an engineering study done to determine how the fences might affect the flood plain, as part of the permit process.

The Tartres and Armstrongs sought the council's intervention, arguing that the fences are actually outside the flood plain as it is depicted on a Federal Emergency Management Agency map.

The city's staff told the council that's because the creek involved was rerouted when that part of Green Valley was developed, and the map was never updated. The staff also maintains the city has the authority to determine where the flood plain really is.

Council members sought to keep Tuesday's discussion centered around the barriers. But the Tartres, the Armstrongs and other speakers made it clear that residents' access to trails along the creek are a big part of the argument.

Some Green Valley residents said they are used to walking along the creek and want to continue doing so.

Others, including the Tartres and the Armstrongs, say they have a right as private owners to preserve their privacy and use their property as they see fit.

Neighbors told the council they worry about possible flooding on their own properties if tree branches and other debris coming down the creek get hung up on the fences.

Other speakers said the city cleared 10-foot-wide swaths along the same creek last year, and that city staff members are retaliating against residents who complained about that action. The area's history of flooding also factors into the debate.

And at least one person told the council the dispute has created such conflict that she no longer feels free to walk in her neighborhood, for fear of being stopped and quizzed on where she stands on the matter.

Others made emotional appeals for the vote to be postponed, saying everyone involved needs to start acting like adults and sit down to talk.

At least two residents made it clear that the city will probably face one or more lawsuits over the issue in coming months.

Councilman Don Higginson summed up the responses of council members when he said he was sorry to see the dispute get to this point.

Noting that he grew up in Green Valley and that his parents have lived a short distance from the site of the fences for 40 years, he also recalled the area's history of flooding.

The fence decision therefore was very basic and "a no-brainer," Higginson said.

"A fence over a creek is not a fence," he said. "It's called a dam. Anything gets stuck on it, and things flood."

- Contact staff writer Andrea Moss at (760) 739-6654 or amoss@nctimes.com.