Mayor de Blasio failed to secure the proper permits to build his “privacy fence” around Gracie Mansion — and the Parks Department is now scrambling to file the paperwork after the fact, City Hall officials admitted Friday.
On Thursday, The Post exclusively reported that the mayor ordered the construction of a roughly 10-foot-tall fence inside an existing 6-foot brick wall to keep the public’s prying eyes out of his yard.
Officials couldn’t say whether any employees of the Parks Department, which handled the construction for the mayor, would be disciplined for building the barrier without first obtaining the alteration permits they needed.
City property owners are routinely levied hefty fines for such infractions.
Plans for the eyesore fence should have gone before the city’s Design Commission for review — but never did, a City Hall source also admitted. The job was finished in November.
Through a spokeswoman, de Blasio said White House fence jumpers sparked his desire to erect the barrier, for which the Parks Department paid $4,250.
“The head of the mayor’s security detail made the decision to increase the fence’s height after examining the perimeter with other NYPD officials, and in the wake of the White House fence jumping incidents,” said City Hall spokeswoman Rebecca Katz.
But security experts called that excuse bunk.
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“This is a fence for somebody’s back yard in Long Island — when you don’t want somebody to see you barbecuing,” an NYPD detective-turned-security expert said Friday. “You don’t even need a ladder to get over this one.”
Here’s a closer look at the fence, built just inside Gracie’s existing wall.Photo: Brigitte Stelzer
A law-enforcement source noted that de Blasio, who swept into office last year as a “man of the people,” was motivated by privacy, rather than security concerns, after a friendly New Yorker shouted, “Hi, Mr. Mayor!” while walking past his yard in October.
“They would’ve done this even if the White House jumper never even happened,” the source said, referring to the Army veteran who scaled a fence and got inside the executive mansion Sept. 19.
“It doesn’t look like the sturdiest fence,” one law-enforcement source said, joking that “the big bad wolf could easily huff and puff and blow it down.”
Experts said a fence with spikes or curves would be more effective if de Blasio was serious about safety and questioned why he needed it more than past mayors who lived there.
“It’s absolutely incredible,” a source said. “If the security was good enough for Giuliani and Bloomberg, what is he hiding?”
“What’s he going to do next, put a moat around it? Before you know it, he’ll have miniature drones circling Gracie Mansion.”
Additional reporting by Danika Fears and Khristina Narizhnaya
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