Our long municipal nightmare is over: D.C. Council Chairman and mayoral candidate Vincent Gray is removing part of a yard fence he installed without a permit, in order to bring the fence into compliance with all the relevant city ordinances and regulations.

“He started removing the fence last week,” Gray campaign spokeswoman Traci Hughes tells City Desk.

Hughes says a city inspector visited Gray’s property and told him that the fence at his Hillcrest home could be brought into compliance if the candidate merely tore down a piece of  it. “Just the portion of the fence at the front of the house,” says Hughes. Gray began taking care of the task last Friday. According to Hughes, he had plenty of time. Though the politician was previously told that he was required to bring his illegal fence up to code by July 9, the inspector who visited Gray’s property informed him the actual deadline is July 31. (Which puts Gray a couple of weeks ahead of schedule.)

Mayor Adrian Fenty‘s campaign has, occasionally, tried to make the fence into a political issue; Attorney General Peter Nickles has said Gray shouldn’t have installed it without seeking a permit. Technically, Fenty oversees the Public Space Committee, which ordered Gray to tear down or modify the fence. Gray, for his part, probably wishes he’d never put the $12,600 thing up in the first place.