6 rules for unincorporated Saginaw County, Michigan.
Verified from official government sources
Fence height is a township and city matter across Saginaw County. Saginaw Charter Township caps front-yard fences at three feet and side or rear fences at six, with the street side of a corner lot held to three feet.
Most Saginaw County communities require zoning approval before a fence goes up. Saginaw Charter Township issues a zoning compliance permit for a thirty dollar fee and requires the finished side face outward. Call MISS DIG 811 before digging post holes.
Michigan has no residential cost-sharing fence law, so each owner pays for their own. The state partition-fence act, MCL 43.51 to 43.62, matters most on Saginaw County's farmland, where a neighbor who uses your fence to contain animals must pay a share.
MCL 43.53(2)
If an adjoining property owner or a tenant using the property of the adjoining property owner uses or begins to use the fence for purposes of restraining or containing animals the adjoining property owner or tenant shall compensate the owner of the real property who constructed the fence for the adjoining property owner's proportionate share of the current value of the fence as determined by th...
A retaining wall over four feet tall, measured from the bottom of the footing, needs a building permit and engineered design under the Michigan Residential Code. Shorter unloaded walls are usually exempt, but drainage and setbacks still apply.
Every residential pool in Saginaw County must be enclosed by a barrier at least four feet high with self-closing, self-latching gates. The requirement comes from the Michigan Residential Code and is enforced by local building officials at permit and inspection.
No Michigan statute limits residential fence materials, so wood, vinyl, aluminum, and chain-link are all allowed across Saginaw County. Local zoning still governs placement, and barbed wire and electric fencing belong on farmland, not residential yards.
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