Carteret County, NC Fence Regulations: Height Limits (2026)

Section 1619 of the Carteret County Zoning Ordinance caps walls and fences at eight feet in height within any required yard in the county's residential zoning districts. The cap applies wherever residential zoning applies in unincorporated Carteret County, whether the fence sits in a front, side, or rear yard. The ordinance carves out a specific list of exceptions to that eight-foot cap: fences and walls built around electric and gas substations, telephone repeater stations or huts, sewage treatment plants, pressure regulator stations, pump and lift station buildings, radio, telephone and television masts, towers and antennas, and municipal reservoirs and water storage tanks are not held to the height limit or to the ordinance's yard and setback rules at all.

A separate, stricter rule kicks in on corner lots. Section 1622 requires that no fence, wall, planting, or other obstruction taller than three feet sit within the visibility triangle formed by the two street rights-of-way of the corner lot and a line connecting points 50 feet from the intersection along each right-of-way. That three-foot cap exists purely for traffic safety, so it applies even to fences that would otherwise be allowed up to eight feet elsewhere on the same lot. Both rules sit in the Supplementary Regulations chapter of the zoning ordinance and are enforced by the county's zoning enforcement officer in Planning and Development.