Dearborn Heights, MI Fence Regulations: Height Limits (2026)

Sec. 13-3(b) allows a suitable fence up to six feet high around the rear yard of a residentially zoned lot. Subsections (c) and (d) flip that default for the rest of the lot: no fence may go in the front yard except as allowed under 13-3(e) or (f), and no fence may go in the side yard except as allowed under 13-3(e), (f), (g), (j) or (m). Those exceptions carry their own limits, for example a five-foot ornamental iron fence with a twenty-five-foot thoroughfare setback where a home has more than seventy percent of its lot in the front yard under 13-3(e), or a four-foot fence where the rear yard is under twenty feet deep under 13-3(f).

Sec. 13-3(i) also keeps fences at least three feet from an adjacent driveway absent the neighbor's written consent, and 13-3(k) generally limits a property line to one fence at a time. Separately, Sec. 13-13 protects sightlines at intersections: within the "unobstructed triangular area," measured twenty-five feet along each right-of-way at a street corner or ten feet along a driveway apron, no fence, wall, structure or planting may obstruct cross-visibility between thirty inches and six feet above the road. A chain-link fence is not treated as an obstruction there as long as nothing else in the triangle blocks that band and no privacy slats or inserts are added to the chain link. Trees are allowed in the triangle if limbs and foliage are trimmed clear of that visibility band.