Decatur, GA Fence Regulations: Height Limits (2026)

Sec. 1 of Decatur's Unified Development Ordinance sets citywide fence and wall height limits. A front-yard fence or wall is capped at 4 feet. A rear or side yard fence can go up to 8 feet, but where that 8-foot fencing is used, it has to step down to 4 feet on any lot line that abuts a required front yard, so a corner lot's side yard facing a street doesn't get the full 8-foot allowance along that edge. The code adds a sight-distance rule that applies in every use district except the general business district: no fence, wall, shrubbery, sign, marquee or other obstruction to vision between 3 feet and 15 feet in height is permitted within 20 feet of the intersection of two streets' right-of-way lines, or of a street intersecting a railroad right-of-way.

That 20-foot visibility triangle is meant to keep drivers' sightlines clear at intersections, and it captures landscaping and signage as well as fencing. Separate from the general fence rules, Decatur's required buffer areas, established under Sec. 2 where higher-density or commercial development adjoins a single-family district, carry their own taller minimums: an 8-foot fence or wall for developments in the C-1, C-2 and C-3 districts, and 6 feet for RM-18, RM-22, RM-43 and PO districts, which run higher than the general residential cap because they serve a screening function between different use intensities rather than an ordinary yard boundary.

A property owner needing relief from the buffer-area fence requirement can apply to the UDO Administrator, who may waive it upon field survey data showing existing vegetation already provides equivalent visual screening. These fence standards govern only inside the roughly four-square-mile City of Decatur; adjacent unincorporated DeKalb County addresses that share a Decatur mailing address follow the county's own fence rules.