Franklin County, WA Fence Regulations: Height Limits (2026)

050(C), (D) and (I) set the general fence, wall and hedge height limits under the landscaping and screening chapter. In the front yard of residentially zoned lots, as well as retail business and office-zoned lots, fences, walls and hedges are capped at four feet. That cap rises to six feet in the front yard where two contiguous corner lots, or two corner lots separated only by an alley, together form the entire frontage between parallel streets. Side and rear yards on those same residential, retail and office lots get a flat six-foot cap, and a gate or opening at least three feet wide has to be provided leading into at least one side yard.

Height is measured from the existing or finished grade of the fence, whichever is lower, and on sloped lots it can be averaged in six-foot segments, capped at eight feet in any segment; stacking a fence on a retaining wall caps the combined height at nine and a half feet. Subsection I protects sightlines at intersections: no fence, wall, hedge or foliage over three feet above curb grade may sit within the vision triangle, twenty feet along the property lines from a street intersection or fifteen feet from a street-and-alley intersection, though a six-foot chain link fence (or a smaller one on a wall not exceeding six feet combined) is allowed at a street-and-alley corner if it stays unobstructed by foliage.

The chapter also bans specific fencing materials under subsection E, including tires, pallets, tarps, bed springs and corrugated sheet metal, and restricts barbed and electrified fencing under subsections G and H.