Hanover County, VA Fence Regulations: Height Limits (2026)

Hanover County Code Section 26-249 sets the Zoning Ordinance's fence and wall height limits. Subsection (a) permits an ornamental wall or fence up to four feet in any front yard, and up to seven feet in a side or rear yard. Where a column or other structural support is attached to a regulated wall or fence, that support can exceed the wall's height by up to one foot, so a seven-foot side-yard fence can carry an eight-foot post. Subsection (b) treats freestanding decorative columns differently: columns not attached to a fence, including columns flanking a subdivision entrance, can reach five feet in any front, side or rear yard, and taller entrance columns in a common open space area need approval as part of a rezoning.

Subsection (c) protects visibility at corner lots. Within the area bounded by the two intersecting street lines and a straight line connecting points on each street, no sign, fence, column, wall, hedge, planting or other obstruction to vision may exceed three feet above the established street grade. That triangle is measured twenty feet from the intersection for residential uses and twenty-five feet from the intersection for non-residential uses, giving commercial corners a larger clear-sight area. These limits apply throughout Hanover County outside the Town of Ashland, which administers its own zoning.

The Zoning Administrator in the Planning Department reviews fence permits and site plans against Section 26-249 before construction, and a fence built taller than these caps without an approved rezoning or special exception is nonconforming and subject to correction.