Leominster, MA Fence Regulations: Height Limits (2026)

Leominster's zoning ordinance does not set a single citywide fence-height cap for every yard, but it does regulate fence height precisely where sightlines matter most: corner lots. Section 22-39, titled Corner clearance, provides that on a corner lot in any zoning district, no sign, fence, wall, tree, hedge, or other vegetation may be erected, placed or maintained above three feet over the established street grade within the triangular area formed by the two intersecting street lines and a straight line connecting points twenty feet back from the intersection along each street line. That geometry creates a triangle at every street corner in the city inside which any fence, wall or planting taller than three feet becomes a zoning violation, regardless of the district's ordinary dimensional table in Section 22-40.

The rule applies uniformly across residential, business and industrial districts alike because Section 22-39 opens with 'in any district,' and it reaches beyond fences to include signs, walls and dense vegetation, since a tall hedge or retaining wall can obstruct a driver's view of cross traffic just as effectively as a solid fence. The broader compliance framework in Section 22-36 reinforces the point: no lot may be altered so that a structure on it fails to meet the setback, yard or other dimensional provisions of the zoning ordinance, which brings corner-clearance fencing under the same lot-modification and building-permit review as any other yard structure.

Outside the sight-triangle, on the interior portions of a corner lot or on an ordinary interior lot, the zoning ordinance does not fix a separate maximum fence height, so property owners installing a fence away from the corner-visibility area are not bound by the three-foot cap.