Lincoln County, SD Fence Regulations: Height Limits (2026)

Lincoln County Code § 154.240, adopted by the Board of County Commissioners under Ordinance 0904-05 (passed May 20, 2009), sets the baseline fence height for every zoning district in unincorporated Lincoln County, South Dakota. Division (A) caps fences at four feet anywhere on a lot, but a corner-visibility rule applies near intersections: a fence within 30 feet of a street intersection, measured along the property line, cannot be more than 30% solid, so chain-link or split-rail construction is allowed there but a solid privacy fence is not.

Division (B) allows six-foot fences on the portion of a lot that sits as far back or farther back from the street than the main building, so a rear-yard or side-yard fence can be taller than the four-foot front-yard limit. Division (C) carves out two exceptions. First, on a corner lot's side-street-side front yard, a six-foot fence is permitted if that yard abuts an arterial street on the county's major street plan, is not adjacent to a side yard, or sits no closer to the front line than the rear wall of the main building.

Second, in the C Commercial, I-1 Light Industrial, and I-2 General Industrial districts, fences up to eight feet are permitted anywhere on the lot except the required front yard, unless the lot is adjacent to a residential district, in which case the lower limits apply. The Office of Planning and Zoning administers fence review as part of zoning compliance, and the rule sits within Chapter 154's zoning regulations rather than the building code, so a fence permit question is a land-use matter, not a structural one.