Hamilton County, TN Fence Regulations: Height Limits (2026)

Hamilton County Zoning Regulations, Article VI, Section 100 'Exceptions for All Districts,' sets fence rules for corner lots outside the cities of Chattanooga, East Ridge, Red Bank, Soddy-Daisy, Collegedale, Signal Mountain, Lakesite, Ridgeside, Walden and Lookout Mountain; Article IX limits the whole Resolution to the unincorporated county. B, Side Yards on Corner Lots, first sets the minimum side yard next to the side street: 20 feet in the A-1 Agricultural, R-1 Single-Family, R-2 Urban Residential, R-2A Rural Residential, R-3 MD Moderate Density Apartment-Townhouse and R-5 Single Wide Manufactured Home districts, and 10 feet in the C-2 Local Business Commercial, C-3 General Business Commercial and O-1 Office districts.

Within that corner side yard, and anywhere else on the corner lot, a fence or wall cannot exceed six feet in height. The Resolution also carves out a 25-foot clear zone measured from the street intersection: no fence, wall or even shrubbery is allowed to stand inside that zone if it would interfere with a driver's sight line around the corner. The rule targets visibility, not just height, so a lower fence planted too close to the corner still violates the section if it blocks the view.

The Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency's Department of Building Inspection administers zoning permits under Article VIII, and the Hamilton County Building Commissioner issues or withholds them; a permit request that would put a structure inside the 25-foot triangle can be denied on that basis alone. The Resolution was recodified May 21, 2014 by Resolution No. B is unchanged by those later amendments.