In unincorporated Chatham County, residential walls and fences may not exceed 6 feet in front and side yards or 8 feet in rear yards. Inside the City of Savannah, the NewZO caps most residential fences at 4 feet in the front yard and 8 feet in rear and interior side
The Chatham County Zoning Ordinance, administered jointly with Savannah by the Metropolitan Planning Commission under O.C.G.A. Title 36, Chapter 66, sets fence heights for the unincorporated county in Sec. 5-1.3(a): within any residential ('R') district a wall or fence may not exceed 6 feet in front and side yards, nor 8 feet in rear yards. Security fences for pools or tennis courts may reach 10 feet if set back one foot per foot over 6 feet and located in a rear yard. Inside the City of Savannah, the unified NewZO (Sec. 9.6) instead limits front-yard fences to 4 feet (6 feet if the portion above 3 feet is at least 70% open) and rear/interior side yards to 8 feet.
Over-height fences violate the zoning ordinance and are enforced by the Zoning Administrator/MPC. The county can deny a permit, issue a stop-work order, require removal, and pursue citations with fines until the fence complies.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
Chatham County, GA
Chatham County has no standalone hoarding statute, but it curbs hoarding through hard numeric pet limits (8 cats, 6 dogs per acre) and its cruelty/neglect pr...
Chatham County, GA
Chatham County's animal-control chapter sets no specific wildlife-feeding ban. Wild, game, and protected species are handled by the Georgia Department of Nat...
Chatham County, GA
Chatham County and Savannah have no ordinance banning residential backyard composting. Home compost is allowed, but a pile that creates odor, attracts rodent...
Chatham County, GA
Neither Chatham County nor the City of Savannah bans artificial turf on private residential yards. There is no specific county ordinance regulating synthetic...
Chatham County, GA
Chatham County sits on Georgia's coast, where salt-marsh grasses and other native tidal vegetation are protected under the state Coastal Marshlands Protectio...
Chatham County, GA
Georgia encourages rainwater harvesting. Under the state Water Stewardship Act, capturing and reusing rainwater and stormwater is allowed any day at any time...
Side-by-side rule comparisons with other cities in Chatham County.
See how Tybee Island's height limits rules stack up against other locations.
Help us keep this page accurate. If you notice an error or outdated information, let us know.