In the City of Topeka no fence may exceed eight feet, and any fence beyond the front face of the house drops to four feet in residential R and M districts. Unincorporated Shawnee County sets heights through county zoning.
Topeka's development code fixes a citywide ceiling of eight feet for any fence. In residential R and M zones, anything built past the front face of the principal structure is capped at four feet, so a tall privacy fence belongs in the back and side yards, not the front lawn. Corner lots get six feet along a perpendicular arterial street, while reversed corner and double-frontage lots face the four-foot front-yard rule on their extra street sides. No fence may sit in the public right-of-way or inside a sight-distance triangle. Unincorporated county lots follow Shawnee County zoning setbacks.
Building over height or inside a sight triangle draws a Topeka code-enforcement notice to lower or remove the fence, enforced through municipal court if the violation is not corrected.
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