York County, VA Fence Regulations: Height Limits (2026)

Sec. 24.1-271(j) lists the fence and wall heights allowed as a residential accessory use: rear yards top out at 8 feet, side yards at 6 feet, and front yards at just 4 feet. Fences on corner lots, or near a street/driveway intersection, also have to respect the sight-triangle visibility rules in Sec. 24.1-220, which bar obstructions between 3 and 6 feet high inside the triangle formed at the intersection. Lots with more than one street frontage, where every frontage would otherwise count as a 'front yard,' can get a break: the zoning administrator may authorize 6-foot fencing instead of the 4-foot front-yard limit to give the side and rear areas some privacy.

The zoning administrator can also push a front or side yard fence up to 8 feet where it's needed to screen or buffer a home from an adjacent non-residential use. Fences with a 'finished side,' meaning rails or boards attached to only one side of the posts, must face that finished side outward toward neighboring properties and rights-of-way, unless the zoning administrator waives it. Theft-deterrent wire fencing, like barbed wire, is banned outright in residential districts except for confining livestock under Va. Code § 55.1-2804, or for a narrow allowance covering low-energy, non-lethal garden and landscape-protection fencing that stays under 4 feet (6 feet in the RC and RR districts) and within 2 feet of the protected planting bed.