Bayonne, NJ Fence Regulations: Material Restrictions (2026)

City Code § 35-4.14, amended most recently September 18, 2024 by Ord. No. O-24-48, sets material rules alongside the district height limits. In residential districts, § 35-4.14.a.2 flatly bars any fence from containing barbed wire, and § 35-4.14.a.5 requires fences to be installed so the finished, or better, side faces the street or the adjacent property, protecting neighbors from having to look at fence framing. Commercial districts have their own material rule in § 35-4.14.b.2: fences abutting residential properties must use solid fencing material intended to screen the commercial use from the residential lot, and street-facing commercial fences under § 35-4.14.b.3 must be decorative and capped at four feet.

Industrial districts are the only zone where barbed wire apparatus is contemplated at all: § 35-4.14.c.1 allows fences and walls in any yard provided they do not exceed 12 feet in height inclusive of any additional apparatus such as barbed wire, and § 35-4.14.c.2 requires chain-link fencing abutting a street right-of-way to be visually obscured with planting material. Together the sections mean barbed wire is never allowed on a house fence anywhere in the City, and even in heavy industrial zones it counts toward, rather than adds onto, the height cap.