Bulloch County, GA Fence Regulations: Material Restrictions (2026)

The Zoning Ordinance (Appendix C) defines a \"fence\" in Article 2, Section 202 with built-in material standards: the fence must be chain link, decorative wood, decorative vinyl, or ornamental wrought iron, and any other fencing materials must be approved by the building and zoning official before use. That standard applies alongside the four-foot front-yard height limit written into the same definition. The county layers a second, more specific material rule onto chain-link fencing wherever it is used near a public street: Section 405(i), part of the buffer, screening and landscaping standards, states that chain-link fencing is only permitted in side or rear yards and must be dark vinyl coated if it is facing a street.

The buffer table at Section 406 repeats the dark vinyl-coated chain-link standard when chain link is used to satisfy required screening for uses such as off-street parking areas, back-to-back multi-family lots, and road frontage buffers, and it names durable posts (brick, stone, or decorative metal) along with pressure-treated wood, composite, expanded metal or mesh, decorative metal, or vinyl or composite as acceptable buffer-fence materials, with dark vinyl-coated chain link reserved for side or rear yard storage screening only. Together these sections mean a homeowner cannot install an unapproved wire or uncoated chain-link fence in a front yard or anywhere it would be visible from a public street without running afoul of the material standard, even though the ordinance's text does not separately name barbed wire or electric fencing as prohibited materials for residential lots. Planning and Development, through the building and zoning official, reviews fence material compliance as part of zoning enforcement in the unincorporated area.