Burlington, NC Fence Regulations: Material Restrictions (2026)

Section 34-9 is narrow but absolute for the ground it covers: no person may construct or maintain barbed wire, or a barbed wire fence, on any premises along the line of a city street or alley. The ordinance doesn't set a distance buffer or an exception for agricultural or industrial property; the prohibition runs to any barbed wire suffered to remain along a street or alley line, meaning a fence installed years ago and simply left in place is treated the same as new construction.

Because the code makes each day of noncompliance a separate offense, a property owner cited for a barbed wire fence facing a public street can't cure exposure by simply leaving the fence up and paying once; the clock resets daily until it comes down. This section traces to the 1959 code, former section 27-13, and hasn't been substantively rewritten since. The Burlington Unified Development Ordinance, a separate document from this Code of Ordinances, is where any broader fence-height or interior-lot material rules would sit, since Chapter 28 of this code holds only the planning commission and subdivision-control provisions; this Code of Ordinances itself does not separately address electric fencing, chain-link, or vinyl fence materials on residential lots away from a street or alley line.