Chesapeake, VA Fence Regulations: Material Restrictions (2026)

Chesapeake regulates electric fences directly rather than banning them, and the standard sits at Sec. 46-10 of the City Code. Subsection (a) defines an 'electric fence' as one 'designed to conduct electric current along one or more wires thereof so that a person or animal touching any such wire or wires will receive such electric current,' covering any fence wired to shock on contact regardless of what it's meant to keep in or out. Subsection (b) then caps the power: it is unlawful to construct, install, or maintain an electric fence, or to permit someone else to do so on land you control, without a controlling device that draws from a power source not exceeding 125 volts and that delivers intermittent current no greater than 500 milliamperes at maximum peak, 150 milliamperes for any one-ten-thousandth-of-a-second period, and 10 milliamperes for any one-tenth-second period.

If the controller instead delivers continuous current, that steady value cannot exceed five milliamperes, unless a safety device is fitted that interrupts the circuit within five seconds, in which case the steady current may go up to 25 milliamperes. The section applies to 'any land in the city,' so it covers residential yards, farms, and commercial parcels alike, and liability attaches both to the person who builds the fence and to a landowner who knowingly lets someone else install a noncompliant one. The section does not separately address barbed wire, chain link, or wall materials; Chesapeake's other fence-material provisions, such as the eight-foot screening fence required around junkyards under Sec. 19-87, govern different, narrower situations rather than general residential fencing.