Doña Ana County, NM Fence Regulations: Material Restrictions (2026)

The county's landscaping, buffering, and fencing standard, § 350-507R, sets the design rules for every screening wall or fence built in the unincorporated county. Two clauses in that section address barbed and razor wire directly. Subsection R(2)(d) says the material is permitted in agricultural and industrial zone districts or uses, but never where the fence is adjacent to a residential zone district or a residential use, drawing a bright line between an industrial parcel and its residential neighbor. The construction-and-design clause at R(4)(d) repeats the same limit for screening wall and fence design work: barbed wire fencing is permitted only in agricultural properties, industrial zones and uses, and legal conforming industrial uses, unless required by state or federal law.

The rule sits alongside the county's list of permissible and prohibited materials for walls generally. 7 lists rock and mortar, solid masonry, wrought iron, stucco finish, and approved panelized systems as permissible fence and wall materials, and bars smooth-faced CMU (unless stuccoed) and plain concrete-colored CMU outright, though that materials list does not separately address barbed or electric fencing. Doña Ana County's code text, as read, does not contain a standalone provision regulating electric livestock or security fencing; any such fence would still have to meet the general height, setback, and permit rules that apply to fences generally.