Jefferson Parish, LA Fence Regulations: Material Restrictions (2026)

Sec. 3 of the parish's building regulations, titled Fences-Requirements, is the operative material standard, separate from the zoning chapter's height and location rules. It opens with a structural mandate: fences must be structurally sound and durable and built in compliance with Chapter 16, Structural design, of the currently adopted International Building Code, so a fence cannot simply be assembled from whatever is on hand. The section then bans specific material categories by name. No fragile, readily flammable material, and the code lists paper, cloth, reeds, canes, or canvas as examples, can form part of a fence, and none of those materials can be used as an adjunct, attachment, or supplement to an otherwise compliant fence either.

The most consequential line covers wire: barbed wire, or any other material the Director determines to be hazardous, cannot be placed on a fence at a height of less than seven feet above the ground or grade. That means barbed wire is not banned outright parish-wide, but it cannot start low enough to injure someone at ground level; it has to be confined to the top of a fence already at least seven feet tall. The section closes by cross-referencing height: fence height itself is governed by chapter 33 and chapter 40 of the Code, not this section, so a fence can meet every material requirement here and still be torn down for exceeding the height limits set elsewhere in the zoning code.

In practice the two chapters work together at permitting: the Department of Building Permits checks both the material and structural-soundness standard here and the zoning height rule before signing off on a fence permit application.