Greenwood, IN Fence Regulations: Material Restrictions (2026)

Sec. 10-03-09 of Greenwood's Unified Development Ordinance opens with general fence rules before turning to materials: no fence may encroach into an easement or public right-of-way, none may sit within two feet of a public sidewalk, every fence must be securely fastened to the ground, and privacy-fence gates must not swing outward across pedestrian or cycling infrastructure. Subsection B then sets the material standards. Residential front-yard fencing must be decorative in design, or made from wood, brick, iron, stone, coated chain link, or an approved synthetic material.

Structural posts and beams must face inward, away from the property line, unless neighbors split the cost of a shared boundary fence. Electric-charged fencing is barred everywhere except the AG zone or lots containing a commercial agricultural use. The code then targets injury hazards directly: no fence shall have metal prongs, spikes, or barbed wire as part of its design, with one carve-out, barbed wire on top of chain-link fences, allowed only in the IM and IL zones. A separate, broader public-safety rule bans any fence composed in whole or part of barbed wire or similar injury-designed material, or any electrically charged wire, within three feet of a street, sidewalk, alley or other public way.

Non-coated chain-link is likewise confined to the IM and IL zones and only in rear and side yards, and slat fencing may not be paired with chain-link there. Building a noncompliant fence is enforced as a civil zoning violation.