Kent County, DE Fence Regulations: Material Restrictions (2026)

Section 205-26 starts from a blanket prohibition: Subsection A bars barbed wire or electrified fencing countywide except in connection with a farm operation, which covers agricultural property using such fencing to contain livestock or protect crops. Subsection B carves out a narrow security exception for everyone else. Up to six strands of barbed wire may run along the top of a chain link or other nonbarbed wire fence, but only if that base fence is at least six feet tall and no taller than 10 feet, and only in two situations.

The first, in paragraph (1), covers a nonresidential zone where the fence secures a warehouse, storage area or other life-endangering use that needs protection from unauthorized access. The second, in paragraph (2), lists specific high-security uses regardless of zone: public utilities, public services, state or federal prisons, telecommunication towers, construction sites, community or commercial swimming pools, and stormwater management, sediment or erosion control ponds. Because ordinary residential yards and typical commercial lots fall outside both exceptions, a homeowner or most business owners cannot add barbed wire or electrify a fence around a house, yard or standard retail site; the option is reserved for farms and the specific higher-risk uses the code lists.

Electrified fencing gets no separate carve-out in Subsection B at all, so outside a farm operation it remains prohibited across every use and zone in the unincorporated county.