Irvington, NJ Fence Regulations: Material Restrictions (2026)

Township Code § 294-6A specially prohibits an extensive list of fences and fencing materials in any location in Irvington: barbed-wire fences, homemade fences made from pipe, sharp-pointed fences (including cyclone fences with sharp points extending above the upper protective bar), canvas or cloth fencing, electrically charged fences, poultry netting, temporary fences, expandable fences, collapsible fences, and any fence topped with broken glass, stone or metal spikes. The only exception sits in § 294-6B: within the M-1 and M-2 industrial districts, up to four strands of barbed wire may be added to the top of an otherwise conforming fence, but only if that fence is already at least eight feet above ground level, matching part of the ten-foot overall height ceiling those districts allow under § 294-5C.

Outside M-1 and M-2, no district, including the B-1 and B-2 business districts, gets any barbed-wire allowance. The restriction was added by Ordinance No. MC 2876 in 1988 and has not been amended since. It works together with § 294-7's construction standard, which requires the finished, structural side of any fence to face the interior of the property rather than the neighbor or street, and § 294-8's maintenance duty to keep every fence safe, sound and upright.