Issaquah, WA Fence Regulations: Material Restrictions (2026)

Subsection E of LUC 18.600.090 covers three specific fence types: chain-link, electric and barbed wire. The section's applicability clause in subsection B applies its standards to all commercial and multifamily developments, and its intent clause says the standards provide screening between incompatible uses. Subsection E(1)(g) also speaks directly to individual single-family-type lots, covered below.

Chain-link. Use is restricted. In prominently visible areas or along transportation facilities it is prohibited unless one of the listed exceptions applies. In less prominent areas such as the side and rear setbacks, black vinyl coated fencing, or another color coating that reduces visibility, can be used. Temporary uses such as construction sites can use chain-link. In less visible portions of multifamily, commercial, retail or industrial areas, black vinyl coated chain link can be used where sight-obscuring fencing is not needed, and it must be softened with landscape screening. Recreation fields and ball fields can use black vinyl coated chain link to contain balls and players, and major and minor utility facilities can use chain-link softened with landscape screening. On individual lots with single-family, duplex, triplex, fourplex and townhome housing, chain-link cannot be used unless the architectural standards allow it, such as the Olde Town single-family-duplex architectural standards, or the active Architectural Review Committee for an area such as Issaquah Highlands and Talus.

Electric fences. They are not permitted in any district except where additional fencing or other barriers prevent access to the electric fence by small children.

Barbed wire. It can be used only in three situations: at the top of a six-foot-high solid or chain-link fence in commercial or industrial zoned districts; to protect and contain permitted agricultural animals, which include livestock, bees and poultry; and at the top of a solid or chain-link fence around a major or minor utility facility. Outside those three situations barbed wire is not allowed.