Kalamazoo, MI Fence Regulations: Material Restrictions (2026)

Section 22-14, carried forward from the Police and License Code and amended in 1998 with an enforcement update in 2022, restricts fence materials citywide in two distinct ways. Subsection A prohibits using or placing barbed wire on a fence, barrier or other structure within six feet of the ground anywhere in the City of Kalamazoo, so low barbed wire, the kind most likely to injure passersby or children, is banned outright regardless of the property's zoning district; barbed wire strung higher than six feet falls outside this specific rule.

Subsection B separately prohibits using, placing, or allowing to be used or placed on one's property, an aboveground fence charged with or otherwise carrying an electrical current, with no exception for agricultural or industrial property inside city limits. The rule sits in Chapter 22, Offenses and Crimes Generally, rather than in the Zoning Ordinance's general fence-height and setback standards in Chapter 50, so it operates as a citywide public-safety prohibition layered on top of whatever material standards Chapter 50 sets for fences by zoning district.

Because the section was carried forward from the older code without a specific penalty attached, the 2022 recodification added Subsection C to make clear a violation is enforced as a civil matter.