Marietta, GA Fence Regulations: Material Restrictions (2026)

04(G) of the Marietta Code of Ordinances, part of the city's fences-and-walls standards in Part 7, Planning and Development, regulates barbed wire, spikes and electrified fencing across every zoning district rather than banning them outright everywhere. The rule works in two layers. First, wherever such devices are permitted at all, they cannot sit within 6 feet of the ground, and they cannot project more than 20 inches above the height of the fence itself, which keeps them out of reach at pedestrian level even on industrial or rear-yard fencing.

Second, the code draws a hard line for any yard fronting a street on property zoned residential, commercial, central business district or office: no barbed wire, spikes, similar devices, or electric charge is allowed there at all, regardless of height. That leaves the devices realistically available only on rear or side fencing in commercial and industrial contexts, or on light industrial and heavy industrial parcels that do not front a street, consistent with the code's broader treatment of LI, HI and PID districts as exempt from several of the ordinary fence-height and finished-side rules in the same section.

04 also requires all decorative or ornamental fences to use durable materials such as wood, brick, stone, wrought iron or split rail, and bars exposed concrete block or reused junk materials like pallets, tires or tree trunks, but the barbed wire and electric charge limits are the operative material restriction for anyone asking what a Marietta fence cannot be built with.