Monroe Township (Middlesex County), NJ Fence Regulations: Material Restrictions (2026)

Section 108-8.2.D of the Township Code lists the fences and fencing materials specifically prohibited in all zone districts in the Township of Monroe: barbed wire unless the lot is more than six acres, canvas, cloth, electric, expandable and collapsible fences. Because the sentence names both fences and fencing materials, a prohibited material cannot be used as a panel, a strand or a screen on an otherwise permitted fence. The ban applies in every zone district, residential, commercial and industrial, so a business lot gets no carve-out for electric or barbed strands. The only printed exception is barbed wire on a lot of more than six acres.

The code defines a fence broadly, as a structure constructed of wood, masonry, stone, wire, metal or any other manufactured material or combination of materials serving as an enclosure, barrier or boundary. Wire itself is not banned: § 108-8.2.A(2) allows open wire fences not exceeding eight feet in rear or side yards in any commercial or industrial zone district, and § 108-8.2.A(3) allows them within public park, public playground or public school properties.

Other parts of § 108-8.2 shape the materials a fence needs. Every fence must be maintained in a safe, sound, up-right condition (§ 108-8.2.B), and all nonresidential uses required to have fencing must have a double-sided fence (§ 108-8.2.G). Where a conditional use needs screening, the code names the material: § 108-7.2.A(21)(b) calls for a six-foot high, solid two-sided fence at a mulch processing facility, and the trucks and equipment there must be stored in buildings or enclosed by a solid eight-foot high fence. Fences in floodways follow Chapter 44 as well as § 108-8.2.