New Berlin, WI Fence Regulations: Material Restrictions (2026)

Section 275-56 H of the New Berlin Code of Ordinances sets the material standard for every fence or wall built as a landscape or screening element in the city, whether it fronts a subdivision, a shopping center or a farm. Approved materials are wood, stone, brick, decorative concrete block, wrought iron, close look-alikes of those materials, or a combination of them. Plywood, particleboard, sheet metal, concrete slabs and concrete barriers cannot be used anywhere screening or buffering is the purpose of the fence, and chain-link, slatted or not, is likewise barred from screening and buffering duty.

Barbed wire and electrical fencing are narrowed further still: New Berlin allows them only in conjunction with a permitted agricultural use, so a residential lot in an R-district cannot install either even for a garden or dog run. The code carves out one residential break: fencing accessory to a residential use does not have to be finished on both sides, unlike commercial and industrial fencing, which must present a finished face to neighboring property on every side. Height and placement of residential fences run through a separate accessory-structures section, Section 275-42 H, which caps front-yard fences at 50 inches and side or rear fences at 74 inches, with nonresidential fences allowed up to 98 inches; chain-link, wrought iron, aluminum, PVC and pressure-treated wood all qualify there as maintenance-free materials that can sit right on the lot line.

Fences that violate either section are enforced the same way as any other zoning violation, with the Director able to order correction within 30 days under Section 275-69.