St. Joseph County, IN Fence Regulations: Material Restrictions (2026)

The county's accessory-use standards single out security wire, defined broadly to include barbed wire, electric fencing, razor wire, and other similar security wire types, and confine it to a short list of nonresidential uses: agricultural operations, HVAC equipment enclosures, communication facilities such as wireless, radio, and television towers, restricted-access sites like airports and water or sewer treatment plants, public safety facilities, and utility sites for water, sewer, electric, and gas mains. A homeowner cannot install barbed wire, electric fencing, or razor wire around a residential lot under this provision; the exemption list is nonresidential by its own terms.

The same subsection carries the standard height and open-space rules for ordinary residential fences, 36 inches in a front yard at 70 percent or less openness, 48 inches if more open, six to eight feet elsewhere, so a resident wanting extra security has to stay within those height limits using conventional materials instead of wire. For the nonresidential uses where security wire is allowed, the zoning administrator decides how much of the property line it can cover and exactly where it runs, rather than the ordinance fixing a blanket footage or height figure.

070(C)(3)(a)3, which bars barbed, electric, razor, or similar security wire from a front yard or from the area between the front building facade and the required front yard, while still permitting it in side and rear yards for those districts.