Pottstown, PA Fence Regulations: Material Restrictions (2026)

Borough Code § 500, Subsection 7 sets fence standards specifically for the Flex Office, Highway Business, and Heavy Manufacturing Districts, the Borough's commercial and industrial zones, and Subsection D of that provision is the operative material rule: no fence anywhere may be electrified or otherwise present a hazard to the public, a flat prohibition that carries no residential carve-out because it applies to all fences the section covers. The same subsection then narrows barbed wire and concertina wire specifically: those materials are permitted in nonresidential districts only, and even there only at seven feet in height and above, meaning a low barbed-wire fence closer to eye level is not allowed even on commercial or industrial property.

Because the section by its own terms reaches only the Flex Office, Highway Business, and Heavy Manufacturing Districts, and because it affirmatively restricts barbed and concertina wire to nonresidential districts, a residential property in Pottstown has no zoning basis to install either material. Subsection A adds a general durability and orientation standard for the same three districts: fences must be built of durable materials kept in good condition, with the more finished, aesthetic side facing the property's exterior boundary so neighbors and the street see the finished face rather than framing or posts.

A separate Gateway District design chart at § 331 governs height and materials like vinyl, brick, stone, and vinyl-coated chain link for front, side and rear yards in the Gateway Overlay, but it does not address barbed wire or electrification at all, leaving § 500(7)(D) as the Borough's only textual rule on those two materials.