Provo, UT Fence Regulations: Material Restrictions (2026)

020, "Barbed Wire Fences and Similar Fences Prohibited," flatly bans erecting or maintaining a barbed wire fence anywhere in the city. Two narrow exceptions apply. First, a property owner may run a single strand of barbed wire along the top of a fence that is not otherwise built of barbed wire, but only if that wire sits at least six feet above the ground, and this exception never applies to a fence on the shared boundary line between two residential lots, so neighbors cannot use the livestock exception to fence each other's yards.

Second, barbed wire may be used lower than six feet only where the fence encloses a lot or pasture that has been used at least six months of every calendar year to lawfully keep horses, cows, sheep or similarly sized domestic animals, tying the exception to genuine agricultural use rather than ordinary residential yards. Subsection (2) separately bans concertina wire (also called razor wire) on any fence citywide, describing it as wire-like fencing that can cut, puncture or otherwise injure a person or animal that contacts it.

The only carve-out is for publicly owned facilities, which may top their perimeter fencing with concertina or razor wire for security. 020 and limits ordinary residential fencing materials to lumber, vinyl, chain-link, masonry, wrought iron, decorative metal or vegetation, while expressly barring pallets, scrap metal and tarps as fencing material. Enforcement runs through Provo's code compliance process: a nonconforming or hazardous fence found in violation can be ordered repaired, removed or brought into compliance by the Building Inspection Division or code enforcement staff.