Salem, OR Fence Regulations: Material Restrictions (2026)

050(c) requires fences to be built from materials specifically designed and manufactured for fencing, listing wooden pickets, vinyl, wrought iron, and chainlink as examples, while expressly banning corrugated cardboard, corrugated metal, plywood, wooden pallets, garage doors, concrete rubble, and other junked material from being used as fencing anywhere in the city. Walls must be masonry, rock, concrete, concrete block, or similar material. Chicken wire is allowed only in the Residential Agriculture (RA) zone when used to raise livestock. Subsection (d) then addresses hazardous fencing materials directly: fences and walls cannot be built with electric or barbed wire, upturned barbed selvage, broken glass, spikes, or other dangerous material, with narrow carve-outs.

Concertina wire is permitted only around state and county correctional facilities and secure mental health facilities. Barbed wire and upturned barbed selvage are allowed solely where the fence encloses livestock, or in the Retail Commercial (CR) and General Commercial (CG) zones, industrial or public zones, or around an electrical substation, and even then it must sit more than 6 feet above grade, stay at least 1 foot back from the public right-of-way if slanted toward it, and never extend over a street or alley, with warning signs posted at least every 15 feet.

Electric fencing follows the same livestock exception plus outdoor storage areas in the CG zone or industrial zones, where it cannot exceed 10 feet in height, must be fully enclosed by a non-electric fence or wall at least 6 feet tall with a 1-foot gap between them, requires an electrical permit and inspection, must carry bilingual English/Spanish warning signage reading 'DANGER - ELECTRIC FENCE' every 60 feet, and needs a fire-department-accessible manual disconnect. None of these hazardous-material exceptions apply to ordinary residential yards outside a livestock use.