Bernalillo County, NM Fence Regulations: Material Restrictions (2026)
Key Facts
- Standard
- Fence must be 'visually solid'
- Openings limit
- No more than 25% of surface
- Minimum height
- At least six feet
- Alternative
- Evergreen hedge or trees 6 ft apart
- Applies to
- Nonresidential land abutting residential zones
Summary
Where a buffer fence is required between commercial or industrial land and a single-family residential zone in unincorporated Bernalillo County, it must be 'visually solid' construction: masonry, decorative block with limited openings, or dense evergreen hedging. Open-style fencing like chain-link doesn't qualify.
Solid Wall or Fence. A wall, fence or similar enclosure which is visually solid and is kept in good repair. It may include evergreen hedges, trees planted six feet or less apart depending on the type of trees, decorative walls which may have openings and provided the total area of all the openings in such walls does not exceed 25 percent of the total area of the surface of these walls and further provided these openings are evenly distributed over the entire surface of such walls.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: Code of Ordinances: Supplement 92).
Full Breakdown
Appendix A's zoning definitions section defines a 'Solid Wall or Fence' as one that is visually solid and kept in good repair, allowing evergreen hedges, trees planted six feet or less apart, or decorative walls whose combined openings cover no more than 25 percent of the wall's total surface, evenly distributed across it. Section 19.B then requires exactly that construction, at least six feet high, on any side of a nonresidential lot abutting a single-family residential zone, except sides facing a public right-of-way. This applies only to unincorporated county land governed by the 1973 Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance; Albuquerque enforces its own Integrated Development Ordinance for buffer fencing inside city limits.
Violations & Fines
The County Planning and Zoning Division enforces the buffer-fence standard as a zoning violation; noncompliant fencing can hold up certificate of occupancy or site plan sign-off until the fence meets the solid-construction test.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a chain-link fence satisfy the buffer requirement?
Does this rule apply inside Albuquerque?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Bernalillo County
Compare Bernalillo County to another location·View the New Mexico fence regulations overview
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