Peoria County, IL Fence Regulations: Material Restrictions (2026)

3 of the Unified Development Ordinance bars six categories of hazardous fencing countywide: barbed wire fences, electrical fences, spiked fences, fences with broken glass or sharp points embedded in them, any fence design that could injure someone climbing it, and fences leaning fifteen degrees or more from vertical. The ban is not absolute. 4 lets hazardous fencing appear only on agricultural land, around public utility structures at least eight feet above grade, around telecommunication carrier facilities at least eight feet above grade, around penal institutions at least eight feet above grade, and around commercial solar energy facilities at least six feet above grade.

A homeowner in a residential subdivision does not qualify for any of these five exceptions, so ordinary residential lots must rely on compliant materials such as wood, vinyl, chain-link, or wrought iron. 6: no fence may exceed six feet, and a solid fence generally cannot be built in the front setback past the front building line, where open fencing is capped at four feet. 5's general maintenance requirement. Fencing for agricultural livestock containment is the main real-world use of the exception, since farm operations routinely rely on electrified wire to contain cattle or hogs, a use the ordinance carves out even while banning the same fencing for a subdivision backyard.