Youngstown, OH Fence Regulations: Material Restrictions (2026)

In the City of Youngstown, Ohio, § 521.07 of the Codified Ordinances draws a firm line on two fence materials. Subsection (a) is an absolute, citywide ban: no person may erect or maintain any fence charged with electrical current, with no exception written into the section for agricultural, security, or containment use. Subsection (b) targets barbed wire specifically where it meets the public right-of-way: a barbed wire fence may not abut or be adjacent to any public street or sidewalk. The section does carve out one narrow allowance within that same subsection: a property owner may still run up to three strands of barbed wire along the top of a fence that is not itself a barbed wire fence, meaning the fence body must be some other material (chain-link, wood, or similar) with only the topmost strands being barbed.

That allowance carries its own height floor: the barbed strands must sit no less than seventy-two inches, six feet, from the ground, so a short fence topped with barbed wire at head height would not qualify. Because § 521.07 sits in Chapter 521, Health, Safety and Sanitation, next to the city's sidewalk-obstruction rule at § 521.04 and its snow-clearing duty at § 521.06, it is enforced through the same general nuisance and safety framework, aimed at keeping fences along streets and walkways from posing a hazard to pedestrians rather than regulating fence height or setback, which fall under the separate Zoning Code in Part Eleven.