Lower Merion, PA Fence Regulations: Neighbor Fence Rules (2026)

Section 155-3.7.C governs how a fence or wall must be built in Lower Merion Township once its type, height, and location are otherwise permitted under the Township's fence tables. Subsection (3) sets the orientation rule that answers a recurring boundary dispute: supporting members and posts must sit on the inside of the fence, and the smooth or flat, finished face has to be on the outside, meaning the good side faces the street or the adjoining neighbor rather than the fence owner's own yard. If a homeowner chooses a fence style that looks finished on both faces and screens the support posts, the code lets that satisfy the rule too, but only if each face is the same type and finish, so a builder cannot mix a rough side with a partially finished one and call it compliant.

This configuration standard sits alongside the Township's other fence rules in § 155-3.7: frontage fences need an operable gate at least 36 inches wide, fence panels must step down with the grade rather than run level across sloped ground, and fence material is limited to one type per frontage. Because § 155-3.7.C applies to all conforming fence construction, not just replacements, a homeowner installing a new boundary fence, not only one repairing a nonconforming fence under § 155-10.12.F, has to orient the finished face outward from the start, and a Zoning Officer inspecting a complaint about a rough-side fence can cite this subsection directly.