Forsyth County, GA Fence Regulations: Fence Permit Requirements (2026)

13. Ordinary fences and freestanding walls, capped at 48 inches in the front yard and 8 feet in a required side or rear setback, cross into permit territory the moment they exceed 6 feet in height, regardless of which yard they sit in. Below that 6-foot threshold, no building permit is required for a standard fence or wall. Retaining walls and non-integral wing walls are governed separately and more strictly: they're allowed in the setback at any height without a permit, but once one exceeds 6 feet, measured from the bottom of the footing to the top of the wall, it needs both a permit and an engineer's design.

The code also addresses a common workaround, stacking several shorter walls to avoid the engineering requirement: terraced walls only count as separate structures, each judged on its own height, if the horizontal distance between them is greater than the height of the tallest individual section. If the terraces sit closer together than that, they're measured together as one wall for permit purposes. 13(C), with no permit threshold specified. 13 altogether, including its permit requirements.