Richland, WA Fence Regulations: Fence Permit Requirements (2026)

Richland Municipal Code Section 23.38.070(E) allows an arterial-adjacent fence up to six feet high to be built inside the property line on lots that have access to another street, either because the arrangement is already spelled out in an approved subdivision plat under RMC Sections 24.08.140 and 24.16.260 or because the administrative official grants special approval. Once that fence is approved, the owner takes on a defined set of obligations: the strip of land between the fence and the back of the adjacent sidewalk must be improved by the property owner at the same time the fence goes in, and the treatment plan for that strip is submitted as part of the building permit application itself, not afterward.

The plan must call for grass, decorative rock, wood, bark or a similar low-disturbance surface, with xeriscaping and native, low-maintenance plants encouraged; trees or shrubs are allowed on or behind the fence-side centerline of the strip as long as they never block normal pedestrian or vehicular use of the sidewalk and street. Both the fence and the strip's landscaping must be completed within six months of permit issuance, and no vehicular access may cross the fence except for occasional maintenance. Where an arterial street or highway has no required sidewalk or curb, the landscape treatment need not extend more than seven and a half feet toward the street from the fence, and the administrative official may waive some or all of the landscaping requirement on a finding of special circumstances.

The permit review sits with the same administrative official who approves the special exception, tying the landscaping and access conditions directly to the building permit for the fence.