Skokie, IL Fence Regulations: Fence Permit Requirements (2026)

Section 118-61 of the Skokie Zoning Ordinance, added by Ordinance No. 19-4-C-4451 in 2019, states plainly that a building permit is required for the construction, installation, or replacement of any fence in the Village. That permit requirement sits alongside the Village's older general-code provision, Section 22-241, which has separately required a fence permit since at least the 1979 Code and directs applicants to the Village Manager or a designee, using the definition of 'fence' found at Section 118-5. Beyond the permit itself, Section 118-61 restricts where a fence can go: no fence or portion of a fence is allowed in a front yard or corner side yard in a residential zoning district, except at a school, public park, governmental use, or public utility where the fence protects the public.

A property owner who wants a decorative fence in the front yard of a nonresidential use located in a residential zoning district can seek relief through site plan approval rather than facing an outright prohibition. The section also requires that fence posts and other supporting members face toward the owner's own side of the property, or be enclosed on two sides by fencing, so the finished side of the fence faces the neighboring lot or the street. A temporary fence required as a condition of another Village permit or license, such as at a construction site, is allowed in any required yard without triggering the front-yard prohibition.

The Village last amended the general fence-permit clause of Section 22-241 in 2008, but the zoning chapter's 2019 rewrite is the more recent statement of the substantive standard and controls where the two provisions overlap.