Toms River, NJ Fence Regulations: Fence Permit Requirements (2026)

Section 291-5 of Chapter 291, Fences, Plantings and Walls, part of Article II adopted December 9, 2008 by Ordinance No. 4168-08, bars anyone from erecting a fence of solid construction unless a building permit has been issued for it and the appropriate fee has been paid. The section fixes that fee by cross-reference to Ordinance No. 1167, adopted May 25, 1971 and originally carried as Chapter 60 of the 1973 Code, but the code's own editor's note flags that Ordinance No. 1167 was repealed on December 22, 1993 by Ordinance No.

3018-93. That leaves the fence permit requirement itself fully in force while the fee it once fixed has to be found elsewhere: fence permits in Toms River today are processed as construction permits by the Office of Construction Permits and Inspections, the enforcing agency the township created under § 252-2 of Chapter 252, Construction Codes, Uniform, applying that chapter's general Building Subcode permit and inspection process rather than a stand-alone fence fee schedule. The permit requirement sits inside Article II alongside the height limits in §§ 291-3 and 291-4, the vision-obscuring planting rule in § 291-6, and the definitions in § 291-10, all adopted together as part of the same 2008 ordinance that repealed and replaced the township's 1973 fence regulations.

A resident planning a solid-construction fence, whether wood, vinyl, masonry or another continuous barrier, should apply to that office before building begins rather than after, since § 291-5 conditions the fence's legality on the permit being issued first.