Yonkers, NY Fence Regulations: Fence Permit Requirements (2026)

Section 56-96, in the Building and Electrical Code's article on moved buildings and minor structures, reads in full: fences of wood, any portion of which are less than 10 feet from any public street or less than 30 feet from any building, shall not be erected over six feet in height unless the method of supporting the fence is approved by the Department, in which case the fence height shall not exceed 10 feet. That single sentence does two things: it sets a default 6-foot cap for any wood fence close to a street or building, and it opens a path past that cap, up to 10 feet, but only if the property owner gets the Department to sign off on the support method first.

Outside that proximity trigger, the zoning side of the code, § 43-41D, still governs where and how tall a fence can be built without a separate freestanding permit: fences and walls must be located inside all lot lines, electrically charged, barbed-wire or sharp-material fences are banned outright, and height caps run 4 feet in a required front or street-abutting yard setback and 6 feet elsewhere, with an 8-foot allowance for 75%-open fencing in nonresidential districts. Because ordinary residential construction, including most fences, falls under the general building permit framework in Chapter 56, a wood fence that trips the § 56-96 height-and-proximity trigger effectively needs Department sign-off before it goes up, even though the code never calls it a fence permit by name.