De Pere, WI Fence Regulations: Retaining Walls (2026)

Section 14-92(10) of the zoning ordinance's Building and Site Design article addresses how buildings must handle ground-story facades along sloping streets, and it is where the city's specific retaining-wall height limit lives. For nonstorefront facades along a sloping street, subsection (a)(3) states that a knee wall or retaining wall may not exceed 30 inches in height, except along a maximum 15-foot section of facade length where a taller wall is allowed to accommodate the grade change. The companion rule for non-storefront building types in subsection (b)(3) repeats the same 30-inch cap with the same 15-foot exception, describing it as part of how terraced planters and retaining walls absorb changes in grade next to the sidewalk.

These provisions sit inside the broader ground-story design package, which also requires the interior floor level to step to match exterior grade within a 3-foot range and can require additional building entrances when the grade change along a block face exceeds 9 feet. Because this height cap is written into the ground-story design standards for sloped-street facades rather than as a general citywide fence-and-wall chapter, it governs the retaining and knee walls that face the public street on qualifying buildings, not every retaining wall built anywhere on a lot.

The development services director administers and enforces Article IX, with the same municipal-citation remedy under city code § 1-11 that applies to other zoning violations.