Decatur, GA Fence Regulations: Retaining Walls (2026)

Decatur, DeKalb County, Georgia, designates historic districts under Sec. 3 of the Unified Development Ordinance, and each district carries its own design guidelines inside Sec. 2. In the Clairemont Avenue Historic District, Sec. d lists 'Construction of retaining walls' among the landscape alterations that must be submitted to the Historic Preservation Commission or its designated staff member for a determination of whether full review applies. The same section's Certificate of Exemption list, Sec. j, exempts ordinary fences and walls under 4 feet from that review, but it pointedly withholds the exemption from retaining walls of any height, so a retaining wall of 18 inches gets the same scrutiny as one of 6 feet.

The Parkwood Historic District takes a different tack under Sec. viii: ordinary new fences and walls in front of the building line are prohibited outright there, but retaining walls are named as the sole exception the Commission will allow in that front-yard space, while retaining walls behind the building line follow the standard zoning rules and skip Commission review altogether. Neither section spells out a numeric height cap or an engineering-certification threshold for the wall itself; the operative requirement is procedural, a certificate of appropriateness or certificate of exemption tied to the district's design guidelines, obtained before the City issues the building permit under Sec.

b. Property outside Decatur's designated historic districts is not reached by Sec. 2 at all; retaining walls there fall under the City's ordinary building-permit process rather than this preservation review.