Franklin County, NC Fence Regulations: Retaining Walls (2026)

Franklin County's Unified Development Code does not contain a stand-alone retaining wall ordinance; outside of a mapped floodway, wall height and materials are addressed only by the general fence and wall standards of § 6.7.1, which cap a fence or wall at 6 feet on a side or rear lot line. The one place the code speaks directly to retaining walls is § 9.2.5(B)(10)(b), inside the Flood Damage Prevention article, which singles out retaining walls, sidewalks, and driveways that involve the placement of fill within a regulated floodway or non-encroachment area (NEA) and requires them to meet the same limitations that govern any other encroachment in that area.

Those limitations, set out in § 9.2.5(E), bar any encroachment, including fill, unless the applicant demonstrates through hydrologic and hydraulic analysis, submitted to the Floodplain Administrator before a floodplain development permit issues, that the retaining wall will not increase flood levels during the base flood discharge, or unless FEMA has approved a Conditional Letter of Map Revision, with a final Letter of Map Revision required within 6 months of completing the work. Because the retaining wall provision folds into the same clause as fences and road crossings, a homeowner or contractor building a retaining wall along a creek bank or drainage channel in the unincorporated county needs a no-rise certification from a registered professional engineer, not just a standard building permit, before adding fill behind the wall inside a mapped floodway.