Island County, WA Fence Regulations: Retaining Walls (2026)

Island County's Freeland Sub-Area Plan regulates block frontages along Freeland's streets through Table 17.06.430.F, which sets out standard yard treatments, including the "Terraced Yard" type. A terraced yard is a raised lawn or garden separated from the public sidewalk by a retaining wall, and Table 17.06.430.F(3) caps the terrace itself at zero to thirty-six inches high, with a minimum ten-foot depth or whatever depth the applicable zoning district requires. Multiple terraces can stack, as long as each is separated by a two-foot planting bed.

The design standard gives the Planning Director some flexibility on sloping lots: where the frontage is not flat, the director may allow the retaining wall's height to vary from the standard dimension. That flexibility stops, though, at engineering. The code states plainly that retaining walls over 36 inches require engineering, meaning any wall taller than three feet must be designed by a licensed engineer before the county will approve it, regardless of any slope-based height adjustment. This sits alongside the separate facade-transparency and weather-protection requirements that apply to every terraced yard fronting a sidewalk in the Freeland Business Village, Business General, Non-Residential Mixed-Use, and Light Industrial districts.

This engineering trigger is specific to Freeland's block-frontage design standards; elsewhere in unincorporated Island County, retaining walls are addressed differently, including as a Level A or Level C certificate-of-appropriateness item inside the Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve and as a shoreline stabilization method reviewed under the county's Shoreline Master Program.