Ogden, UT Fence Regulations: Retaining Walls (2026)

Ogden City Code Chapter 27 creates the Sensitive Area Overlay Zone (SA), layering extra grading and retaining wall standards onto property identified by steep slope, unstable soil, or other hazard conditions, reviewed by the Community and Economic Development Department and the planning commission. E, Grading, Cuts And Fill, caps the vertical height of any cut or fill at ten feet, allowing fills for slumps or other natural depressions to exceed that limit only with planning commission approval. Where an excavation or fill runs up to ten vertical feet, the top and bottom edges of the resulting slope must sit at least three horizontal feet from the property line or public right-of-way.

The ordinance then addresses retaining walls directly: every structure built near the edge of a cut or fill must set back from the crest of the fill or the base of the cut by a distance equal to the depth of the fill or the height of the cut, unless the applicant instead builds a structurally sound retaining wall to hold the slope, in which case that setback requirement drops away. The code allows the retaining wall itself to be built as part of the dwelling unit rather than as a freestanding structure.

Because this setback trade-off ties directly to slope stability, retaining wall design for grading, cut and fill projects within the SA overlay is reviewed alongside the building code's fill-compaction standards adopted under Title 16, Chapter 2. These standards apply only to land mapped within the Sensitive Area Overlay Zone; retaining walls elsewhere in the city go through the standard building permit process rather than this chapter.