Provo, UT Fence Regulations: Retaining Walls (2026)

Provo City Code 14.33A.100(5) governs retaining walls used to reduce the steepness of human-made slopes in the Critical Hillside (CH) Overlay Zone, which applies where development disturbs slopes and cannot simply recontour them to natural grade. Terracing between walls is capped at three (3) walls, each with a maximum vertical height of eight (8) feet, and each terrace must be at least as wide as the wall below it is tall (a minimum one-to-one width-to-height ratio), measured from the back of the lower wall to the face of the upper wall (14.33A.100(5)(b)). Every terrace created between the walls must be permanently landscaped or revegetated, not left as bare cut slope (14.33A.100(5)(a)).

Materials are dictated too: retaining walls must be faced with stone or earth-colored materials that match the surrounding natural landscape, not exposed poured concrete or block (14.33A.100(5)(c)). A developer who wants more than three terrace walls, or a taller vertical height than eight feet, needs the Development Services Director's approval, and that approval requires documentation stamped by a Utah-licensed engineer demonstrating the property would otherwise be inaccessible for development (14.33A.100(5)(b)(i)). Fully vertical walls (no terracing) are allowed only if the City Engineer approves plans stamped by a Utah-licensed engineer or landscape architect showing an environmental, aesthetic, or safety reason to skip terracing, and the vertical wall must still use earth-colored materials (14.33A.100(5)(d)). All standard building code requirements and permits still apply on top of these standards (14.33A.100(5)(e)). Outside the CH Overlay, Provo's general fencing rule at 14.34.500(1)(g) separately allows a fence to be built atop a retaining wall dividing two lots at the same height that would be allowed at that spot without the wall.