Tallahassee, FL Fence Regulations: Retaining Walls (2026)

Section 5-87 sets the city's site grading standards, and item (3) addresses retaining walls directly: the height of all retaining walls, excluding stem walls built as part of a building's foundation, cannot exceed 15 feet, though multiple walls may be stacked for terracing. Any retaining wall two feet or greater in height requires a building permit under the Florida Building Code. Where walls are terraced, the horizontal distance between them must be at least twice the height of the higher, abutting wall, a spacing rule meant to keep stacked walls from functioning as a single oversized wall in disguise.

The related stormwater facility design standard in Sec. 5-86(f)(3) and (5) adds that any retaining wall used as part of a stormwater pond's side slope must be surrounded by a four-foot-tall green, brown or black vinyl-coated fence unless the wall itself already rises at least four feet above the ground on the high side, and that retaining walls, like other major structural components, must be built to a minimum 50-year design life. Section 5-87(1) frames the broader grading intent behind these limits: alterations to natural topography are supposed to be held to the minimum necessary to develop a site safely, and slopes of ten percent or greater near wetlands, waterbodies or floodplains generally must stay undisturbed rather than be cut and retained.