Okaloosa County, FL Fence Regulations: Retaining Walls (2026)

LDC § 6.06.106, part of the county's stormwater and drainage design standards, states that 'bulkhead and/or retaining walls shall be designed by the appropriate professional engineer,' the same subsection that requires bridges to follow FDOT Standards and Specifications, FDOT Structures Design Guidelines and AASHTO's bridge specifications. A retaining wall is treated as engineered infrastructure alongside cross drains, storm drains and side drains, not as an ordinary accessory structure a homeowner can build without professional sign-off.

Where a retaining wall sits inside a regulated floodway, LDC § 3.06.16(C) adds a second layer: any retaining wall, sidewalk or driveway that involves placing fill in that floodway must meet the floodway encroachment limits of § 3.06.12(D), which bars authorizing fill or land-disturbing work in a regulated floodway unless an engineering analysis shows it will not raise the base flood elevation at all.

Retaining walls seaward of the coastal construction control line, in a coastal high hazard area (Zone V) or Coastal A Zone, face a third layer under § 3.06.16(G)(1): bulkheads, seawalls, retaining walls and similar erosion-control structures there are permitted only if authorized by the appropriate federal, state or local authority, kept outside the footprint of and not structurally attached to any building, and backed by an analysis from a qualified registered design professional showing no harmful diversion of floodwaters or increase in wave runup that would damage adjacent property. A retaining wall built on Okaloosa Island or along the Destin/Moreno Point coastline is far more likely to trigger this coastal-zone review than one built inland, given how much of the county's Gulf frontage sits within those hazard zones.