Yonkers, NY Fence Regulations: Retaining Walls (2026)

Section 43-41D of the Zoning Ordinance, in Article VI, Supplementary Use and Dimensional Regulations, groups retaining walls with fences and walls generally. Every fence or wall, retaining walls included, must sit entirely inside the lot lines under § 43-41D(1), and electrically charged fences, barbed wire and other sharp-material fences are barred outright under § 43-41D(2). The height limits in § 43-41D(3)(a) apply to structures within required yard setbacks and courts: four feet maximum in a required front yard setback or any other required yard setback abutting a street, and six feet maximum in any other required yard setback.

Nonresidential districts get one exception: a fence of at least 75% open construction can reach eight feet. For safety, the Commissioner of the Department of Housing and Buildings can require a retaining wall to carry a motor vehicle bumper guard or an at-least-75%-open fence on top, and that safety addition may exceed the base height limits by up to four feet, so a six-foot retaining wall could carry a guard rail up to ten feet total where the Commissioner finds it necessary. Corner-lot visibility rules also apply: under § 43-41D(3)(c), no fence, wall or other structure over four feet tall may stand inside the sight-triangle formed by two points 75 feet from a street intersection along each center line.

On steep-slope development sites specifically, a separate provision, § 43-105B(1)(p), caps engineered retaining walls at six feet within setbacks, four feet in a front-yard setback, and ten feet elsewhere without a six-foot stepback between stacked walls, a stricter site-plan-specific rule layered on top of this base fence standard for hillside construction.