Fence Regulations in Indiana (2026)

Allen County requires a permit, a site plan, and compliance with height, setback, and corner-visibility standards…

Anderson's Zoning Guide allows fences, latticework screens, hedges, or walls up to seven feet high in a required side…

Beyond height, Carmel UDO Section 5.09 requires a permit, at least 25% openness for residential front-yard fences…

A privacy fence in unincorporated Clark County is capped at eight feet under the code's definition, cannot block a…

Evansville caps fence height by yard type: 3 feet on a corner lot's front yards, 4 feet on other front yards, 6 feet on…

Fishers regulates fence height by location under Unified Development Ordinance Sec. 6.18.2. A fence in a required…

Indianapolis caps structural barriers (fences, walls, hedges) at 6 feet in height in residential dwelling districts…

Unincorporated Lake County fences must stay out of street rights-of-way and off corner-lot visibility triangles. On…

LaPorte County caps fences separating properties at six feet, six inches from natural ground level under § 151.42(A)…

Porter County's residential fence rule, UDO Section 5.16 (FW-02), caps front-yard fences and walls at 3 feet and side…

Residential fence height in St. Joseph County depends on location and openness: 36 or 48 inches in front yards, six…

Tippecanoe County's Unified Zoning Ordinance caps fences and hedges at 42 inches with no setback restriction anywhere…

County zoning caps fences, walls, and hedges within required yard setbacks at three feet on front yards of corner lots…

A fence permit (DPS Administrative FEN application) is required in unincorporated Allen County. The fee is $50…

Anderson requires an Improvement Location Permit (ILP) before any structure, including a fence, is placed or erected…

Carmel UDO Section 5.09(A) requires an Improvement Location Permit before installing any new fence, except for exempted…

Evansville requires an improvement location permit from the Area Plan Commission before erecting a fence, with the…

Indianapolis regulates fences through the Dwelling Districts Zoning Ordinance rather than a standalone fence permit; a…

In unincorporated Lake County, erecting a fence is exempt from site plan review, but fences must still comply with UDO…

Porter County requires an approved Improvement Location Permit (Fence) before erecting a residential fence or wall…

Vanderburgh County requires an Improvement Location Permit before any structure, including a fence, is erected in the…

St. Joseph County exempts farm fences from its improvement location permit process entirely, so long as the fence still…

Fishers does NOT require a building permit to build a fence or wall. UDO Sec. 6.18.1 states plainly that walls and…

Hendricks County's Building Code subchapter explicitly excludes fences from its permit scope. Section 150.38 applies…

Indiana Code 32-26-9 governs partition fences between adjoining rural property owners, requiring shared cost and…

Allen County sets fence placement by setback and corner-visibility rules rather than a shared-cost mandate. On a corner…

On corner lots, only open fences are permitted in the yard area between the streets and the building line, and vision…

Evansville assigns boundary-fence responsibility by house number: the post-side owner must maintain the front half of…

Under Fishers UDO Sec. 6.18.2(C), a fence's non-structural side (posts and beams) must face outward toward the property…

Unincorporated Lake County does not set a private good-neighbor or 'finished side out' rule, but its UDO makes property…

In unincorporated Allen County, a retaining wall up to 3 feet in height above adjoining grade may sit in the required…

Anderson's Zoning Guide lists retaining walls as an accessory use permitted in any required front, side, or rear yard…

Carmel's UDO lists retaining walls as an accessory use permitted in any required front, side, or rear yard (Section…

Evansville limits retaining-wall fences around junk or coal yards to 6 feet, or 9 feet with neighbor consent, under…

Fishers' UDO sets no separate height table for retaining walls, but carves them out of the waterway rule: a retaining…

Indianapolis requires retaining walls over six feet tall to be terraced in landscaped tiers, capped at three tiers, to…

The Lake County UDO treats walls like fences for height and location, but requires walls to be opaque and built of…

Porter County requires an Improvement Location Permit before building any residential fence or wall, but a landscape or…

Vanderburgh County requires any retaining wall six feet or taller to be designed by an Indiana-licensed engineer or…

Indianapolis prohibits barbed wire, razor wire, and similarly dangerous wire as part of a structural barrier in…

Barbed wire, electric, and razor wire fencing are locked out of residential yards across unincorporated St. Joseph…

Evansville bans barbed wire and razor wire on street-facing and shared boundary fences, allowing them only on tall…

Vanderburgh County bars barbed wire, razor wire and electrically charged fences on ordinary residential property…

Allen County allows fences built of customarily used materials: chain link, split rail, split rail with welded wire…

In side and rear yards, Anderson permits fences, latticework screens, hedges, or walls up to seven feet without…

Fishers' UDO does not publish an approved-materials list for fences, so common materials, wood, vinyl, aluminum…

Where the Lake County UDO requires a fence for screening, it must be opaque and made of commonly used fencing material…

Porter County's residential fence standard, UDO Section 5.16 (FW-02), bans barbed wire, razor wire, security wire…

Clark County's zoning definitions limit what a privacy fence can be built from: Section 156.05 allows wood, painted…

Carmel's UDO does not mandate a single fence material, but it shapes choices by context: residential front-yard fences…