Fence laws in Hollywood, Florida
What the Hollywood municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Hollywood sets no rule of its own, the Florida rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Hollywood, Florida, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- Hollywood has no statute splitting the cost of a fence on the boundary. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- How tall
- Four feet in a Hollywood residential front yard, six in a side or rear yard, and eight along a rear or interior side yard that runs against non-residentially zoned property, and the answer turns on the zone, the yard, and what the lot line runs against. The figure is 4 feet, for fence or wall in a residential front yard.
- Permits
- Florida runs one building code for the whole state and makes a permit the default for building work.
- Pool barriers
- A Hollywood swimming pool is surrounded by a fence with a self closing and locking gate, and both the fence and the gate stand at least forty two inches high. The figure is 42 inches, for minimum height of a pool fence and its gate.
- Spite fences
- Hollywood has no spite fence statute. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Measured from what
- Hollywood measures a fence from the grade of the owner’s own property, taken one foot away from the fence rather than at its base, which smooths out a mound built right against the posts. The figure is 3 feet, for most a fence may exceed the limit when read from lower ground next door.
- Corner lots
- Hollywood draws two visibility areas, and the answer turns on whether the location is a street corner, an alley, or a driveway, and how far back the property line sits. The figure is 25 feet, for corner setback area along each property line at a street.
- Retaining walls
- Florida statute names a wall that holds back earth in one place, and it is about how many permits a town can charge for. It reaches a house, a duplex or a townhouse only.
- Materials
- A Hollywood wood fence keeps its posts, rails and supports on the inside, and any part of the outside facing away from the property has to carry a finished surface. The figure is 2 feet, for height an ornamental fixture may add above the fence.
- Livestock
- Florida sets a legal fence at three feet high, made of barbed or other soft wire, with at least three strands pulled tight on posts, trees or other supports no more than twenty feet apart. The figure is 3 feet, for height of a legal fence.
Who owns the fence between two properties in Hollywood?
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Hollywood law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
Florida has no law about splitting the cost of a fence on a boundary. Chapter 588 is about legal fences and livestock, and every section in it deals with fence strength, posted land and impounding animals. Chapter 704, which covers easements and rights of entry, says nothing about a boundary fence either. In Florida the split is whatever the two neighbors agree to.
This one is Florida law, not Hollywood law. All Florida findings
Documents read before writing that:
- Fla. Stat. ch. 588The Florida Senate
- Fla. Stat. ch. 704The Florida Senate
How tall can a fence be in Hollywood?
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Hollywood answers this, but the answer changes depending on the zone, the yard, and what the lot line runs against.
Four feet in a Hollywood residential front yard, six in a side or rear yard, and eight along a rear or interior side yard that runs against non-residentially zoned property. A non-residential zone gets eight feet in every yard, front included. Bushes and hedges are treated completely differently: no height restriction at all in any yard of any zone, apart from where they fall inside the view triangle.
Rear or interior side yards adjacent to non-residentially zoned property – eight feet.
The answer turns on the zone, the yard, and what the lot line runs against.
- a residential front yard
- Four feet. 4 ft
- a residential side or rear yard
- Six feet. 6 ft
- a rear or side yard against non-residential land, or any non-residential yard
- Eight feet. 8 ft
- a bush or hedge outside the view triangle
- No height restriction.
Also on fence height in Hollywood
- no rule, documents checkedFlorida sets no statewide limit on how tall a fence at a house can be. The only height in the fence chapter is the five foot floor that makes a fence a legal fence for holding livestock, which is a minimum for farm land and not a cap for a yard. The permit statute names no height either. Height comes from city and county ordinance. Fla. Stat. ch. 588Florida · Statute
Do I need a permit for a fence in Hollywood?
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Florida answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Florida runs one building code for the whole state and makes a permit the default for building work. The statute itself says nothing about fences. It does force a local government to skip the permit for work on a single family home worth under $7,500. The fence exemption by height is in the Florida Building Code, not in the statute.
This one is Florida law, not Hollywood law. All Florida findings
it shall be unlawful for any person, firm, corporation, or governmental entity to construct, erect, alter, modify, repair, or demolish any building within this state without first obtaining a permit therefor from the appropriate enforcing agency
Pool fence requirements in Hollywood
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Hollywood answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
A Hollywood swimming pool is surrounded by a fence with a self closing and locking gate, and both the fence and the gate stand at least forty two inches high. Forty two inches is lower than the four feet most Florida cities take from the state pool safety act, and the locking requirement on the gate is stated in the zoning regulations rather than left to the building code.
Swimming pool shall be surrounded by a fence with a self-closing and locking gate all of which shall be at least 42 inches high.
42 inminimum height of a pool fence and its gate
Also on pool barriers in Hollywood
- set in state lawFlorida requires a pool barrier at least four feet high, measured on the outside. The same section bars gaps or footholds that let a small child get under, through or over it. The barrier has to ring the pool itself and has to be separate from a yard fence, unless that yard fence runs along the pool and meets the same rules. Gates swing away from the pool and latch on their own. Fla. Stat. 515.29(1)(a)Florida · Statute
Spite fence laws in Hollywood
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Hollywood law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
Florida has no spite fence law. The fence chapter sets no height that sets anything off and no rule about why a fence went up. Chapter 823, the public nuisance chapter, runs from bonfires to abandoned boats and never reaches a fence built to annoy a neighbor. A claim in Florida rests on common law nuisance instead, which is judge made rather than written by the legislature.
This one is Florida law, not Hollywood law. All Florida findings
Documents read before writing that:
- Fla. Stat. ch. 588The Florida Senate
- Fla. Stat. ch. 823The Florida Senate
How fence height is measured in Hollywood
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Hollywood answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Hollywood measures a fence from the grade of the owner’s own property, taken one foot away from the fence rather than at its base, which smooths out a mound built right against the posts. Where the land next door is lower, the code then caps how much benefit the higher owner gets: read from the neighbor’s grade at the property line, the fence may exceed the permitted height by no more than three feet.
Height shall be measured from the grade of the property upon which the fence, wall, bush or hedge is located, measured at a point one foot therefrom.
3 ftmost a fence may exceed the limit when read from lower ground next door
Also on how height is measured in Hollywood
- set in state lawFlorida answers the measuring question outright in its oldest fence section. A general fence stands at least five feet and keeps its gaps under four inches for the first two feet up from the ground. Where the fence is built with a trench beside it, those five feet run from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the fence. A bottom point and a top point, both named, which is the part most state fence rules leave out. The rule is about holding livestock. A yard fence in a Florida city is sized by local land development rules adopted under section 163.3202, and those rules carry their own way of measuring. Fla. Stat. 588.01Florida · Statute
Fence rules for corner lots in Hollywood
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Hollywood answers this, but the answer changes depending on whether the location is a street corner, an alley, or a driveway, and how far back the property line sits.
Hollywood draws two visibility areas. The corner setback area runs twenty five feet back along the property lines at a street and six feet at an alley, and inside it nothing may exceed two feet, though the City Engineer may allow four feet where that does not create a visual barrier. The view triangle sits wherever an access way meets a street and is measured from the property line: twelve feet by twelve where the line is less than twelve feet from the road, and twelve by six where it is further. Inside the view triangle the requirement is a clear band, unobstructed between thirty and seventy two inches above the ground.
All fences, walls, bushes, hedges, and any other landscaping or plant material, within the view triangle shall provide unobstructed cross visibility at a level between 30 inches and 72 inches above ground level.
The answer turns on whether the location is a street corner, an alley, or a driveway, and how far back the property line sits.
- the corner setback area at a street
- Twenty five feet back, and nothing over two feet. 25 ft
- the corner setback area at an alley
- Six feet back. 6 ft
- the view triangle where a driveway meets a street
- Clear between thirty and seventy two inches above the ground. 12 ft
Also on corner visibility in Hollywood
- set in state lawFlorida has a state rule about blocking a driver from seeing what is coming, and it is written about signs. Chapter 479 bans a sign on the inside of a curve, or placed any way that could keep road users from seeing approaching vehicles, next to a state highway or a federal aid primary road. Section 337.406 adds that using a state road right of way in a way that gets in the way of traffic is unlawful. Neither one draws a triangle on a corner lot. That is left to local land development rules. Fla. Stat. 479.11Florida · Traffic code
Retaining wall rules in Hollywood
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Florida answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Florida statute names a wall that holds back earth in one place, and it is about how many permits a town can charge for. When one wall runs across more than one lot, the local government has to issue a single permit for the whole job and cannot demand one for each lot the wall crosses. The rule is written for houses, duplexes and townhouses. It sets no height and it does not say how the wall has to be built.
This one is Florida law, not Hollywood law. All Florida findings
If a retaining wall spans more than one lot or parcel, a local government that issues building permits must issue a permit for a retaining wall for the project as a whole and may not require a building permit for each lot or parcel upon which a retaining wall is installed on the property of a single-family or two-family residential dwelling or a townhouse.
Also on retaining walls in Hollywood
- left to the townThe height at which a wall that holds back earth needs a permit is not in Florida statute. It is in the Florida Building Code, which the Florida Building Commission rewrites every three years from the newest International Building Code and International Residential Code. Once the commission adopts it, that code applies across the state with no vote by any city or county, and a local government may only make it stricter. Fla. Stat. 553.73(7)(a)Florida · Statute
Fence materials allowed in Hollywood
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Hollywood answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
A Hollywood wood fence keeps its posts, rails and supports on the inside, and any part of the outside facing away from the property has to carry a finished surface. Where the fence stands in the front yard setback, or where both sides can be seen from a street, it has to be finished on both sides. The one way out is a determination by the Zoning Administrator that the fence abuts an existing fence or construction barrier and access to the far side has been denied. Ornamental fixtures or lamps may sit two feet above the permitted height, but only where the fence faces a street, alley, golf course or waterway.
When a wood fence is located in the front yard setback or each side of a wood fence is visible from a street, then the wood fence shall be finished on both sides.
2 ftheight an ornamental fixture may add above the fence
Also on materials in Hollywood
- set in state lawFlorida describes its legal fence by the wire it uses. The fence stands at least three feet tall with three or more strands of barbed or other soft wire on supports no more than twenty feet apart. Battens let the supports stand farther apart, and an electric fence built with high tensile wire gets the widest spacing of all. Fla. Stat. 588.011Florida · Statute
Livestock and boundary fence law in Hollywood
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Florida answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Florida sets a legal fence at three feet high, made of barbed or other soft wire, with at least three strands pulled tight on posts, trees or other supports no more than twenty feet apart. With battens the supports may stand up to sixty feet apart for a plain fence and one hundred fifty feet for an electric one built with high tensile wire. Any other material that meets about the same specs counts, and gates are built to the same standard.
This one is Florida law, not Hollywood law. All Florida findings
Any fence or enclosure at least 3 feet in height made of barbed or other soft wire consisting of not less than three strands of wire stretched securely on posts, trees, or other supports, standing not more than 20 feet apart
3 ftheight of a legal fence
Also on agricultural fencing in Hollywood
- set in state lawFlorida runs one livestock law over the whole state, and holding the animals in is the owner's job. An owner who lets livestock run loose or stray onto a public road pays for all the injury and property damage that follows. Section 588.25 leaves county laws in place where they already require livestock to be penned, and fills the gap where they do not. Fla. Stat. 588.15Florida · Statute
Documents behind this page
11 documents, of which 2 were published by Hollywood itself. Each was read on the date shown.
- The Florida Senate2026 Florida Statutes, Chapter 588, Legal Fences and Livestock at Large
- The Florida Senate2026 Florida Statutes, Chapter 704, Easements
- The Florida LegislatureThe 2026 Florida Statutes, Chapter 553, Part IV, Florida Building Code
- City of HollywoodCode of Ordinances, Chapter 155 Basic Land Improvement Code, Section 155.12, Fences, walls, bushes, or hedges
- The Florida LegislatureThe 2026 Florida Statutes, Chapter 515, Residential Swimming Pool Safety Act
- City of HollywoodZoning and Land Development Regulations, Section 4.23, Supplemental Setback Regulations for Allowable Encroachments
- The Florida Senate2026 Florida Statutes, Chapter 823, Public Nuisances
- The Florida Senate2026 Florida Statutes, Chapter 479, Outdoor Advertising, Section 479.11, Specified signs prohibited
- The Florida LegislatureThe 2026 Florida Statutes, Chapter 553, Part IV, Florida Building Code
- The Florida LegislatureThe 2026 Florida Statutes, Chapter 553, Part IV, Florida Building Code
- Florida LegislatureThe 2025 Florida Statutes, Title XLV, Chapter 588, Legal Fences and Livestock at Large
What this page does not cover
A city ordinance is not the only rule that reaches a fence. The zoning district a parcel sits in can change the height allowed on it, and so can an overlay district, a recorded easement, a fire hazard severity zone or a coastal zone. A homeowner association can be stricter than the city and nothing in the municipal code will say so. None of those appear here.
The rules above are the ones Hollywood publishes, plus the Florida rules that apply where the city sets none. Fence laws in Florida has the state layer in full.
This is general information drawn from published government documents. It is not legal advice, ordinances are amended, and the date beside each finding is the date the document was read. How findings are made · What the terms mean