Fence laws in Ankeny, Iowa
What the Ankeny municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Ankeny sets no rule of its own, the Iowa rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Ankeny, Iowa, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- Ankeny sets no distance between a fence and a neighboring lot and spends its whole location rule on the through lot, the one whose back yard faces a street, and the answer turns on the shape of the lot, the height of the fence and whether a buffer was platted. The figure is 0 feet, for setback stated from an interior property line.
- How tall
- Ankeny sets its front yard limit by material and gives chain link the higher figure, which is the reverse of almost every other code in this project, and the answer turns on the material, the yard, the district and what the site plan shows. The figure is 48 inches, for chain link fence in a residential front yard.
- Permits
- Ankeny opens its fence section with the permit rather than the height.
- Pool barriers
- Chapter 135I sets the Iowa rules for swimming pools, spas and spray pads.
- Spite fences
- Ankeny has no spite fence statute. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Measured from what
- Iowa names the ground, for the one kind of fence it regulates. The figure is 20 inches, for bottom rail, wire or board of a lawful fence, measured from the ground. It reaches a lawful fence under the partition fence law only.
- Corner lots
- Ankeny protects a band from thirty inches to ten feet inside a triangle of thirty feet formed by intersecting street right-of-way lines on a corner lot, and twenty feet on an interior lot where a driveway edge meets a street line, and the answer turns on the kind of lot and whether the owner uses the SUDAS alternative. The figure is 30 feet, for triangle formed by intersecting street right-of-way lines.
- Retaining walls
- Ankeny leaves retaining walls to the 2024 International Residential Code. It reaches houses, duplexes and townhouses up to three stories, and the structures beside them only.
- Materials
- Chain link is the only material Ankeny names, and it names it to give it an advantage, and the answer turns on whether the fence is chain link and where it stands. The figure is 50 percent, for most of the imaginary plane a front yard planting may block.
- Livestock
- Iowa names six builds that count as a lawful fence. The figure is 10 feet, for post spacing for a three rail lawful fence.
Who owns the fence between two properties in Ankeny?
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Ankeny answers this, but the answer changes depending on the shape of the lot, the height of the fence and whether a buffer was platted.
Ankeny sets no distance between a fence and a neighboring lot and spends its whole location rule on the through lot, the one whose back yard faces a street. A fence in the designated rear yard of a through lot has to sit no closer to the street right-of-way than the far edge of the landscape or open space buffer or easement. Where no such buffer or easement exists, a fence of six feet or less needs no setback at all from the right-of-way, and a fence taller than six feet needs five feet. That makes the buffer, where one was platted, the thing that positions the fence, and the height the thing that positions it where none was. On a corner lot a fence above the material thresholds has to keep the setback the principal building keeps, which is a setback defined by the house rather than by a number.
Residential fences taller than six feet in the designated rear yard of a through lot with no landscape or open space buffer or easement shall have a minimum setback of five feet from the property line.
The answer turns on the shape of the lot, the height of the fence and whether a buffer was platted.
- an ordinary neighbor line
- No distance stated. 0 ft
- a through lot with a buffer
- Behind the far edge of the buffer.
- a through lot without one
- Nothing under six feet, five feet above. 5 ft
- a tall corner lot fence
- The building setback applies.
Also on fences on the property line in Ankeny
- set in state lawIowa treats a fence on a boundary as a shared job. When one owner asks in writing, the law makes each owner of the touching land build and keep up the partition fence, or pay a share toward it. The duty runs the whole year, not part of it. Iowa Code 359A.1AIowa · Statute
- set in state lawIowa hands boundary fence fights to local officials called fence viewers. The township trustees for the place where the argument starts are the fence viewers, and they can hear and settle every question in the dispute. Iowa Code 359A.2AIowa · Statute
- set in state lawThe fence viewers give everyone in the dispute five days of written notice before a hearing. The notice gives the time and place and lists what will be decided. It also names the fence viewers and says whether any of them reported a conflict of interest. Iowa Code 359A.3Iowa · Statute
- set in state lawAfter the hearing the fence viewers write an order. It gives each owner the part of the fence to build, keep up, rebuild, trim or pay for. It also sets the value of that work and the deadline to finish it or pay. Iowa Code 359A.4Iowa · Statute
- set in state lawIowa lets a fence sit right on the boundary. A person building one may lay it on the line so part of it stands on each side, and keeps the same right to take it down as if the whole fence stood on one lot. Iowa Code 359A.16Iowa · Statute
- set in state lawIowa names six kinds of fence that count as a lawful fence. One is a wire, rail or board fence with its bottom line sixteen to twenty inches off the ground and its top line between forty eight and fifty four inches high. Fence viewers may also accept any other fence they judge equal to the six. Iowa Code 359A.18Iowa · Statute
How tall can a fence be in Ankeny?
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Ankeny answers this, but the answer changes depending on the material, the yard, the district and what the site plan shows.
Ankeny sets its front yard limit by material and gives chain link the higher figure, which is the reverse of almost every other code in this project. A front yard fence may be forty eight inches if it is chain link and forty two inches for every other material, and on a corner lot anything above those figures has to meet the setback the principal building keeps. Both a front yard and a side yard adjacent to a street count as front yards for this rule. Behind the house an opaque or solid fence stops at six feet, and may run to eight if the part above six feet is built with seventy percent of its surface area open. Commercial and industrial land takes eight feet at the side and rear, and the height of a fence facing a street there is whatever the approved site plan shows. An agricultural use may have a fence of any height.
Front and side yards adjacent to a street in residential zone districts shall be considered front yards and fences in front yards shall not exceed 48 inches in height if chain link and 42 inches in height for all other fence materials.
The answer turns on the material, the yard, the district and what the site plan shows.
- chain link in a front yard
- Forty eight inches. 48 in
- anything else there
- Forty two inches. 42 in
- a side or rear yard
- Six feet, eight if the top is open. 70%
- an agricultural use
- Any height.
Also on fence height in Ankeny
- no rule, documents checkedIowa sets no statewide limit on how tall a fence at a house can be. The fence chapter gives heights only as specs for a lawful farm fence, and the state building code as adopted deletes the permit sections and never mentions fences at all. Height for a yard fence comes from city ordinance. Iowa Code 359A.18Iowa · Statute
Do I need a permit for a fence in Ankeny?
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Ankeny answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Ankeny opens its fence section with the permit rather than the height. Nobody may erect, alter or relocate any fence, wall or other vision barrier without first obtaining a building permit, with the fee set by resolution of the City Council. There is no height threshold, no length threshold and no exemption for a repair, and the phrase other vision barrier widens the requirement past the ordinary meaning of a fence to anything put up to block a view. Two carve-outs appear elsewhere in the section and neither is a permit exemption in terms: an agricultural fence may be any height provided visibility at intersections is observed, and nothing in the section applies to public tennis courts, public pools, public baseball fields or other public recreational facilities open to the public, except where traffic visibility is impaired. On commercial and industrial land the height and location of a street-facing fence is whatever the approved site plan shows, so the site plan carries the decision rather than the code.
No person shall erect, alter or relocate any fence, wall, or other vision barrier without first obtaining a building permit, the fee for which shall be established by resolution of the City Council.
Also on permits in Ankeny
- set in state lawIowa has a state building code and it does not switch on by itself. It applies in a city or county only after the local governing body passes an ordinance accepting it and files a certified copy with the state commissioner. A place that adopted the code may later vote to withdraw from it. Iowa Code 103A.12Iowa · Statute
- set in state lawThe Iowa state building code adopts the 2024 International Residential Code for houses, duplexes and townhouses up to three stories, plus the structures beside them. The state version of the International Building Code covers everything else. Iowa Admin. Code 481-301.8Iowa · Building code
- set in state lawIowa strips the permit chapters out of the residential code it adopts. Sections R103 through R114 are deleted, and those are the sections that create the building department, the permit itself, and the list of work that needs no permit. The state building code text carries no fence permit rule and no fence height, so the local jurisdiction settles the permit question for a fence. The state version of the International Building Code deletes its sections 103, 104 and 105 the same way. Iowa Admin. Code 481-301.8(2)Iowa · Building code
Pool fence requirements in Ankeny
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Iowa answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Chapter 135I sets the Iowa rules for swimming pools, spas and spray pads. It reaches pools run by state and local government, by businesses and by private groups, and it names hotels, motels, camps, apartments, condominiums and country clubs. A pool meant for one family at a home falls outside the chapter.
This one is Iowa law, not Ankeny law. All Iowa findings
This chapter does not apply to facilities intended for single family use
Also on pool barriers in Ankeny
- set in state lawA pool covered by chapter 135I has to be ringed by a fence, wall, building or a mix of those, at least four feet high and built of lasting material. The rule leaves out a wading pool that is drained when not in use, and it leaves out a spray pad. Iowa Admin. Code 481-485.4(4)Iowa · Agency guidance
- set in state lawThe same Iowa rule limits the gaps in a pool barrier. No opening may let a four inch ball pass, and the barrier cannot be easy for a toddler to climb. The lowest horizontal support that can be reached from outside sits at least forty five inches above the ground. Iowa Admin. Code 481-485.4(4)Iowa · Agency guidance
Spite fence laws in Ankeny
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Ankeny law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
Iowa has no spite fence law. The fence chapter and the nuisance chapter never mention a fence built to annoy a neighbor, and neither one sets a height that turns a fence into a legal wrong. Section 657.1 gives only a general test covering anything that blocks the free use of property, and section 657.2 lists twelve named nuisances, none of them a boundary fence.
This one is Iowa law, not Ankeny law. All Iowa findings
Documents read before writing that:
- Iowa Code ch. 359AIowa Legislature
- Iowa Code 657.1Iowa Legislature
- Iowa Code 657.2Iowa Legislature
How fence height is measured in Ankeny
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Iowa answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Iowa names the ground, for the one kind of fence it regulates. Section 359A.18 lists what counts as a lawful fence, and the rail, wire or board version puts the lowest piece sixteen to twenty inches from the ground and the top piece between forty eight and fifty four inches high. The ground is the starting point and the statute prints it. This is a livestock fence rule and it never reaches a yard. A city fence height comes from the city, since section 414.1 lets a city set the height of buildings and other structures without naming a surface.
This one is Iowa law, not Ankeny law. All Iowa findings
the lowest or bottom rail, wire, or board not more than twenty nor less than sixteen inches from the ground
20 inbottom rail, wire or board of a lawful fence, measured from the ground
Also on how height is measured in Ankeny
- no rule, documents checkedAnkeny states forty two inches, forty eight inches, six feet and eight feet and never says what any of them is measured from. No grade is named, a berm is not addressed as a base for a fence, and a fence on a retaining wall is not addressed. The berm does appear, but as an obstruction rather than as ground: an earthen berm is listed alongside fences, walls, shrubbery, signs and billboards as something barred from a corner triangle. Two nearby rules do fix a vertical reference and both do it in the air rather than at the ground, protecting the band between thirty inches and ten feet at a corner, and the band between forty two inches and ten feet through an imaginary plane across the full depth of a front yard. Neither says what those heights are measured above. The one proportion the section defines is openness, at seventy percent of surface area above six feet. Section 191.14Ankeny · Zoning code
Fence rules for corner lots in Ankeny
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Ankeny answers this, but the answer changes depending on the kind of lot and whether the owner uses the SUDAS alternative.
Ankeny protects a band from thirty inches to ten feet inside a triangle of thirty feet formed by intersecting street right-of-way lines on a corner lot, and twenty feet on an interior lot where a driveway edge meets a street line. Fences, walls, shrubbery, earthen berms, signs and billboards are all named as obstructions. The second paragraph is the unusual one and gives the owner a choice of standard rather than a variance: as an alternative to the thirty and twenty foot triangles, an unobstructed area in the same height band may instead comply with the sight distance specification in Chapter 5 of the Iowa SUDAS manual, Urban Geometric Design Criteria, if the city approves. That lets an engineer show a longer or shorter clear area is right for the actual corner. The fence section points the reader at section 191.15 for these rules, twice, and 191.15 is the minimum open space requirement.
No fence, wall, shrubbery, earthen berm, sign, billboard, or other obstruction to vision shall be permitted which serves to obstruct vision between a height of 30 inches and ten feet on any corner lot within a triangle of 30 feet formed by intersecting street right-of-way lines or, in the case of interior lots, within a triangle of 20 feet formed by intersecting driveway edge and street right-of-way lines.
The answer turns on the kind of lot and whether the owner uses the SUDAS alternative.
- a corner lot
- Thirty feet. 30 ft
- a driveway on an interior lot
- Twenty feet. 20 ft
- the protected band
- Thirty inches to ten feet. 30 in
- the SUDAS alternative
- Used instead, if the city approves.
Also on corner visibility in Ankeny
- set in state lawIowa gives obstructions in a road their own chapter, and it names fences. Chapter 318 bars putting an obstruction inside a highway right of way and lists the placing of fences as one of the examples, alongside crops, ditches, billboards and debris. Section 318.6 then calls anything placed there a public nuisance. The chapter is about the public strip and carries no triangle, no angle and no height. City zoning power comes from chapter 414 and county zoning from chapter 335, and that is where a corner clearance rule on a private lot is written in Iowa. Iowa Code 318.3Iowa · Traffic code
Retaining wall rules in Ankeny
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Ankeny does not set this. It leaves it to the 2024 International Residential Code.
Iowa adopts the 2024 International Residential Code for houses, duplexes and townhouses up to three stories and the structures beside them, then lists the changes it makes. None of those changes touch a wall that holds back earth, so the model code carries that rule unchanged. Iowa does delete sections R103 through R114, which is where the model code keeps the permit chapter and the list of work that needs no permit. So the foundation and retaining wall chapter stays in force while the permit call belongs to the city or county.
This one is Iowa law, not Ankeny law. All Iowa findings
The provisions of the International Residential Code, 2024 edition, published by the International Code Council, located at www.iccsafe.org, are hereby adopted by reference as the requirements for construction
The code hands this to the 2024 International Residential Code, which is not published in the code itself.
Fence materials allowed in Ankeny
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Ankeny answers this, but the answer changes depending on whether the fence is chain link and where it stands.
Chain link is the only material Ankeny names, and it names it to give it an advantage. A front yard fence may be forty eight inches if it is chain link and forty two if it is anything else, and on a corner lot the trigger for the building setback is likewise forty eight inches for open chain link and forty two for other materials. Nothing else in the section names a material. Barbed wire is not mentioned, razor wire is not mentioned, and an electric fence is not mentioned, so none of them is permitted or forbidden by this section and the question sits outside it. Where the code does regulate substance rather than name, it does so by openness: a fence above six feet in a side or rear yard has to have seventy percent of the surface area of that upper part open, and a planting in a front yard may not impede more than half the vision through an imaginary plane.
No hedge, landscape planting or other vegetation shall be permitted in any district which impedes vision greater than fifty percent of an imaginary plane, perpendicular to the street, extending the full depth of the front yard and vertically from a height of 42 inches to ten feet.
The answer turns on whether the fence is chain link and where it stands.
- chain link
- Six inches taller than anything else in front.
- a planting in a front yard
- Half see-through from forty two inches to ten feet. 50%
- the top of a tall rear fence
- Seventy percent open.
- barbed or electric wire
- Not addressed.
Also on materials in Ankeny
- set in state lawIowa writes the barbs themselves into the law. One kind of lawful fence is three barbed wires carrying at least thirty six iron barbs of two points each, or twenty six barbs of four points each, on every rod of wire. Another is four wires, two barbed that way and two smooth. A rod is sixteen and a half feet. Iowa Code 359A.18Iowa · Statute
Livestock and boundary fence law in Ankeny
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Iowa answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Iowa names six builds that count as a lawful fence. Three rails on posts no more than ten feet apart. Three boards at least six inches wide and three quarters of an inch thick on posts no more than eight feet apart. Three barbed wires, or four wires with two of them barbed, with the top wire forty eight to fifty four inches up. A wire fence with the bottom line sixteen to twenty inches off the ground and the top line forty eight to fifty four inches up. Four coated high tensile smooth wires on posts no more than two rods apart with the top wire at least forty inches up, a rod being sixteen and a half feet. Or anything the fence viewers judge equal to those.
This one is Iowa law, not Ankeny law. All Iowa findings
A lawful fence shall consist of: 1. Three rails of good substantial material fastened in or to good substantial posts not more than ten feet apart. 2. Three boards not less than six inches wide and three-quarters of an inch thick, fastened in or to good substantial posts not more than eight feet apart.
10 ftpost spacing for a three rail lawful fence
Also on agricultural fencing in Ankeny
- set in state lawIowa makes the livestock owner pay for damage from trespassing animals, including the cost of feeding and holding them, and that stays true whether or not the landowner takes the animals in. One thing cancels it. If the animals came through a fence the landowner was supposed to keep up under the fence chapter and did not, the livestock owner owes nothing. The fence chapter hands out those duties, so fence viewers settle the fence half of the question rather than which side owns animals. Iowa Code 169C.4(1)(a)Iowa · Statute
Documents behind this page
17 documents, of which 2 were published by Ankeny itself. Each was read on the date shown.
- Iowa LegislatureIowa Code, Section 359A.1A
- Iowa LegislatureIowa Code, Section 359A.2A
- Iowa LegislatureIowa Code, Section 359A.3
- Iowa LegislatureIowa Code, Section 359A.4
- Iowa LegislatureIowa Code, Section 359A.16
- Iowa LegislatureIowa Code, Section 359A.18
- City of AnkenyAnkeny Code of Ordinances, Chapter 191, Zoning Ordinance General Regulations, Section 191.14, Fences, Walls, and Plantings
- Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals, and LicensingIowa Administrative Code, Chapter 481-301 (State Building Code)
- Iowa LegislatureIowa Code, Section 103A.12
- Iowa LegislatureIowa Code, Section 135I.2
- Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals, and LicensingIowa Administrative Code, Chapter 481-485 (Swimming Pools, Spas, and Spray Pads)
- Iowa LegislatureIowa Code, Chapter 359A (Fences)
- Iowa LegislatureIowa Code, Section 657.1
- Iowa LegislatureIowa Code, Section 657.2
- City of AnkenyAnkeny Code of Ordinances, Chapter 191, Zoning Ordinance General Regulations, Section 191.16, Visibility at Intersections
- Iowa LegislatureIowa Code 2026, Section 318.3, Obstructions in highway right-of-way
- Iowa LegislatureIowa Code, Chapter 169C, Trespassing or Stray Livestock
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 Ankeny publishes, plus the Iowa rules that apply where the city sets none. Fence laws in Iowa 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