Fence laws in Davenport, Iowa
What the Davenport municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Davenport sets no rule of its own, the Iowa rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Davenport, Iowa, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- Fences may be constructed at the boundaries of a lot without setback in Davenport, and the exceptions the section lists are all visibility triangles rather than distances from a neighbor, and the answer turns on what the line carries. The figure is 0 feet, for setback from a lot boundary.
- How tall
- Davenport sets residential front yard height by how much can be seen through, and the answer turns on the district, the setback, how open the fence is and what lies across the street. The figure is 4 feet, for solid fence in a required front or reverse corner side setback.
- Permits
- Iowa has a state building code and it does not switch on by itself.
- Pool barriers
- Chapter 135I sets the Iowa rules for swimming pools, spas and spray pads.
- Spite fences
- Davenport has no spite fence statute. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Measured from what
- Davenport measures from the adjacent ground to the highest point of the fence, with one exception: decorative posts or pillars may exceed the maximum height by nine inches. The figure is 9 inches, for height a decorative post or pillar may exceed the maximum by.
- Corner lots
- Davenport bars a fence from its visibility triangles outright rather than holding it to a low height, which is rarer than it sounds and removes the argument about whether a three foot fence blocks anything, and the answer turns on what kind of ways meet and whether the lot is residential. The figure is 30 feet, for visibility triangle at the intersection of two streets.
- Retaining walls
- Davenport 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
- Davenport writes one of the longest prohibited lists in this project and does not write a permitted one, and the answer turns on the material and whether the fence faces a street.
- 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 Davenport?
Compare fences on the property line across all 50 states
Davenport answers this, but the answer changes depending on what the line carries.
Fences may be constructed at the boundaries of a lot without setback in Davenport, and the exceptions the section lists are all visibility triangles rather than distances from a neighbor. One separate sentence does hold a fence off certain land entirely: fences are prohibited within any right-of-way, any drainage easement, and any designated floodway. Naming the floodway is unusual and matters in a Mississippi river city, because a solid fence in a floodway catches debris and diverts water. Nothing states how close a fence may come to a neighboring house or a window. One duty runs with the fence rather than the line: every fence has to be maintained in good repair and safe condition at all times, with every damaged or missing element repaired, removed or replaced, which makes a sagging panel a violation rather than an eyesore.
Fences are prohibited within any right-of-way, drainage easement, or any designated floodway.
The answer turns on what the line carries.
- an ordinary lot boundary
- No setback. 0 ft
- a right-of-way or drainage easement
- Prohibited.
- a designated floodway
- Prohibited.
- a visibility triangle
- Prohibited.
Also on fences on the property line in Davenport
- 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 Davenport?
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Davenport answers this, but the answer changes depending on the district, the setback, how open the fence is and what lies across the street.
Davenport sets residential front yard height by how much can be seen through. A solid fence in a required front or reverse corner side setback is held to four feet and an open one to six. Interior side and rear setbacks take six feet whether open or solid. Once a fence is outside every required setback, inside the buildable area, the figure rises to eight feet in every district. A special case covers the lot whose side runs along a busy road: where a lot line abuts an arterial or collector street and the lot takes no access from it, a fence in that setback may reach six feet and may be open or solid. The non-residential districts start at eight feet in a front or corner side setback and drop to four where that lot line faces a residential district or sits within fifty feet of one, so the presence of houses across the street does the work a zoning boundary does elsewhere.
Within the required front or reverse corner side setback, solid fences are limited in height to four feet and open fences are limited to a height of six feet. Chain-link fences or other similar wire materials are prohibited.
The answer turns on the district, the setback, how open the fence is and what lies across the street.
- a solid front yard fence
- Four feet. 4 ft
- an open one there
- Six feet. 6 ft
- inside the buildable area
- Eight feet. 8 ft
- a business lot facing houses
- Four feet instead of eight. 50 ft
Also on fence height in Davenport
- 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 Davenport?
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Iowa answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Iowa 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.
This one is Iowa law, not Davenport law. All Iowa findings
The state building code is applicable in each governmental subdivision of the state in which the governing body has enacted an ordinance accepting the applicability of the code and has filed a certified copy of the ordinance in the office of the commissioner.
Also on permits in Davenport
- 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
- no rule, documents checkedThe fences and walls subsection of the zoning title sets height, materials, measurement, placement and visibility and never mentions an application, a fee, an inspection or a height at which review starts. No fence permit appears in it. One sentence points sideways rather than at a permit: where a fence of a greater height is required, or a fence is required to be solid, by any other section of this ordinance or any other city ordinance, then that fence is required, which makes the fence rules a floor that other parts of the code can raise. The Davenport municipal code carries a separate fences chapter at 9.28, outside the zoning title, and that chapter was not read for this page, so whether a fence permit lives there is not recorded here. This is silence in the zoning title rather than a finding that Davenport requires nothing. Section 17.09.030.H.1Davenport · Zoning code
Pool fence requirements in Davenport
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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 Davenport law. All Iowa findings
This chapter does not apply to facilities intended for single family use
Also on pool barriers in Davenport
- 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 Davenport
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Davenport 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 Davenport 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 Davenport
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Davenport answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Davenport measures from the adjacent ground to the highest point of the fence, with one exception: decorative posts or pillars may exceed the maximum height by nine inches. Taking the highest point rather than the top rail means a pointed picket, a lattice topper or a cap counts against the limit, and nine inches is a narrow allowance compared with the foot or more some cities give a gate. What the rule leaves unsaid is which adjacent ground. On a slope between two lots there are two adjacent grades and the section does not choose, where Cedar Rapids ninety miles west picks the lower one in so many words. A berm is not addressed and a fence built on a retaining wall is not addressed. The other measurements in the section are horizontal and precise: the visibility triangles are measured along the back of curb or the edge of roadway pavement, as applicable, or along the driveway edge.
Fence height is measured from the adjacent ground to the highest point except that decorative posts/pillars of a fence may exceed the maximum height by nine inches.
9 inheight a decorative post or pillar may exceed the maximum by
Also on how height is measured in Davenport
- set in state lawIowa 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. Iowa Code 359A.18Iowa · Statute
Fence rules for corner lots in Davenport
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Davenport answers this, but the answer changes depending on what kind of ways meet and whether the lot is residential.
Davenport bars a fence from its visibility triangles outright rather than holding it to a low height, which is rarer than it sounds and removes the argument about whether a three foot fence blocks anything. A thirty foot triangle applies where two streets meet, measured along the back of curb or the edge of roadway pavement rather than from a property line. Where a street meets an alley or a private driveway, a residential lot gets ten feet and a non-residential lot gets thirty, so the same corner is treated differently depending on what is being driven out of it. Where two alleys meet, every district gets ten feet measured along the edge of the alley pavement. Because the rule is a prohibition rather than a ceiling, a Davenport corner triangle holds no fence of any height, and the section states no protected band above which something becomes acceptable again.
Fences are prohibited within a thirty-foot visibility triangle at the intersection of two streets as measured along the back of curb or edge of roadway pavement, as applicable.
The answer turns on what kind of ways meet and whether the lot is residential.
- two streets
- Thirty feet, no fence. 30 ft
- a street and an alley at a house
- Ten feet. 10 ft
- the same corner at a business
- Thirty feet.
- two alleys
- Ten feet.
Also on corner visibility in Davenport
- 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 Davenport
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Davenport 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 Davenport 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 Davenport
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Davenport answers this, but the answer changes depending on the material and whether the fence faces a street.
Davenport writes one of the longest prohibited lists in this project and does not write a permitted one. Out everywhere: scrap metal, corrugated metal, sheet metal, electrical or electrically charged fencing unless part of a livestock enclosure, razor wire, pallets, oriented strand board, plywood, and any used or repurposed material. A separate sentence bars barbed wire, spikes, nails or any kind of pointed instrument on any railing, fence, guard or barrier unless the city code specifically allows it, which catches the improvised deterrent as well as the manufactured one. Chain link and similar wire materials are then prohibited by name in two places that face a street: the required front or reverse corner side setback of a residential or small commercial lot, and the setback along an arterial or collector where the lot takes no access from that road. Where only one side of a fence is finished, that side faces away from the lot.
The following materials are prohibited in the construction of fences: i. Scrap metal. ii. Corrugated metal. iii. Sheet metal. iv. Electrical fences or any kind of electrically charged fences, unless used as part of livestock enclosures. v. Razor wire. vi. Pallets. vii. Oriented strand board (OSB). viii. Plywood. ix. Used or repurposed material.
The answer turns on the material and whether the fence faces a street.
- scrap, sheet metal, plywood or OSB
- Prohibited everywhere.
- barbed wire, spikes or nails
- Not on any fence, rail or barrier.
- chain link facing a street
- Prohibited.
- a one-sided fence
- The finished side faces out.
Also on materials in Davenport
- 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 Davenport
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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 Davenport 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 Davenport
- 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
16 documents, of which 1 was published by Davenport 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 DavenportDavenport Municipal Code, Title 17, Zoning, Chapter 17.09, Site Development Standards, Section 17.09.030, Accessory structures and uses
- 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
- 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 Davenport 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