Fence laws in Des Moines, Iowa
What the Des Moines municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Des Moines sets no rule of its own, the Iowa rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Des Moines, Iowa, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- A Des Moines fence may be built up to the front, side or rear property line in any zoning district, so the boundary itself carries no setback, and the answer turns on whether the lot has more than one street frontage. The figure is 0 feet, for setback from a front, side or rear property line.
- How tall
- Des Moines sets three feet in any front yard in any district, which is among the lowest in this project, and six feet in a rear, side or street-side yard everywhere except the industrial and commercial mixed districts, where the base is eight, and the answer turns on the district, the yard and how far back the fence sits. The figure is 3 feet, for fence in any front yard in any district.
- Permits
- No fence may be erected in Des Moines until the building official has approved a permit, and the two exemptions are drawn by height and material together, and the answer turns on the height of the fence, its material and which yard it is in. The figure is 4 feet, for height below which a chain link fence outside the front yard is exempt.
- Pool barriers
- Chapter 135I sets the Iowa rules for swimming pools, spas and spray pads.
- Spite fences
- Des Moines 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
- Des Moines leaves corner clearance to the City of Des Moines city engineer. The figure is 3 feet, for front yard fence height, which governs a corner lot in the absence of a stated triangle.
- Retaining walls
- Des Moines 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
- Des Moines bans a family of wire and then regulates chain link by where it is seen, and the answer turns on the district, the yard and what the fence encloses.
- 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 Des Moines?
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Des Moines answers this, but the answer changes depending on whether the lot has more than one street frontage.
A Des Moines fence may be built up to the front, side or rear property line in any zoning district, so the boundary itself carries no setback. The complication is lot shape. On a lot with more than one street frontage, every side yard and every rear yard is treated as a front yard for these rules, which pulls the whole lot down to the three foot front yard limit, unless the development services director finds that a taller fence is in character with the neighborhood through a Type 1 design alternative review. That makes a corner lot in Des Moines a discretionary case rather than a table lookup. Two other placement rules apply everywhere: the good, decorative or finished side faces outward, and it is unlawful to place a post, rail, fence or wire on any street, sidewalk or public right-of-way except as the section allows or under a lease or license the city grants.
On lots with multiple street frontages, any side yard shall be considered a front yard for purposes of this section 135-7.11.2 unless the development services director determines that a fence is in character with the neighborhood as part of a Type 1 design alternative review.
The answer turns on whether the lot has more than one street frontage.
- an ordinary lot
- Up to the line. 0 ft
- a lot facing two streets
- Every yard counts as a front yard.
- the director finding it in character
- The side or rear rules come back.
- the public right-of-way
- Unlawful without a lease or license.
Also on fences on the property line in Des Moines
- 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 Des Moines?
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Des Moines answers this, but the answer changes depending on the district, the yard and how far back the fence sits.
Des Moines sets three feet in any front yard in any district, which is among the lowest in this project, and six feet in a rear, side or street-side yard everywhere except the industrial and commercial mixed districts, where the base is eight. The industrial districts then carry a trade almost nobody else writes down: the allowed height rises by one foot for every two feet the fence is set back from the adjoining property line, to a ceiling of fifteen feet, provided it is built of flat or raised seam metal panels, treated wood or another durable material the development services director approves, and kept in good condition in a uniform earth tone. Two exceptions cut the other way in the neighborhood districts. Where an interior side yard is less than five feet wide the fence drops to four feet beside the house, and where a neighborhood lot backs onto a mixed use, commercial, employment or industrial district it rises to eight.
Front Yards. No fence more than three feet high shall be constructed in any front yard in any district except fencing required for buffers pursuant to section 135-7.7 of this article.
The answer turns on the district, the yard and how far back the fence sits.
- any front yard
- Three feet. 3 ft
- a side, street-side or rear yard
- Six feet. 6 ft
- a narrow side yard
- Four feet beside the house. 4 ft
- an industrial fence set back
- A foot for every two, up to fifteen. 15 ft
Also on fence height in Des Moines
- 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 Des Moines?
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Des Moines answers this, but the answer changes depending on the height of the fence, its material and which yard it is in.
No fence may be erected in Des Moines until the building official has approved a permit, and the two exemptions are drawn by height and material together. A chain link or wire fence four feet or less is exempt provided it sits outside the front yard. Every other kind of fence is exempt at three feet or less. That means a four foot wooden fence needs a permit and a four foot chain link one in a back yard does not, which is the reverse of how most codes treat the two materials and follows from the city treating chain link as the plain utilitarian option rather than the objectionable one. Above the permit sits a second route: a Type 1 design alternative under section 135-9.2 may be approved for fence and wall requirements generally, and the development services director uses the same instrument to decide whether a tall fence on a lot with two street frontages is in character with the neighborhood.
Permit Required. No fence shall be erected until a permit has been approved from the building official, except the following: 1. Chain link and wire fences four feet or less in height located outside the front yard. 2. All other fences three feet or less in height.
The answer turns on the height of the fence, its material and which yard it is in.
- most fences
- A permit from the building official.
- chain link under four feet out back
- No permit. 4 ft
- anything else under three feet
- No permit. 3 ft
- a fence that breaks a rule
- A Type 1 design alternative.
Also on permits in Des Moines
- 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 Des Moines
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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 Des Moines law. All Iowa findings
This chapter does not apply to facilities intended for single family use
Also on pool barriers in Des Moines
- 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 Des Moines
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Des Moines 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 Des Moines 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 Des Moines
Compare how height is measured across all 50 states
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 Des Moines 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 Des Moines
- no rule, documents checkedThe fence section states three feet, four feet, six feet, eight feet and fifteen feet and never says what any of them is measured from. No grade is named, a berm is not addressed, and a fence built on a retaining wall is not addressed, which is a real gap in a city built on river bluffs. What the same article does measure with care is trees, giving a full rule for caliper: measured six inches above the trunk or root flare up to four inches, and at twelve inches above the flare once the trunk is thicker than that, with a tree sized by height measured from the root flare to the tip of the foliage. The one horizontal measurement in the fence rules is the industrial trade, where the allowed height rises by a foot for every two feet the fence is set back from the adjoining property line, and even there the starting elevation is not named. Section 135-7.11.3Des Moines · Zoning code
Fence rules for corner lots in Des Moines
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Des Moines does not set this. It leaves it to the City of Des Moines city engineer.
Des Moines states the duty in one sentence and keeps none of the geometry and none of the height. Any fence or wall has to conform to the vision clearance triangle and clear zone requirements of the city engineer, and that is the whole of it. The ordinance gives no leg length, no protected band of heights, no table of speeds and no cross reference to another section of the code that holds them, so an owner reading the fence rules cannot learn how far back from the corner the restriction starts or how low the fence has to be. The same delegation appears a second time at the head of the article, where all design has to meet the vision clearance triangle and clear zone requirements of the city engineer. What the fence rules do supply near a street is the three foot front yard limit, which does at a corner lot what a triangle does elsewhere, and on a lot with two frontages that limit reaches every yard.
Sight Clearance at Intersections. Any fence or wall shall conform to the vision clearance triangle and clear zone requirements of the city engineer.
3 ftfront yard fence height, which governs a corner lot in the absence of a stated triangle
The code hands this to the City of Des Moines city engineer, which is not published in the code itself.
Also on corner visibility in Des Moines
- 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 Des Moines
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Des Moines 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 Des Moines 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 Des Moines
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Des Moines answers this, but the answer changes depending on the district, the yard and what the fence encloses.
Des Moines bans a family of wire and then regulates chain link by where it is seen. Barbed wire, concertina wire, razor wire or ribbon and anything similar may not be used except in the industrial districts, to confine agricultural animals lawfully kept under the animals chapter, or under a Type 1 design alternative for a special circumstance such as an airport or a public utility. Chain link and wire fencing are prohibited in any front yard in any district, with one exception for sports fields and playgrounds in the parks district, and chain link used in a neighborhood district built as a large-scale development has to be clad in black vinyl. No solid fence is allowed in a front yard in the neighborhood and neighborhood mixed districts or on any property used for residential purposes. An electric fence is allowed only where it uses a controller certified by a nationally recognized testing laboratory, is installed as the manufacturer directs, and is confining lawfully kept agricultural animals.
No fence shall be constructed of barbed wire, concertina wire, razor wire or ribbon, or any other similar type of wire, except in the I districts or for the confinement of agricultural animals lawfully kept in conformance with chapter 18 of this code or with a Type 1 design alternative for special circumstances such as an airport or public utilities.
The answer turns on the district, the yard and what the fence encloses.
- barbed or razor wire
- Industrial land or farm animals only.
- chain link in a front yard
- Prohibited.
- chain link in a large development
- Black vinyl clad.
- a solid fence in a house front yard
- Not allowed.
Also on materials in Des Moines
- 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 Des Moines
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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 Des Moines 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 Des Moines
- 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 Des Moines 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 Des MoinesDes Moines Planning and Design Ordinance, Chapter 135, Article 7, Landscape and Streetscape, Section 135-7.11, Fence and Wall Requirements, effective May 23, 2025
- 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 Des Moines 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