Fence laws in Dubuque, Iowa
What the Dubuque municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Dubuque sets no rule of its own, the Iowa rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Dubuque, Iowa, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- Dubuque requires every yard to be provided and to remain open, unobstructed space, and then lists what may sit in one anyway, and the answer turns on whether the thing counts as a fence or as another kind of structure. The figure is 0 feet, for setback stated from a property line.
- How tall
- Dubuque states its residential rule in one sentence and uses seven feet as the figure, which almost nobody outside Iowa does, and the answer turns on the district, the yard and whether the fence encloses a school or a pool. The figure is 7 feet, for fence on a residential lot outside the front yard.
- 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
- Dubuque 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
- Dubuque draws one of the smallest corner triangles in this project, at ten feet along each property line, and pairs it with an unusually explicit test, and the answer turns on whether the corner is two streets or a driveway, and what kind of dwelling is on the lot. The figure is 10 feet, for leg of the visibility triangle at a street corner.
- Retaining walls
- Dubuque 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
- Dubuque handles barbed wire and electric fencing without banning either, and the answer turns on the district, how high the wire sits and what it contains. The figure is 8 feet, for height below which barbed wire and electric fencing are barred.
- 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 Dubuque?
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Dubuque answers this, but the answer changes depending on whether the thing counts as a fence or as another kind of structure.
Dubuque requires every yard to be provided and to remain open, unobstructed space, and then lists what may sit in one anyway. Fences and walls appear on that list, as provided in the fence section, alongside awnings, arbors and trellises, shallow pools, play equipment, chimneys projecting no more than twenty four inches, flagpoles, steps, hedges and accessibility ramps. No distance from a lot line is stated for a fence anywhere in the chapter, so the permission to stand in a required yard carries all the way to the boundary. The one dimensional limit in that list falls on something else: a landing exceeding five feet in any horizontal dimension has to meet the setback requirements. A yard required for one structure may not be counted as the yard for another, which stops two owners sharing the same strip of open ground.
All Required Yards: Awnings, shutters, canopies; arbors and trellises; swimming or wading pools less than eighteen inches (18") deep; play equipment; chimneys projecting not more than twenty four inches (24") into the required yard; flagpoles; steps necessary for access to a building or lot; fences and walls as provided in section 16-3-21 of this chapter; hedges and other vegetation
The answer turns on whether the thing counts as a fence or as another kind of structure.
- a fence in a required yard
- Permitted. 0 ft
- a hedge
- Permitted on the same terms.
- a landing over five feet across
- The setback applies. 5 ft
- the yard itself
- Open and unobstructed otherwise.
Also on fences on the property line in Dubuque
- 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 Dubuque?
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Dubuque answers this, but the answer changes depending on the district, the yard and whether the fence encloses a school or a pool.
Dubuque states its residential rule in one sentence and uses seven feet as the figure, which almost nobody outside Iowa does. On any residential lot a fence may be erected to seven feet in all yards, except that a fence in a required front yard stops at four, and ten feet of clear visibility has to be kept at a corner. Because the rule says all yards rather than naming side and rear, a street side yard behind the front setback gets the full seven feet, which is more generous than most cities give a corner lot. A fence around a schoolyard, or on land in a non-residential district, is exempt from the residential heights entirely, so the code sets no ceiling at all on a business or industrial fence provided the corner stays clear. A fence around a pool has to satisfy the building code on top of this section.
On any residential lot, fences may be erected to a height of seven feet (7′) in all yards except that fences erected in required front yards shall not exceed four feet (4′) in height provided, that ten feet (10′) of clear visibility shall be maintained on corner lots in accordance with section 16-3-5 of this chapter.
The answer turns on the district, the yard and whether the fence encloses a school or a pool.
- a residential yard
- Seven feet. 7 ft
- a required front yard
- Four feet. 4 ft
- a schoolyard or business lot
- No height rule at all.
- a pool fence
- The building code applies too.
Also on fence height in Dubuque
- 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 Dubuque?
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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 Dubuque 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 Dubuque
- 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 three fence sections of the Unified Development Code run to five sentences between them and none of them mentions an application, a fee, an inspection, a permit or a height at which review starts. Nothing in them names an officer either, so no discretionary approval exists at this point in the code. One sentence sends the reader out of the development code and it is about safety rather than paperwork: a fence surrounding a pool has to comply with all applicable standards required by the building code, which the city adopts elsewhere in its ordinances. That building title was not read for this page, so whether a Dubuque fence needs a building permit is not recorded here. This is silence in the development code rather than a finding that Dubuque requires nothing before a fence goes up. Sections 16-3-21-1 through 16-3-21-3Dubuque · Zoning code
Pool fence requirements in Dubuque
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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 Dubuque law. All Iowa findings
This chapter does not apply to facilities intended for single family use
Also on pool barriers in Dubuque
- 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 Dubuque
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Dubuque 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 Dubuque 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 Dubuque
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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 Dubuque 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 Dubuque
- no rule, documents checkedThe fence sections state seven feet, four feet and eight feet and never say 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 matters in a city built on limestone bluffs where retaining walls are everywhere. The corner rule one page earlier is careful about its datum and picks an unusual one: the protected band runs from two to eight feet above the average grades of the intersecting property lines, so the reference is an average of two lines on the lot rather than a curb or a street centerline, and the same phrasing is used for the driveway triangle. The only other measurement in the neighborhood is horizontal, holding a chimney to a projection of twenty four inches into a required yard and a landing to five feet in any horizontal dimension. Section 16-3-21-1Dubuque · Zoning code
Fence rules for corner lots in Dubuque
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Dubuque answers this, but the answer changes depending on whether the corner is two streets or a driveway, and what kind of dwelling is on the lot.
Dubuque draws one of the smallest corner triangles in this project, at ten feet along each property line, and pairs it with an unusually explicit test. Nothing may be erected, placed, planted or allowed to grow so as materially to impede vision from within motor vehicles, between two feet and eight feet above the average grades of the intersecting property lines. Two things stand out. The band starts at two feet, lower than the two and a half most codes use, and the datum is the average of the two property line grades rather than a curb or a centerline. A second triangle of the same size applies at a driveway, but only on lots other than those with single-family detached dwellings, duplexes or townhouses of not more than two units, so an ordinary house driveway is outside it. The fence section points at this rule by name.
On any corner lot, a visibility triangle shall be provided in which nothing shall be erected, placed, planted or allowed to grow as to materially impede vision from within motor vehicles, between a height of two feet (2′) and eight feet (8′) above the average grades of the intersecting property lines, in the area bounded by said lines, and a line joining the points of such property lines at a distance of ten feet (10′) from the intersection.
The answer turns on whether the corner is two streets or a driveway, and what kind of dwelling is on the lot.
- a corner lot
- Ten feet along each line. 10 ft
- the protected band
- Two feet to eight feet. 2 ft
- a driveway at an apartment or business
- The same ten foot triangle.
- a driveway at a house or duplex
- Not covered.
Also on corner visibility in Dubuque
- 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 Dubuque
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Dubuque 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 Dubuque 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 Dubuque
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Dubuque answers this, but the answer changes depending on the district, how high the wire sits and what it contains.
Dubuque handles barbed wire and electric fencing without banning either. Neither is permitted below eight feet in height, except in the agriculture district where they may be used to contain livestock. Stated that way the rule does two things at once. It keeps wire out of reach on any ordinary lot, because eight feet is above the seven the residential districts allow, so a residential fence simply cannot carry it. And it leaves wire available on a non-residential lot, where no height ceiling applies at all, provided it sits above eight feet. No other material is named anywhere in the fence sections, so wood, chain link, masonry, vinyl and everything else are neither listed nor restricted, and the code says nothing about which side of a fence faces the neighbor or what condition it has to be kept in.
Barbed wire and electric fences shall not be permitted below eight feet (8′) in height, except when used in the AG agriculture district for purposes of containing livestock.
The answer turns on the district, how high the wire sits and what it contains.
- wire below eight feet
- Not permitted. 8 ft
- wire above eight feet
- Allowed.
- livestock on farmland
- Allowed at any height.
- any other material
- Not named.
Also on materials in Dubuque
- 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 Dubuque
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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 Dubuque 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 Dubuque
- 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 Dubuque 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 DubuqueUnified Development Code of the City of Dubuque, Title 16, Chapter 3, Sections 16-3-5 and 16-3-6
- Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals, and LicensingIowa Administrative Code, Chapter 481-301 (State Building Code)
- Iowa LegislatureIowa Code, Section 103A.12
- City of DubuqueUnified Development Code of the City of Dubuque, Title 16, Chapter 3, Land Use General Provisions, Section 16-3-21, Fences Located on Residential Lots
- 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 Dubuque 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