Fence laws in Topeka, Kansas
What the Topeka municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Topeka sets no rule of its own, the Kansas rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Topeka, Kansas, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- Topeka states no distance between a fence and a line shared with a neighbor, so a fence may stand on that boundary at whatever height applies where it stands. The figure is 1 foot, for distance a fence or hedge keeps from a public sidewalk.
- How tall
- No part of a fence in Topeka may exceed eight feet, and in the R and M districts a fence beyond the front face of the principal structure drops to four, and the answer turns on the lot shape, the district and what the fence faces. The figure is 8 feet, for maximum height for any portion of a fence.
- Permits
- Section 18.210.040 sets heights, locations, materials and hazards and never mentions a permit, a fee or an application, so any obligation to apply comes from elsewhere in the code rather than from the fence rules, and the answer turns on who has to make a decision about the fence.
- Pool barriers
- Kansas sets a pool fence height in its child care licensing rules, not in a building code. The figure is 5 feet, for minimum pool fence height on licensed child care premises.
- Spite fences
- Topeka has no spite fence statute. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Measured from what
- Topeka leaves the measuring rule to the governing body of each city and the board of county commissioners of each county.
- Corner lots
- Topeka leaves corner clearance to Chapter 12.20 of the Topeka Municipal Code, Public Traffic Hazards, and the judgment of the City Engineer.
- Retaining walls
- Topeka leaves retaining walls to the city or county that adopts a building code by reference. It reaches cities and counties that adopt a building code only.
- Materials
- Topeka does not write a closed list and does not write a ban.
- Livestock
- Kansas puts the duty on the animal owner.
Who owns the fence between two properties in Topeka?
Compare fences on the property line across all 50 states
Topeka answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Topeka states no distance between a fence and a line shared with a neighbor, so a fence may stand on that boundary at whatever height applies where it stands. Toward the street it gives two rules in a single sentence and the second is the unusual one. No part of a fence or hedge may extend into the public right-of-way, which is the ordinary rule, and no part may be located closer than one foot from a public sidewalk, which is measured from the pavement rather than from a property line. A sidewalk set back from the curb inside a wide right-of-way therefore pushes the fence further into the yard than the right-of-way line alone would, and a sidewalk sitting at the edge of the right-of-way makes the two rules produce almost the same answer. Hedges are covered by both sentences on the same terms as fences.
Fences and hedges shall be located so no part thereof extends into public right-of-way or is located closer than one foot from a public sidewalk.
1 ftdistance a fence or hedge keeps from a public sidewalk
Also on fences on the property line in Topeka
- set in state lawKansas splits a shared boundary fence between the two neighbors. Each side keeps up an equal share of the fence while both are using their land. The two sides can agree to a different split if they want one. K.S.A. 29-301Kansas · Statute
- set in state lawKansas uses officials called fence viewers to settle boundary fence fights. The county commissioners are the fence viewers for every township in the county. They may name other people to act for them, but the board still has to approve what those people recommend. K.S.A. 29-201Kansas · Statute
- set in state lawWhen one neighbor lets their half of a shared fence fall apart, the other neighbor can bring it to the fence viewers. The fence viewers give notice to both sides and then look at the fence. If they find it is not good enough, they put it in writing and set a deadline for the repair. K.S.A. 29-302Kansas · Statute
- set in state lawIf the deadline passes and nothing happens, the neighbor who complained can do the work. The fence viewers then price the job and certify the amount. That amount can be billed to the owner whose share was bad, and a court can order it paid with interest if a month goes by after a written demand. K.S.A. 29-303Kansas · Statute
- set in state lawWhen neighbors cannot agree on who owns which part of a shared fence, either one can ask the fence viewers to divide it. The fence viewers give notice, look at the fence, and put each equal share in writing. That written split gets recorded with the register of deeds and binds later owners of both properties. K.S.A. 29-304Kansas · Statute
How tall can a fence be in Topeka?
Compare fence height across all 50 states
Topeka answers this, but the answer changes depending on the lot shape, the district and what the fence faces.
No part of a fence in Topeka may exceed eight feet, and in the R and M districts a fence beyond the front face of the principal structure drops to four. The section then works through the lot shapes that usually cause arguments. On an ordinary corner lot, a fence beyond the front face of the house may go to six feet where it runs along an arterial street perpendicular to the lot’s established rear yard, which lets a back yard on a busy road be screened properly. On a reversed corner lot the four foot limit applies in every required front yard with no such relief. On a double frontage lot, four feet applies wherever the lot abuts the established minimum front yard of an adjoining lot. Two exceptions lift the eight foot cap: a fence in a park or recreational facility, unless that facility is accessory to a single-family home, and a fence at a public use or utility facility, which may reach ten where the Planning Director finds the extra height necessary for public health and safety.
In R and M districts, fences beyond the front face of the principal structure shall not exceed four feet in height.
The answer turns on the lot shape, the district and what the fence faces.
- anywhere in the city
- Eight feet. 8 ft
- past the front face of the house
- Four feet. 4 ft
- a corner lot along an arterial
- Six feet. 6 ft
- a utility facility
- Ten feet, if the Director agrees. 10 ft
Also on fence height in Topeka
- no rule, documents checkedKansas sets no limit on how tall a fence at a house can be. The state fence chapter gives only minimums, such as the four feet for a farm fence, and never a maximum. Height on a house lot is set by city or county rule. K.S.A. Chapter 29Kansas · Statute
Do I need a permit for a fence in Topeka?
Compare permits across all 50 states
Topeka answers this, but the answer changes depending on who has to make a decision about the fence.
Section 18.210.040 sets heights, locations, materials and hazards and never mentions a permit, a fee or an application, so any obligation to apply comes from elsewhere in the code rather than from the fence rules. What the section does create is two discretionary decisions. The City Engineer may stop a fence on a determination that it constitutes a traffic hazard, which is a judgment made about a particular proposal rather than a standard the applicant can read off the page. And the Planning Director may allow a fence at a public use or utility facility to exceed eight feet, up to ten, on a finding that the extra height is necessary for public health and safety. A fence in an X district is sent to a different section entirely, Section 18.185.070.
Fences located in or upon public use facilities or public utility facilities, such as electrical substations or pumping stations, shall be limited to eight feet in height unless the Planning Director determines that additional height, not to exceed 10 feet, is necessary for public health and safety.
The answer turns on who has to make a decision about the fence.
- an ordinary fence
- No permit named in this section.
- a possible traffic hazard
- The City Engineer decides.
- extra height at a substation
- The Planning Director decides.
- an X district
- Section 18.185.070 governs.
Also on permits in Topeka
- no rule, documents checkedKansas has no statewide fence permit rule for a house. The state fence chapter has no permit section anywhere in it. The one statewide building rule is the fire prevention code written by the state fire marshal, and that code leaves out buildings used only as homes for one or two families. A fence permit is a city or county matter. K.S.A. Chapter 29Kansas · Statute
Pool fence requirements in Topeka
Compare pool barriers across all 50 states
Kansas answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Kansas sets a pool fence height in its child care licensing rules, not in a building code. At a licensed child care place an inground pool needs a fence five feet tall, with gaps no wider than 3.5 inches. A building wall can be one side of it, if that wall has no door or window opening onto the pool.
This one is Kansas law, not Topeka law. All Kansas findings
Each inground pool shall be enclosed by a fence at least five feet high, with openings no greater than 3.5 inches, and constructed and maintained in good repair to discourage children and unwanted visitors from accessing the pool area.
5 ftminimum pool fence height on licensed child care premises
Also on pool barriers in Topeka
- set in state lawThe same Kansas rule covers the gate. A pool gate has to be five feet tall like the fence, close itself, lock itself, and be kept shut and locked. A later part of the rule says an alarm or a sensor cannot take the place of the fence. K.A.R. 28-4-129(b)(2)Kansas · Agency guidance
Spite fence laws in Topeka
Compare spite fences across all 50 states
Topeka law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
Kansas has no spite fence law. Chapter 29 is the fence chapter, and it covers enclosures, fence viewers, fences on the line, and damage done by animals. Nothing in it limits a fence built to bother a neighbor, and the trespass section deals only with farm animals. A fence built out of spite is handled in court under general nuisance law.
This one is Kansas law, not Topeka law. All Kansas findings
Documents read before writing that:
- K.S.A. Chapter 29Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes
- K.S.A. 29-108Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes
- K.S.A. 29-401Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes
How fence height is measured in Topeka
Compare how height is measured across all 50 states
Topeka does not set this. It leaves it to the governing body of each city and the board of county commissioners of each county.
Kansas never says where a fence height is measured from. State law lets a city or county write zoning rules on the height, number of stories and size of buildings, and lists more subjects those rules can cover, none of them a way to measure. The state fence law names the ways a farm fence can be built, posts and rails, posts and planks, wire and hedge, and gives no height at all. With no state number there is nothing for the state to measure.
This one is Kansas law, not Topeka law. All Kansas findings
Such regulations may include, but not be limited to, provisions restricting and regulating the height, number of stories and size of buildings; the percentage of each lot that may be occupied; the size of yards, courts and other open spaces
The code hands this to the governing body of each city and the board of county commissioners of each county, which is not published in the code itself.
Also on how height is measured in Topeka
- no rule, documents checkedThe section states eight feet, four feet, six feet and ten feet and never says what any of them is measured from. No grade is named, no curb, no crown. A berm is not addressed. A fence standing on a retaining wall is not addressed. A fence running down a slope is not addressed, and nothing says whether the height is read on the owner’s side of the line or the neighbor’s. What Topeka is precise about is horizontal position rather than vertical. The line that separates the four foot zone from the rest of the lot is the front face of the principal structure, a physical feature rather than a setback line, so it moves with the house. The distance to a sidewalk is one foot, measured to the walk itself. And the corner allowance turns on whether an arterial runs perpendicular to the lot’s established rear yard. Section 18.210.040(a)Topeka · Zoning code
Fence rules for corner lots in Topeka
Compare corner visibility across all 50 states
Topeka does not set this. It leaves it to Chapter 12.20 of the Topeka Municipal Code, Public Traffic Hazards, and the judgment of the City Engineer.
The fence section handles the corner in three short clauses under the heading Hazards, and none of them contains a dimension. No fence may be built where the City Engineer determines that the proposed fence constitutes a traffic hazard. None may be built where its location creates a sight obstruction, such as within a sight distance triangle, as prohibited by Chapter 12.20 of the code, which is the chapter on public traffic hazards. And none may be built in such a manner or design as to be hazardous or dangerous to persons or animals. So the triangle exists and its size lives in the traffic chapter rather than the development code, and above that sits a general engineering judgment that can stop a fence that fits inside every published figure. The one height allowance for a corner lot, six feet along a perpendicular arterial, is subject to all of this.
The location of the fence creates a sight obstruction, such as within a sight distance triangle, as prohibited by Chapter 12.20 TMC, Public Traffic Hazards; or
The code hands this to Chapter 12.20 of the Topeka Municipal Code, Public Traffic Hazards, and the judgment of the City Engineer, which is not published in the code itself.
Also on corner visibility in Topeka
- set in state lawKansas gives this power to the county, and the law is more than a hundred years old. A board of county commissioners can cut hedge fences, trees and shrubs on a road strip within three hundred fifty feet of a railroad crossing or a sharp corner in the road, and keep them trimmed after that. Inside that same distance it can also take out signboards, billboards and board fences that block the view. It covers the road strip, and it turns on a railroad crossing or a sharp bend rather than an ordinary street corner. K.S.A. 19-2612Kansas · Statute
Retaining wall rules in Topeka
Compare retaining walls across all 50 states
Topeka does not set this. It leaves it to the city or county that adopts a building code by reference.
Kansas has no statewide building code for homes, so no state law sets a height at which a wall that holds back dirt needs a permit. State law lets a city adopt any published code as its own by naming it in an ordinance, and building codes are first on the list of what counts. A county can do the same by resolution. So the rule for such a wall comes from whichever code the city or county picked up.
This one is Kansas law, not Topeka law. All Kansas findings
The provisions of any code may be incorporated in a city ordinance by reference, in accordance with the procedure and subject to the limitations provided by K.S.A. 12-3009 through 12-3012.
The code hands this to the city or county that adopts a building code by reference, which is not published in the code itself.
Fence materials allowed in Topeka
Compare materials across all 50 states
Topeka answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Topeka does not write a closed list and does not write a ban. Fences in all districts have to be built of normally used fencing materials, and the section gives chain link, wood slats, masonry, iron and vinyl as examples before adding the catch-all that does the real work: or other materials typically supplied by vendors of fencing materials. That is a test about where the material came from rather than what it is, and it rules out the plywood sheet and the salvaged door without having to list them. Barbed wire, razor wire and electric fencing are not mentioned, so none is expressly prohibited, although the separate rule barring a fence built in such a manner or design as to be hazardous or dangerous to persons or animals reaches the same ground from a different direction. The finished side of the fence faces the street.
Fences in all districts shall be constructed of normally used fencing materials such as chain link, wood slats, masonry, iron, vinyl, or other materials typically supplied by vendors of fencing materials. The finished side of the fence shall face the street.
Also on materials in Topeka
- set in state lawKansas lists the kinds of fence that will hold farm animals. The list is posts with rails, palings, planks, palisades or wire, and rails alone stacked as a worm fence. Turf with a ditch on each side counts, and so do stone and a thorn or Osage orange hedge that was already growing in 1986. K.S.A. 29-101Kansas · Statute
Livestock and boundary fence law in Topeka
Compare agricultural fencing across all 50 states
Kansas answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Kansas puts the duty on the animal owner. State law makes it illegal for livestock to roam loose, so the owner has to keep stock inside a fence. The neighbor does not have to fence them out.
This one is Kansas law, not Topeka law. All Kansas findings
It shall be unlawful for any livestock to run at large.
Also on agricultural fencing in Topeka
- set in state lawKansas states the policy plainly: farm animals belong inside a lawful fence. The same section says an animal getting loose does not by itself make the owner liable. Who pays for the damage is decided the ordinary way, by whether somebody was careless. K.S.A. 29-108Kansas · Statute
- set in state lawKansas says what a farm fence can be built from, and leaves cats and dogs out of the rule. The list is posts with rails, palings, planks, palisades or wire, and rails alone stacked as a worm fence. Turf with a ditch on each side counts, and so do stone and a thorn or Osage orange hedge that was already growing on July 1, 1986. K.S.A. 29-101Kansas · Statute
- set in state lawA Kansas farm fence has to be at least four feet tall. The same section adds numbers for other kinds, such as four and a half feet for a rail worm fence, with the bottom board no more than two feet off the ground. Four feet is the least that will hold animals, not a cap on how tall a fence can be. K.S.A. 29-102Kansas · Statute
- set in state lawKansas spells out a barbed wire fence in detail. Three wires is the least it can have. The top wire sits 44 to 48 inches up, the bottom wire 18 to 24 inches up, and the middle wire about halfway between them. A county board can set stricter rules of its own for new fences. K.S.A. 29-105Kansas · Statute
Documents behind this page
18 documents, of which 1 was published by Topeka itself. Each was read on the date shown.
- Kansas Office of Revisor of StatutesKansas Statutes, Chapter 29, Article 3, Partition Fences
- Kansas Office of Revisor of StatutesKansas Statutes, Chapter 29, Article 2, Fence Viewers
- Kansas Office of Revisor of StatutesKansas Statutes, Chapter 29, Article 3, Partition Fences
- Kansas Office of Revisor of StatutesKansas Statutes, Chapter 29, Article 3, Partition Fences
- Kansas Office of Revisor of StatutesKansas Statutes, Chapter 29, Article 3, Partition Fences
- City of TopekaTopeka Municipal Code, Title 18, Development Code, Section 18.210.040, Fences
- Kansas Office of Revisor of StatutesKansas Statutes, Chapter 29, Fences and Enclosures, table of sections
- Kansas Office of Revisor of StatutesKansas Statutes, Chapter 29, Article 1, Legal Enclosures
- Kansas Office of Revisor of StatutesKansas Statutes, Chapter 29, Article 1, Legal Enclosures
- Kansas Office of Revisor of StatutesKansas Statutes, Chapter 31, Fire Protection
- Kansas Secretary of StateKansas Register, Volume 43, Issue 29, Kansas Department of Health and Environment Permanent Administrative Regulations
- Kansas Office of Revisor of StatutesKansas Statutes, Chapter 29, Article 1, Legal Enclosures
- Kansas Office of Revisor of StatutesKansas Statutes, Chapter 29, Article 4, Miscellaneous Provisions
- Kansas Office of Revisor of StatutesKansas Statutes Annotated, Chapter 12, Article 7, Section 12-753, Same; zoning regulations; districts; restrictions
- Kansas Office of Revisor of StatutesKansas Statutes, Chapter 19, Article 26, Section 19-2612, Removal or cutting of hedge fences, trees and shrubs; cutting weeds; removing signboards and board fences; expenses
- Kansas Office of Revisor of StatutesKansas Statutes, Chapter 12, Article 33, Adoption of Codes by Reference
- Kansas Office of Revisor of StatutesKansas Statutes, Chapter 29, Fences and Enclosures, Article 1
- Kansas Office of Revisor of StatutesKansas Statutes, Chapter 47, Article 1, Livestock Running at Large
What this page does not cover
A city ordinance is not the only rule that reaches a fence. The zoning district a parcel sits in can change the height allowed on it, and so can an overlay district, a recorded easement, a fire hazard severity zone or a coastal zone. A homeowner association can be stricter than the city and nothing in the municipal code will say so. None of those appear here.
The rules above are the ones Topeka publishes, plus the Kansas rules that apply where the city sets none. Fence laws in Kansas 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