Fence laws in Frederick, Maryland
What the Frederick municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Frederick sets no rule of its own, the Maryland rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Frederick, Maryland, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- Frederick draws its main line off the house rather than off a lot line, and the answer turns on whether the fence is in front of the house facade or behind it. The figure is 0 feet, for setback stated from a side or rear property line.
- How tall
- In a residential district a fence or wall may not exceed six feet in any yard, and a hedge in a rear or side yard may exceed six feet, which is a rare thing for a code to allow, and the answer turns on the district and, on a corner lot, what sits across the secondary frontage. The figure is 6 feet, for maximum height of a fence or wall in any residential yard.
- Permits
- Section 821 creates no ordinary fence permit and instead creates two approvals for the two situations where the general rules would otherwise bar a fence, and the answer turns on whether the lot has a back yard and how many units the project has.
- Pool barriers
- Maryland has statewide pool and spa standards that adopt the 2024 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code.
- Spite fences
- Frederick has no spite fence statute. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Measured from what
- Height is the vertical measurement along the length of the outside face of the fence, taken from the final, finished grade.
- Corner lots
- Frederick leaves corner clearance to Section 611(t) of the Frederick Land Management Code, which governs a fence at the intersection of two roadways.
- Retaining walls
- Frederick leaves retaining walls to the 2021 International Residential Code and the 2021 International Building Code. It reaches one and two family homes under the International Residential Code, and other buildings under the International Building Code only.
- Materials
- Above ground electrical fences, barbed wire fences, and chain link fences with vinyl or wooden slats are prohibited in or adjacent to residential and mixed use districts, and the answer turns on the material and what the fence stands next to.
- Livestock
- Frederick leaves the lawful fence specification to each county.
Who owns the fence between two properties in Frederick?
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Frederick answers this, but the answer changes depending on whether the fence is in front of the house facade or behind it.
Frederick draws its main line off the house rather than off a lot line. Except as otherwise permitted, fences, walls and hedges are prohibited beyond the front facade of the principal structure in a residential district, which bars a front yard fence outright rather than limiting it to three or four feet the way most cities do. One structure is let through that line by name: a wall built between lands of different elevations, to protect structures or prevent erosion, is permitted beyond the front facade so long as it does not rise above the higher of the two finished grades. No setback from a side or rear line is stated anywhere, so behind the facade a fence may stand on the boundary. The one horizontal distance in the section belongs to a driveway or similar opening, where a fence has to be set back fifteen feet from the corner at which the two property lines meet.
Except as otherwise permitted, fences, walls, and hedges are prohibited beyond the front façade of the principal structure.
The answer turns on whether the fence is in front of the house facade or behind it.
- in front of the house facade
- No fence at all.
- behind it
- On the line, no setback stated. 0 ft
- a retaining wall between two grades
- Allowed in front, up to the higher grade.
- a driveway meeting a road
- Fifteen feet back from the corner. 15 ft
Also on fences on the property line in Frederick
- set in state lawMaryland has no state rule splitting the cost of a fence on the line. It gives the whole subject to the counties. A county may set rules for how a fence is built and kept up, set a way for neighbors to enforce their rights over a fence, and let an owner who is not the one at fault put a lien on the property for repairs. Neither the property article nor the farming article mentions fences at all. Md. Code, Local Gov’t § 10-318Maryland · Statute
How tall can a fence be in Frederick?
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Frederick answers this, but the answer changes depending on the district and, on a corner lot, what sits across the secondary frontage.
In a residential district a fence or wall may not exceed six feet in any yard, and a hedge in a rear or side yard may exceed six feet, which is a rare thing for a code to allow. The corner lot rules then split three ways and each gets its own figure and its own diagram. A back-to-back corner lot may have six feet along the property line facing the secondary street. A reversed corner lot separated from the neighbor by a right of way may also have six feet there. But a reversed corner lot that directly abuts another residential lot is held to four feet for the part of the fence inside the required yard on the secondary frontage, because that is the case where a tall fence would sit in front of the neighbor. Multi-family projects of twenty five units or more may have four feet in the front by Planning Commission approval. Non-residential land gets eight feet where it does not abut a residential district.
A fence or wall shall not exceed six feet in height in any yard. Hedges located in a rear or side yard may exceed six feet in height.
The answer turns on the district and, on a corner lot, what sits across the secondary frontage.
- a residential yard
- Six feet. 6 ft
- a reversed corner lot abutting a neighbor
- Four feet on the secondary frontage. 4 ft
- a multi-family front yard
- Four feet, by Planning Commission approval.
- non-residential away from housing
- Eight feet. 8 ft
Also on fence height in Frederick
- no rule, documents checkedMaryland sets no limit on how tall a fence at a house can be, and its own laws assume the limit comes from somewhere else. The Land Use Article lets a town pass a local law allowing a fence taller than the height state, regional or county zoning would otherwise require, which only makes sense if those local rules are where the limit lives. The Local Government Article separately gives counties power over how a fence is built. Height in Maryland is county and town zoning. Md. Code, Land Use § 25-303Maryland · Statute
Do I need a permit for a fence in Frederick?
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Frederick answers this, but the answer changes depending on whether the lot has a back yard and how many units the project has.
Section 821 creates no ordinary fence permit and instead creates two approvals for the two situations where the general rules would otherwise bar a fence. Where a housing type has no back yard, meaning back-to-back townhouses, quadraplexes and similar, fences may go in front yards only if the applicant submits an overall fencing plan for every such lot fronting a particular street and the Planning Commission approves it as part of, or after, site plan approval. That plan may not be approved at all unless the development has recorded or will record homeowners association documents empowering the association to maintain, repair and replace all the fencing, and the Department checks those documents. A multi-family project of at least twenty five units gets a similar route to four feet in front, again by Planning Commission approval of a fencing plan, and only on common open space or association property.
To obtain approval of such fences, the applicant shall submit an overall fencing plan for all such lots which front on a particular street, such plan to be approved by the Planning Commission as part of site plan approval for the housing units on the block, or subsequent to site plan approval.
The answer turns on whether the lot has a back yard and how many units the project has.
- an ordinary back yard fence
- No approval named in the section.
- a lot with no back yard
- A street-wide fencing plan to the Planning Commission.
- that plan
- Only with a homeowners association to maintain it.
- a multi-family front yard
- A fencing plan, and common land only.
Also on permits in Frederick
- set in state lawMaryland adopts the 2021 International Building Code, the 2021 International Residential Code for one and two family homes, and the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code as the code for the whole state. Maryland did not change the list of work that needs no permit, so the model code list applies as written. That list is model code text and is not published on a Maryland state site, so no fence height figure is quoted here. COMAR 09.12.51.04Maryland · Building code
Pool fence requirements in Frederick
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Maryland answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Maryland has statewide pool and spa standards that adopt the 2024 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code. They apply to a pool whose permit application reached the local office on or after December 31, 2023. Maryland wrote its own barrier heights only for the public pool classes, and left the barrier rules for every other pool as the model code wrote them. So the height for a pool at a house lives in that model code and not in Maryland text.
This one is Maryland law, not Frederick law. All Maryland findings
The 2024 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code (ISPSC), International Code Council, is incorporated by reference.
Spite fence laws in Frederick
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Frederick law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
Maryland has no spite fence law. The property, farming, local government and land use articles were all searched, and none of them has a rule about a fence raised out of spite, or a height that triggers one. The only fence powers in Maryland law are the ones given to counties and towns, so a limit on a spite fence in Maryland is a local rule.
This one is Maryland law, not Frederick law. All Maryland findings
Documents read before writing that:
- Md. Code, Local Gov’t § 10-318Maryland General Assembly
- Md. Code, Land Use § 25-303Maryland General Assembly
How fence height is measured in Frederick
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Frederick answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Height is the vertical measurement along the length of the outside face of the fence, taken from the final, finished grade. Three choices are packed into that sentence. Measuring the outside face means the neighbor looking at the fence sees the number being regulated, rather than the owner who built it. Measuring along the length means a fence following a slope is measured at every point rather than averaged, so it has to step down instead of running level over falling ground. And final, finished grade is the ground as it ends up, which takes in fill placed before the fence goes in. The section does not separately address a fence standing on a retaining wall, but it does allow a wall between two elevations in front of the house facade only where the wall does not rise above the higher of the two finished grades.
The height of fences, walls, and hedges shall be measured as the vertical measurement along the length of the outside face when measured from the final, finished grade.
Also on how height is measured in Frederick
- left to the townMaryland gives fence height to local government twice and never says what it is measured from. The Land Use Article lets a legislative body set the height, number of stories and size of buildings and other structures. Another section lets a town inside the regional district pass a law allowing a fence taller than the limit state, regional or county zoning would otherwise set, which treats that height as a number somebody else already wrote. Neither section says whether the number is read from natural ground or from a finished yard. Md. Code, Land Use 4-102Maryland · Zoning code
Fence rules for corner lots in Frederick
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Frederick does not set this. It leaves it to Section 611(t) of the Frederick Land Management Code, which governs a fence at the intersection of two roadways.
Where two roadways meet, a fence, wall or hedge has to comply with Section 611(t), and the fence section states no shape of its own for that case. So the geometry, the protected band of height and any exception for an open fence all sit in Article 6, the development improvement standards, rather than here. Where any other travel way meets a roadway, meaning a driveway or an alley, Section 821 does give a number: the fence has to be set back fifteen feet from the corner where the two property lines intersect, which is a horizontal setback rather than a height limit, so the fence simply may not be there. A multi-family fencing plan is separately required to be designed and built in compliance with Section 611(t) so as not to impede or obstruct visibility on any street or public way.
A fence, wall or hedge must comply with Section 611(t) when placed at the intersection of two roadways. When placed at the intersection of any other travel way and a roadway, the fence, wall, or hedge must be setback a distance of 15 feet from the corner where the two property lines intersect.
The code hands this to Section 611(t) of the Frederick Land Management Code, which governs a fence at the intersection of two roadways, which is not published in the code itself.
Also on corner visibility in Frederick
- set in state lawMaryland keeps this short. State law says a person may not put anything blocking a state highway, or any improvement, on that highway unless the State Highway Administration has issued a permit for it. A fence set onto the state road strip needs that permit. There is no sight distance figure and no corner triangle in the subtitle, and the height and placement of a fence on a private lot is left to county and town zoning, so the triangle in Maryland is written locally. Md. Code, Transp. 8-646Maryland · Traffic code
Retaining wall rules in Frederick
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Frederick does not set this. It leaves it to the 2021 International Residential Code and the 2021 International Building Code.
Maryland adopts three model codes as its own, among them the 2021 International Residential Code for one and two family homes. Maryland then lists its changes to those codes, and that list never mentions a wall that holds back dirt. So the rule for such a wall comes from the model code, and Maryland prints no number of its own. The same chapter puts running and enforcing the standards on each local office.
This one is Maryland law, not Frederick law. All Maryland findings
A. In this chapter, the following documents are incorporated by reference: (1) 2021 International Building Code (International Code Council); (2) 2021 International Residential Code for One- and Two-Family Dwellings (International Code Council); and (3) 2021 International Energy Conservation Code (International Code Council).
The code hands this to the 2021 International Residential Code and the 2021 International Building Code, which is not published in the code itself.
Fence materials allowed in Frederick
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Frederick answers this, but the answer changes depending on the material and what the fence stands next to.
Above ground electrical fences, barbed wire fences, and chain link fences with vinyl or wooden slats are prohibited in or adjacent to residential and mixed use districts. The third item is the interesting one, because plain chain link is not banned and slatted chain link is, so the objection is to the privacy screen rather than to the wire. The word adjacent extends all three bans across the district boundary, so a site next door to housing is caught even if it is not zoned residential itself. Every fence has to be built of materials specifically designed and manufactured for fencing purposes, which rules out improvised panels without listing them. And the finished side has to face outward where the fence directly abuts a public right-of-way, a public park, or open space owned or maintained by a property owners association, which is narrower than the rule in the city PDF and points the fence at the public rather than at the neighbor.
Above ground electrical fences, barbed wire fences, and chain link fences with vinyl or wooden slats are prohibited in or adjacent to residential and mixed use districts.
The answer turns on the material and what the fence stands next to.
- barbed wire or an electric fence
- Not in or next to housing.
- chain link with slats
- Also barred there, though plain chain link is not.
- any fence
- Made of material manufactured for fencing.
- a fence on a street, park or common open space
- The finished side faces out.
Also on materials in Frederick
- set in state lawMaryland says what a battery charged fence security system has to look like, which is an electric fence wired into a burglar alarm. It runs on a battery of no more than 12 volts and stands behind a fence or wall at least 5 feet tall that carries no charge. It sits on land not zoned for homes only, stops at 10 feet, and carries warning signs every 30 feet. A local government may inspect one and fine an owner up to $500 for a fence that does not match, but it may not ban one or add its own rules for putting one up. Deer fencing and livestock fencing are left out of the section. Md. Code, Bus. Reg. 19-902Maryland · Statute
Livestock and boundary fence law in Frederick
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Frederick does not set this. It leaves it to each county.
Maryland writes no statewide rule for how a farm fence is built. It gives each county three powers instead. A county can set the rules for building and keeping up a fence. It can set a way for neighbors to enforce their fence rights against each other. And it can let an owner who repairs a shared fence put a lien on the property for the cost. So the height, the wire count and the post spacing come from county law.
This one is Maryland law, not Frederick law. All Maryland findings
A county may: (1) regulate the construction and maintenance of fences; (2) provide for a procedure to enforce the rights of parties with reference to a fence; and (3) provide for a lien for repairs to a fence made by an owner who is not in default.
The code hands this to each county, which is not published in the code itself.
Documents behind this page
8 documents, of which 1 was published by Frederick itself. Each was read on the date shown.
- Maryland General AssemblyAnnotated Code of Maryland, Local Government Article, Section 10-318
- City of FrederickCity of Frederick Land Management Code, Article 8, Supplemental Use Regulations, Section 821, Fences, Walls, and Hedges
- Maryland General AssemblyAnnotated Code of Maryland, Land Use Article, Section 25-303
- Maryland Department of Labor, Division of Labor and IndustryCode of Maryland Regulations, Title 09, Subtitle 12, Chapter 51, Maryland Building Performance Standards, Regulation .04 Incorporation by Reference
- Maryland Department of Labor, Division of Labor and IndustryCode of Maryland Regulations, Title 09, Subtitle 12, Chapter 56, Maryland Swimming Pool and Spa Standards, Regulation .03 Incorporation by Reference
- Maryland General AssemblyAnnotated Code of Maryland, Land Use Article, Section 4-102
- Maryland General AssemblyAnnotated Code of Maryland, Transportation Article, Title 8, Subtitle 6, Section 8-646, Permit required for work on highway
- Maryland General AssemblyAnnotated Code of Maryland, Business Regulation Article, Section 19-902
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 Frederick publishes, plus the Maryland rules that apply where the city sets none. Fence laws in Maryland 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