Fence laws in Minnetonka, Minnesota
What the Minnetonka municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Minnetonka sets no rule of its own, the Minnesota rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Minnetonka, Minnesota, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- Detached retaining walls, fences, patio slabs, public utility poles, light poles, mailboxes, hedges and means of access such as sidewalks, driveways, steps and roadways may occupy any part of a required front, side or rear yard setback in Minnetonka, and the answer turns on what the setback is protecting. The figure is 0 feet, for setback from a property line.
- How tall
- Minnetonka sets no maximum fence height. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Permits
- The city states that a building permit is required for any fence taller than seven feet. The figure is 7 feet, for height above which a building permit is required.
- Pool barriers
- Minnesota rules say a public pool has to be closed off so children cannot get in. The figure is 5 feet, for minimum height of fencing around a public pool.
- Spite fences
- Minnesota counts a spite fence as a private nuisance.
- Measured from what
- Minnesota does name the ground, once. The figure is 16 inches, for bottom wire of a legal fence, measured from the ground. It reaches a legal fence built of barbed wire only.
- Corner lots
- No wall, fence, structure, tree, shrub, vegetation or other obstruction may sit in any yard or setback where it poses a danger to traffic by obscuring the view from a street or roadway, and visibility has to be unobstructed above two and a half feet inside a triangle drawn from a point at the paved edge of the intersection, with two sides running twenty-five feet along the edge of each street and a third joining them. The figure is 25 feet, for leg of the corner sight triangle.
- Retaining walls
- A retaining wall in Minnesota needs no building permit if it is four feet tall or less, and the four feet is measured from the bottom of the footing up to the top of the wall, not from the ground. The figure is 4 feet, for height at or below which a retaining wall needs no building permit. It reaches work covered by the Minnesota State Building Code only.
- Materials
- Minnetonka publishes the answer plainly: the city does not restrict the types of fence material, and material may be installed on either side of the support post, with no right side or wrong side requirement.
- Livestock
- Minnesota lists the builds that count as a legal fence. The figure is 32 inches, for minimum woven wire height on a legal fence that carries two barbed wires above it.
Who owns the fence between two properties in Minnetonka?
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Minnetonka answers this, but the answer changes depending on what the setback is protecting.
Detached retaining walls, fences, patio slabs, public utility poles, light poles, mailboxes, hedges and means of access such as sidewalks, driveways, steps and roadways may occupy any part of a required front, side or rear yard setback in Minnetonka. Naming a fence in the same breath as a mailbox is the clearest way a code can say that a fence is not a building, and it settles the boundary question without stating a setback: there is none. The city guidance repeats it, saying no minimum setback is required from property lines while noting that a fence may still have to stand back from lakes, creeks, floodplains and wetlands, and that the wetland, floodplain, shoreland, steep slope and tree protection sections still apply. A fence has to sit on private property and outside any easement containing public utilities or improvements, and a fence placed in an easement without utilities is at the risk of the owner.
Detached retaining walls, fences, patio slabs, public utility poles, light poles, mail boxes, hedges and means of access such as sidewalks, driveways, steps and roadways may occupy any part of a required front, side or rear yard setback.
The answer turns on what the setback is protecting.
- a lot line
- No setback required. 0 ft
- a lake, creek, floodplain or wetland
- The natural resource sections still apply.
- a utility easement
- A fence stays out of it.
- an easement with no utilities
- At the risk of the owner.
Also on fences on the property line in Minnetonka
- set in state lawMinnesota splits the cost of a fence on the property line in equal shares, and only on farm land. Both sides have to be used, fully or partly, to raise or keep livestock, and at least one owner has to want a fence. Then each side builds and keeps up half. The statute names which animals count as livestock. A yard that holds none of them is outside the rule. Minn. Stat. 344.03, subd. 1(a)Minnesota · Statute
- set in state lawMinnesota settles a boundary fence argument through fence viewers, who are town officers picked for the job. When one side will not build or fix a fence it has to keep, the other side can complain to them. The fence viewers give notice, look at the fence or at whether one is needed, and can order the work done in a reasonable time. If that order is ignored, the side that complained can do the work and get paid back under section 344.05. Minn. Stat. 344.04Minnesota · Statute
How tall can a fence be in Minnetonka?
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Minnetonka law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
Minnesota sets no statewide limit on how tall a fence at a house can be. The boundary fence chapter says what a farm fence is built from and never caps a fence in a yard. The building code lets a fence up to seven feet go without a permit, which is a permit line and not a height cap. The city or county sets the limit.
This one is Minnesota law, not Minnetonka law. All Minnesota findings
Documents read before writing that:
- Minn. Stat. 344.02, 344.03Minnesota Legislature, Office of the Revisor of Statutes
- Minn. R. 1300.0120, subp. 4Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry
Also on fence height in Minnetonka
- no rule, documents checkedMinnetonka is the only city in this set whose zoning ordinance states no maximum fence height for a house lot. The yard and setback subdivision names fences among the things that may occupy any part of a required setback and says nothing about how tall they may be. The height regulations subdivision immediately before it deals only with what height limits do not apply to, listing water towers, chimneys, flag poles and architectural components on educational or religious buildings. Two numbers do reach a fence from outside the height rules. Nothing over two and a half feet may stand within the corner triangle. And the city building rules require a permit for a fence taller than seven feet, which is a paperwork threshold rather than a cap, since the ordinance does not prohibit a fence above it. So on an ordinary Minnetonka lot the binding constraints are the corner, the easements and the natural resource setbacks. 300.15, subd. 9Minnetonka · Zoning code
Do I need a permit for a fence in Minnetonka?
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Minnetonka answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
The city states that a building permit is required for any fence taller than seven feet. Because the zoning ordinance sets no maximum height, that threshold is doing more work in Minnetonka than the same number does elsewhere: it is not a line between a permitted fence and a prohibited one, it is the point at which the city looks at the structure at all. Below seven feet a fence on a house lot needs no zoning approval, no fence permit and no plan review, and above it the review is a building code review about whether the thing will stand up. The same page sets out the other requirements the planning and engineering divisions enforce, and directs specific questions to the natural resources division for lake, creek, floodplain and wetland setbacks, to engineering for easements and to planning for everything else. A residential pool or spa has to be enclosed by a non-climbable fence at least five feet high.
A building permit is required for any fence taller than 7 feet.
7 ftheight above which a building permit is required
Also on permits in Minnetonka
- set in state lawA fence in Minnesota seven feet tall or shorter needs no building permit. Minnesota runs one building code for the whole state, and the rules that come with it list the work that needs no permit. A fence is on that list up to seven feet. Above seven feet it needs a permit. Minn. R. 1300.0120, subp. 4Minnesota · Building code
Pool fence requirements in Minnetonka
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Minnesota answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Minnesota rules say a public pool has to be closed off so children cannot get in. Where a fence does that job it has to stand at least five feet high, with gates that close and latch themselves and can be locked. No opening in the fence can be wider than four inches, no gap under it can be wider than two inches, and it cannot be built in a way that is easy to climb. The rule covers public pools. A pool at a private home is not in it.
This one is Minnesota law, not Minnetonka law. All Minnesota findings
Access to a public pool must be controlled to effectively prevent the entrance of children.
5 ftminimum height of fencing around a public pool
Spite fence laws in Minnetonka
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Minnesota answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Minnesota counts a spite fence as a private nuisance. Any fence or other structure put up or kept there to annoy the owner or occupant next door falls under the statute. The current text names no height at all, so the test is why the fence is there, not how tall it is.
This one is Minnesota law, not Minnetonka law. All Minnesota findings
Any fence, or any other structure, maliciously erected or maintained for the purpose of annoying the owners or occupants of adjoining property shall be deemed a private nuisance.
How fence height is measured in Minnetonka
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Minnesota answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Minnesota does name the ground, once. Section 344.02 lists the fences that count as legal, and the barbed wire one puts the top wire no more than forty eight inches high and the bottom wire twelve to sixteen inches from the ground. So the bottom of that fence is measured from the ground. The top is a bare number with no surface named, which leaves a fence on a slope unanswered. For a fence at a house, section 462.357 lets the city set the height rule, so the city decides how it is measured too.
This one is Minnesota law, not Minnetonka law. All Minnesota findings
fences consisting of at least four barbed wires with at least 40 barbs to the rod, the wires firmly fastened to posts not more than one rod apart, the top wire not more than 48 inches high and the bottom wire 12 to 16 inches from the ground
16 inbottom wire of a legal fence, measured from the ground
Also on how height is measured in Minnetonka
- no rule, documents checkedWith no fence height limit in the zoning ordinance there is nothing for a measuring rule to attach to, and the code states none. The two heights that do exist are measured differently from each other and neither is a general rule. The corner triangle is measured as unobstructed visibility above two and a half feet from a point at the paved edge of the intersection. The seven foot building permit threshold is stated in the city guidance without a datum at all. Nothing addresses sloping ground, a berm, a fence on top of a retaining wall, or ground raised before the posts go in, and no allowance is given for a post cap. In a city with many lots falling away toward Lake Minnetonka and the creeks, that silence would matter a great deal if there were a height limit to argue about, and it matters much less because there is not. 300.15, subd. 9Minnetonka · Zoning code
Fence rules for corner lots in Minnetonka
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Minnetonka answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
No wall, fence, structure, tree, shrub, vegetation or other obstruction may sit in any yard or setback where it poses a danger to traffic by obscuring the view from a street or roadway, and visibility has to be unobstructed above two and a half feet inside a triangle drawn from a point at the paved edge of the intersection, with two sides running twenty-five feet along the edge of each street and a third joining them. Measuring from the paved edge rather than from the curb line or the property line is the detail that matters, because on the many Minnetonka streets without curbs the paved edge is the only fixed point there is. Two and a half feet is the same figure Eden Prairie and Blaine use, and the triangle is small at twenty-five feet. Since the ordinance sets no height limit anywhere else, this is the only place in the Minnetonka zoning code where a fence has a stated maximum height.
Visibility from any street or roadway shall be unobstructed above the height of two and one-half feet within the triangle described as beginning from a point at the paved edge of the intersection, two sides of which extend a distance of 25 feet along the edge of each street and the third side being a line connecting the other sides.
25 ftleg of the corner sight triangle
Also on corner visibility in Minnetonka
- set in state lawMinnesota names the fence and names the roads. Chapter 160 makes it a misdemeanor to put a fence on the right of way of a trunk highway, a county state aid highway, a county highway or a town road. The one exception is a lane fence at the ends of a livestock crossing. The same section bars a building or structure inside the limits of any highway. Neither reaches a fence standing back on a private corner lot. Section 462.357 gives the city power over the height of structures and the size of yards, and a clear view triangle is written there. Minn. Stat. 160.2715Minnesota · Traffic code
Retaining wall rules in Minnetonka
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Minnesota answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
A retaining wall in Minnesota needs no building permit if it is four feet tall or less, and the four feet is measured from the bottom of the footing up to the top of the wall, not from the ground. Minnesota prints this in its own state rule instead of pointing at a model code. Two things take a wall off the no permit list at any height. One is holding up a surcharge, which means extra weight pressing on the soil behind the wall, such as a driveway or a building. The other is holding back Class I, II or III-A liquids, which are liquids that burn.
This one is Minnesota law, not Minnetonka law. All Minnesota findings
retaining walls that are not over four feet (1,219 mm) in height measured from the bottom of the footing to the top of the wall, unless supporting a surcharge or impounding Class I, II, or III-A liquids;
4 ftheight at or below which a retaining wall needs no building permit
Fence materials allowed in Minnetonka
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Minnetonka answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Minnetonka publishes the answer plainly: the city does not restrict the types of fence material, and material may be installed on either side of the support post, with no right side or wrong side requirement. That is two rules in one sentence and both are unusual. Almost every city in this set either lists permitted materials or bans a handful, and almost every one requires the finished face to point at the neighbor. Minnetonka does neither, which means the choice of chain link, vinyl, cedar or wrought iron is the choice of the owner, and a neighbor looking at the posts has no ordinance to appeal to. The statement is agency guidance rather than codified text, so it describes how the city applies a code that is silent rather than quoting a provision. Barbed wire, razor wire and electric fencing are not mentioned in the guidance or in the yard and setback rules.
Minnetonka does not restrict the types of fence materials, and materials may be installed on either side of the support post. There is no "right-side/wrong-side" requirement.
Also on materials in Minnetonka
- set in state lawMinnesota lists five builds that count as a legal fence on a property line, and four of the five are wire. Barbed wire appears in all four, either on its own or stacked above woven wire, with rules on how many strands, how many barbs and how far apart the posts stand. The fifth is an open list of rails, beams, wires, boards, stone walls or a mix, so long as the fence viewers judge it equal to the others. No material is ruled out. Minn. Stat. 344.02Minnesota · Statute
Livestock and boundary fence law in Minnetonka
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Minnesota answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Minnesota lists the builds that count as a legal fence. Woven wire at least thirty two inches tall with two barbed wires above it counts. So does woven wire at least forty inches tall with one barbed wire above it, and woven wire at least forty eight inches tall with one barbed wire above it. All three go on well set posts no more than a rod apart. A rod is sixteen and a half feet. Four barbed wires also count, with at least forty barbs to the rod, the top wire no higher than forty eight inches and the bottom wire twelve to sixteen inches off the ground. Anything the fence viewers judge equal to those counts too.
This one is Minnesota law, not Minnetonka law. All Minnesota findings
The following are legal and sufficient fences: (a) fences consisting of at least 32-inch woven wire and two barbed wires firmly fastened to well-set posts not more than one rod apart, the first barbed wire being above and not more than four inches from the woven wire and the second barbed wire being above and not more than eight inches from the first wire;
32 inminimum woven wire height on a legal fence that carries two barbed wires above it
Also on agricultural fencing in Minnetonka
- set in state lawMinnesota puts the duty on the animal owner. Letting cattle, a horse, a donkey, a mule, sheep, swine or a goat run loose in the state is against the law, and driving an animal onto someone's land over their objection counts as running loose too. The section does not ask the neighbor to have built a fence first. Minn. Stat. 346.16Minnesota · Statute
Documents behind this page
11 documents, of which 3 were published by Minnetonka itself. Each was read on the date shown.
- Minnesota Legislature, Office of the Revisor of StatutesMinnesota Statutes, Chapter 344, Section 344.03, Expense; Equal Shares
- Minnesota Legislature, Office of the Revisor of StatutesMinnesota Statutes, Chapter 344, Section 344.04, Failure to Build or Repair; Rights of Complainant
- City of MinnetonkaMinnetonka Code of Ordinances, Chapter 3, Zoning Regulations, Section 300.15, subdivision 9, Yard and Setback Regulations
- Minnesota Legislature, Office of the Revisor of StatutesMinnesota Statutes, Chapter 344, Partition Fences
- Minnesota Department of Labor and IndustryMinnesota Rules, Chapter 1300, Part 1300.0120, Permits
- City of MinnetonkaMinnetonka Code of Ordinances, Chapter 3, Zoning Regulations, Section 300.15, subdivision 8, Height Regulations
- City of MinnetonkaCity of Minnetonka, Residential Setback Rules and Fences
- Minnesota Department of HealthMinnesota Rules, Chapter 4717, Part 4717.1550, Pool Access Restriction; Fencing
- Minnesota Legislature, Office of the Revisor of StatutesMinnesota Statutes, Chapter 561, Section 561.02, Maliciously Maintained Structure
- Minnesota Office of the Revisor of StatutesMinnesota Statutes, Chapter 160, Section 160.2715, Right-of-way use; misdemeanors
- Minnesota Legislature, Office of the Revisor of StatutesMinnesota Statutes, Chapter 346, Animals, Section 346.16, Running at Large; Defined; Prohibited; Treble Damages
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 Minnetonka publishes, plus the Minnesota rules that apply where the city sets none. Fence laws in Minnesota 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