Fence laws in St. Peters, Missouri
What the St. Peters municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where St. Peters sets no rule of its own, the Missouri rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in St. Peters, Missouri, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- Where a St, and the answer turns on the shape of the lot and which line the fence follows. The figure is 10 feet, for how far a fence may pass the second platted front building line.
- How tall
- St, and the answer turns on the district and what the fence is for. The figure is 6 feet, for fence, wall, shrub or hedge height.
- Permits
- St, and the answer turns on the zoning district the fence goes in. The figure is 6 months, for time allowed to complete a fence.
- Pool barriers
- St. Peters sets no statewide pool barrier rule. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Spite fences
- St. Peters has no spite fence statute. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Measured from what
- St. Peters leaves the measuring rule to the legislative body of each city, town and village.
- Corner lots
- St. Peters leaves corner clearance to Section 40.25 of the St. Louis County Department of Highways and Traffic Design Criteria. The figure is 30 feet, for sight distance area on a residential or minor collector street.
- Retaining walls
- St. Peters leaves retaining walls to the building code each county, fire protection district or city adopts by reference in its own ordinance.
- Materials
- St, and the answer turns on whether the fence is over four feet, and the district. The figure is 4 feet, for height at which the material list narrows.
- Livestock
- A lawful fence in Missouri is posts and wire or boards at least four feet high, once the two owners agree on it or the associate circuit court decides it. The figure is 4 feet, for minimum height of a lawful fence in Missouri.
Who owns the fence between two properties in St. Peters?
Compare fences on the property line across all 50 states
St. Peters answers this, but the answer changes depending on the shape of the lot and which line the fence follows.
Where a St. Peters fence runs along a public street the improved side faces outward, and the code adds a rule about the fence agreeing with itself: it has to be designed to appear as one unit, and a patched or extended run that does not match the original design or materials is prohibited. How far forward a fence may come depends on the lot. On an interior lot it may not pass the front building line and may not pass the side or rear property lines. On a corner lot it may not pass the platted front building line running parallel to the front of the house, but along the other platted front building line it may come ten feet further forward, and where the rear lines of two corner lots abut, the front yard setback along the sides of the houses may sit on the property line itself. On a through lot the fence may run to and along the line opposite the front. A front yard may not be enclosed at all except on a through lot or as a physical security measure, and even then the fence may not completely block the view of the yard, prevent access to the right-of-way, sidewalk or utility easement, or harm drainage.
When a fence is adjacent a public street, the improved side of the fence shall be oriented to the outside. Fences shall be designed to appear as one (1) unit; patched or extended fences that do not match the original fence design and/or materials shall not be permitted.
Section 405.360(B)(10) and (11)
The answer turns on the shape of the lot and which line the fence follows.
- a fence along a street
- Improved side outward.
- a patched or extended run
- It has to match the original.
- a corner lot second frontage
- Ten feet past the building line. 10 ft
- a front yard
- Not enclosed, apart from two cases.
Also on fences on the property line in St. Peters
- set in state lawA fence on the property line in Missouri starts with written notice to the neighbor. The two owners then meet, and each one builds or fixes the half on their own right. Right means standing at the middle of the shared line, on their own land, facing the fence. If they cannot agree, an associate circuit judge names viewers to split the cost. RSMo § 272.060Missouri · Statute
- set in state lawMissouri says what happens when one side does not build its half. If either side fails to build or fix its part in a reasonable time, the other can ask the associate circuit court for permission to do the work the way the court directs. The court then orders the other side to pay its share of the whole cost, plus court costs and reasonable lawyer fees. That order is a lien on the other side's land, meaning the debt is attached to the property until it is paid. RSMo § 272.070Missouri · Statute
- set in state lawMissouri also covers the case where only one neighbor wants a fence. That neighbor may build the whole thing and report the total cost to the associate circuit judge, who has the cost written onto each deed. If the other owner later runs livestock against that fence, the builder gets back half the cost of building it, split the way section 272.060 says. RSMo § 272.132Missouri · Statute
- set in state lawThe duty in Missouri does not end once the fence is up. Anyone who owns part of a fence on a property line keeps that part in good repair, to the standard in Chapter 272. The same section gives a right to cross the line. The person doing the repair may step onto the land next door to do it. RSMo § 272.110Missouri · Statute
How tall can a fence be in St. Peters?
Compare fence height across all 50 states
St. Peters answers this, but the answer changes depending on the district and what the fence is for.
St. Peters sets one ceiling and applies it to living things as well as built ones. No fence, wall, shrub or hedge may be constructed or altered to exceed six feet, so a planted screen is held to the same line as a stockade fence, and the residential section repeats the six foot limit for fences on its own. The exceptions run upward on business land and downward at the street. A fence higher than six feet may be permitted in a commercial or industrial district for security or screening, but only on a written request stating the reason, approved by the Administrative Officer before anything is built. Two small required fences go the other way: an outdoor seating area at a restaurant or tavern has to be enclosed by a fence at least thirty six inches high, and a retaining wall over four feet in a commercial district or a commercial development inside an industrial district has to carry a fence or rail of at least thirty six inches.
No fence, wall, shrub, or hedge shall be constructed or altered to exceed six (6) feet in height except as indicated in the specific district regulations as follows.
The answer turns on the district and what the fence is for.
- anything at a house
- Six feet, hedges included. 6 ft
- security on business land
- Higher, in writing, with approval.
- outdoor restaurant seating
- At least thirty six inches. 36 in
- a tall commercial retaining wall
- A rail of thirty six inches. 4 ft
Also on fence height in St. Peters
- no rule, documents checkedMissouri sets no statewide limit on how tall a fence at a house can be. Chapter 272 defines a lawful fence by whether it keeps livestock in, not by a maximum height for a yard fence, and Missouri runs no statewide building code for homes that could add one. The city or county sets the limit. RSMo ch. 272Missouri · Statute
Do I need a permit for a fence in St. Peters?
Compare permits across all 50 states
St. Peters answers this, but the answer changes depending on the zoning district the fence goes in.
St. Peters starts from no. No permit is required to erect, install or alter any fence in the city except where the section itself says otherwise, and for an ordinary house that is the end of it. The exception is drawn by district rather than by height. A fence going into an R-3(A) or R-3(B) district, a multiple family development inside a Planned Urban District, or any commercial or industrial district needs a building permit before installation, and the code caps what the city may charge for it at fifty dollars. Electric fences are carved out of even that, needing no building permit under Missouri statute 67.301, though they still have to meet the city rules on appearance, access to the right-of-way, sidewalks and utility easements, structural soundness and drainage. A separate deadline applies once work starts anywhere in the city: fence completion has to occur within six months from the start of construction.
No permit shall be required for the erection, installation or alteration of any fence within the City of St. Peters except as otherwise required in this Section.
The answer turns on the zoning district the fence goes in.
- most houses
- No permit.
- R-3, commercial or industrial
- A building permit, fifty dollars at most.
- an electric fence
- No building permit, by state statute.
- once work starts
- Finished within six months. 6 months
Also on permits in St. Peters
- set in state lawMissouri has no building code of its own and hands the job to local government by statute. A county, a fire protection district or a city that already has power to pass such a rule may adopt a code by naming it instead of printing all of it, as long as the code is named by date and source. One copy has to sit with the local clerk, open to anyone, for ninety days before the rule passes, and the rule has to state its own penalty rather than borrow one from the code. The codes this covers are building construction and use, mechanical work, plumbing, electrical work and fire prevention. RSMo § 67.280Missouri · Statute
Pool fence requirements in St. Peters
Compare pool barriers across all 50 states
St. Peters law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
Missouri sets no statewide fence rule for a swimming pool at a private home. The only pool fencing rules in state regulation sit in health department chapters on public bathing places and on hotels and motels, and both are aimed at pools open to the public. The one place a swimming pool shows up in the statutes is a definition inside a section about what a landowner can be sued for, and it sets no fence at all.
This one is Missouri law, not St. Peters law. All Missouri findings
Documents read before writing that:
- RSMo ch. 701Missouri Revisor of Statutes
- RSMo § 537.348Missouri Revisor of Statutes
Spite fence laws in St. Peters
Compare spite fences across all 50 states
St. Peters law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
Missouri has no spite fence law. Chapter 272 is the state fence chapter and it runs from what counts as a lawful fence through boundary fences, repairs and local option rules. Nothing in it covers a fence built to hurt a neighbor, and there is no height anywhere in it. A fence like that is an ordinary nuisance question in Missouri.
This one is Missouri law, not St. Peters law. All Missouri findings
Documents read before writing that:
- RSMo ch. 272Missouri Revisor of Statutes
- RSMo § 272.060Missouri Revisor of Statutes
How fence height is measured in St. Peters
Compare how height is measured across all 50 states
St. Peters does not set this. It leaves it to the legislative body of each city, town and village.
Missouri gives a fence height and never says where to measure it from. Section 272.020 calls a fence of posts and wire or boards at least four feet high a lawful fence, and says nothing about the surface those four feet start at. Section 89.020 then lets every city, town and village set the height of buildings and other structures. So the number for a fence at a house, and the point it is measured from, are both written by the city.
This one is Missouri law, not St. Peters law. All Missouri findings
the legislative body of all cities, towns, and villages is hereby empowered to regulate and restrict the height, number of stories, and size of buildings and other structures, the percentage of lot that may be occupied, the size of yards, courts, and other open spaces
The code hands this to the legislative body of each city, town and village, which is not published in the code itself.
Also on how height is measured in St. Peters
- no rule, documents checkedThe section states six feet, four feet and thirty six inches and never says what any of them is measured from. No grade is named for a fence height, a berm is not addressed, and a fence standing on top of a retaining wall is not addressed even though the same section requires a rail on a tall commercial retaining wall. The definitions at the head of the section define what a fence is and what a sight-proof fence is, and neither definition reaches height. The single vertical reference in the whole section belongs to the wire rule on business land, where the lowest strand of barbed or razor wire has to sit at least seven feet above grade. That leaves the ordinary question of a six foot fence on sloping ground unanswered in the text, which matters more here than in most places because the same six feet also governs a hedge. Section 405.360(A) and (B)St. Peters · Zoning code
Fence rules for corner lots in St. Peters
Compare corner visibility across all 50 states
St. Peters does not set this. It leaves it to Section 40.25 of the St. Louis County Department of Highways and Traffic Design Criteria.
Inside the sight distance area of a corner lot in St. Peters, no sign, telephone booth, planting or other obstruction to vision may be erected, planted or maintained so as to substantially obstruct the view of traffic at an intersection. The area itself is not drawn in the code. It is determined by the standards in the St. Louis County Department of Highways and Traffic Design Criteria at Section 40.25, a county engineering document published separately from the city code, so an owner has to reach outside the ordinance to find the shape of the triangle. One case is written back in: a corner lot on a residential street or a minor collector gets a sight distance area extending thirty feet from where the two property lines next to the corner meet. The fence section points here directly, saying a corner lot fence may not extend into the sight distance area as defined in Section 405.340.
The sight distance area shall be determined per the standards established in the St. Louis County Department of Highways and Traffic Design Criteria, Section 40.25
30 ftsight distance area on a residential or minor collector street
The code hands this to Section 40.25 of the St. Louis County Department of Highways and Traffic Design Criteria, which is not published in the code itself.
Also on corner visibility in St. Peters
- set in state lawMissouri lists the ways a person may not damage a road, and fencing is one of them. Chapter 229 makes it against the law to block or damage a public road on purpose, including by fencing across or onto the right of way, or by planting a hedge or putting up an ad sign inside the road lines. A road overseer or county highway engineer sends written notice to take it out, and can ask the circuit court for permission to go clear it. The section does not reach charter counties or the City of St. Louis, and it sets no clear view triangle at a corner. Mo. Rev. Stat. 229.150Missouri · Traffic code
Retaining wall rules in St. Peters
Compare retaining walls across all 50 states
St. Peters does not set this. It leaves it to the building code each county, fire protection district or city adopts by reference in its own ordinance.
Missouri puts no retaining wall rule in state law. Section 67.280 lets a county, a fire protection district or a city pass a rule that adopts a building code by naming it. The code has to be named by date and source, and a copy has to sit with the local clerk for ninety days first. So the rule for a wall that holds back earth is whatever the adopted code says, and it changes from one town to the next.
This one is Missouri law, not St. Peters law. All Missouri findings
Any community, if the community otherwise has the power under the law to adopt such an ordinance, may adopt or repeal an ordinance which incorporates by reference the provisions of any code or portions of any code, or any amendment thereof, properly identified as to date and source, without setting forth the provisions of such code in full.
The code hands this to the building code each county, fire protection district or city adopts by reference in its own ordinance, which is not published in the code itself.
Fence materials allowed in St. Peters
Compare materials across all 50 states
St. Peters answers this, but the answer changes depending on whether the fence is over four feet, and the district.
St. Peters changes the material list at four feet rather than at the property line. A residential fence four feet or under may be wood, masonry, vinyl, metal in the appearance of wrought iron, or chain link. Above four feet chain link and masonry drop off the list and only wood, wrought iron lookalike metal and vinyl remain, with chain link or masonry allowed back in only if the Administrative Officer is given substantial evidence that nothing else is practical and that it will not create an aesthetic problem. Vinyl means slats or planks, and the code says twice that vinyl coated chain link does not count as vinyl. Slats pushed into chain link are prohibited at any height. Barbed wire, hardware cloth and single strand wire are all out in residential districts, and come back on business land only where the lowest strand sits at least seven feet above grade as security on top of a regular fence. Electrified fences are handed to the state, allowed where Missouri statutes 67.301 and 67.494 allow them.
Fences which are greater than four (4) feet in height shall be constructed of wood, metal in the appearance of wrought iron, or vinyl materials.
The answer turns on whether the fence is over four feet, and the district.
- four feet or under
- Chain link is fine. 4 ft
- over four feet
- Wood, wrought iron lookalike or vinyl.
- barbed wire on business land
- Lowest strand seven feet up. 7 ft
- an electric fence
- Whatever state law allows.
Also on materials in St. Peters
- set in state lawMissouri says what a battery charged fence is and blocks every city, county, town and village from banning one. To fit the definition it ties into an alarm that calls law enforcement, sits on land not set aside for homes, and runs off a battery of no more than twelve volts. It also has to stand completely inside a fence or wall that carries no current and is at least five feet tall, stop at ten feet, and carry warning signs no more than sixty feet apart. Whoever installs it has to give the local government written notice once it is up. Mo. Rev. Stat. 67.301Missouri · Statute
Livestock and boundary fence law in St. Peters
Compare agricultural fencing across all 50 states
Missouri answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
A lawful fence in Missouri is posts and wire or boards at least four feet high, once the two owners agree on it or the associate circuit court decides it. The posts go firmly in the ground no more than twelve feet apart. The wire or boards are fastened tight and spaced so horses, cattle and animals like them cannot get through.
This one is Missouri law, not St. Peters law. All Missouri findings
Any fence consisting of posts and wire or boards at least four feet high which is mutually agreed upon by adjoining landowners or decided upon by the associate circuit court of the county is a lawful fence.
4 ftminimum height of a lawful fence in Missouri
Also on agricultural fencing in St. Peters
- set in state lawThe four feet in Missouri is a minimum, not a maximum. A separate section says nothing in the fence chapter stops either owner from building their own part, or the neighbor's part, better than the chapter asks for. So Chapter 272 sets the least a lawful fence can be and puts no cap on it. RSMo § 272.136Missouri · Statute
Documents behind this page
14 documents, of which 1 was published by St. Peters itself. Each was read on the date shown.
- Missouri Revisor of StatutesRevised Statutes of Missouri, Chapter 272, Section 272.060, Division fences, rights of parties in, how determined
- Missouri Revisor of StatutesRevised Statutes of Missouri, Chapter 272, Section 272.070, Duty of judge if owners disagree, apportionment of costs
- Missouri Revisor of StatutesRevised Statutes of Missouri, Chapter 272, Section 272.132, Total cost of fence attributable to one landowner, when
- Missouri Revisor of StatutesRevised Statutes of Missouri, Chapter 272, Section 272.110, Division fences to be kept in repair
- City of St. PetersCode of Ordinances of the City of St. Peters, Missouri, Chapter 405, Zoning and Subdivision Regulations, Article VI, Supplementary Regulations, Section 405.360, Fence Requirements
- Missouri Revisor of StatutesRevised Statutes of Missouri, Chapter 272, Fences, Enclosures and Trespassing Animals, full chapter listing
- Missouri Revisor of StatutesRevised Statutes of Missouri, Chapter 701, Minimum Standards for Certain Structures and Materials, full chapter listing
- Missouri Revisor of StatutesRevised Statutes of Missouri, Chapter 67, Section 67.280, Communities may incorporate by reference certain technical codes
- Missouri Revisor of StatutesRevised Statutes of Missouri, Chapter 537, Section 537.348, Definition of conditional use
- Missouri Revisor of StatutesRevised Statutes of Missouri, Section 89.020, Powers of municipal legislative body
- Missouri Revisor of StatutesRevised Statutes of Missouri, Chapter 229, Section 229.150, Ditches and crossings, how made, obstructions or damage prohibited
- Missouri Revisor of StatutesRevised Statutes of Missouri, Chapter 67, Section 67.301, Battery-charged fence
- Missouri Revisor of StatutesRevised Statutes of Missouri, Chapter 272, Section 272.020, Fencing requirements
- Missouri Revisor of StatutesRevised Statutes of Missouri, Chapter 272, Section 272.136, Landowner may exceed lawful fence requirements
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 St. Peters publishes, plus the Missouri rules that apply where the city sets none. Fence laws in Missouri 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