Fence laws in Henderson, Nevada
What the Henderson municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Henderson sets no rule of its own, the Nevada rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Henderson, Nevada, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- The section states no general setback from a side or rear line, and the whole structure of the height table assumes a fence standing inside a required setback, so an ordinary fence may sit on the boundary, and the answer turns on what the fence encloses and what street it faces. The figure is 0 feet, for setback stated from a property line for an ordinary fence.
- How tall
- In a residential district the numbers come from Table 19.10.6-1, and the answer turns on the district, the setback and what the fence is made of. The figure is 6 feet, for maximum fence height within a required residential side or rear setback.
- Permits
- The Development Code names no general fence permit, and the one permit it does name belongs to the one fence it is nervous about, and the answer turns on what kind of fence it is and who has to be satisfied.
- Pool barriers
- Nevada pool law covers a public pool, which it describes as any structure holding a man made body of water meant to be used by people as a group for swimming or bathing, whether or not anyone is charged for it.
- Spite fences
- Henderson has no spite fence statute. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Measured from what
- Nevada answers the measuring question in one place, the livestock title. The figure is 48 inches, for top barrier of a legal fence, measured above the ground. It reaches a legal fence for livestock trespass, not a fence at a house only.
- Corner lots
- Henderson leaves corner clearance to the City of Henderson Standard Drawings, which fix the sight visibility zones for street intersections.
- Retaining walls
- Henderson leaves retaining walls to the building code adopted by the governing body of each city or county.
- Materials
- Reflective fencing, razor wire, barbed wire and smooth-face concrete masonry units are all prohibited outright, and the answer turns on the material, the district and whether the wall can be seen from the street. The figure is 50 percent, for most of a wall that may be plain colored block.
- Livestock
- Nevada says what a legal fence for livestock has to be. The figure is 20 feet, for maximum spacing between posts on a legal fence.
Who owns the fence between two properties in Henderson?
Compare fences on the property line across all 50 states
Henderson answers this, but the answer changes depending on what the fence encloses and what street it faces.
The section states no general setback from a side or rear line, and the whole structure of the height table assumes a fence standing inside a required setback, so an ordinary fence may sit on the boundary. The one distance that is stated belongs to a sports or tennis court, whose structure or fencing has to stand at least five feet back from the side and rear property lines, which is what pays for the extra six feet of height it is allowed. Two other rules limit where a wall may run rather than how close it may come. A contiguous wall running generally parallel with the perimeter of a subdivision may not exceed two hundred and fifty feet without design variation, and a development along an arterial or collector using one of the neighborhood design options has to choose between no wall at all, a six foot wrought iron fence, or a combination masonry wall no more than six feet with the top half in wrought iron, because a solid block wall there is prohibited.
Structures and/or fencing shall be set back a minimum of five feet from the side and rear property lines.
The answer turns on what the fence encloses and what street it faces.
- an ordinary fence
- No setback stated. 0 ft
- a sports or tennis court fence
- Five feet from the side and rear lines. 5 ft
- a long perimeter wall
- Variation every two hundred and fifty feet. 250 ft
- a frontage on an arterial or collector
- No solid block wall.
Also on fences on the property line in Henderson
- no rule, documents checkedNevada has no law about splitting the cost of a fence on the line. Nothing in state law makes one neighbor pay a share of a boundary fence, and nothing sets a notice step before building one. The livestock chapter does say what a legal fence has to look like, but that definition decides who pays for damage done by stray animals, not who pays for the fence. The grazing chapter and the property chapter say nothing about cost either. That leaves a deal between the two neighbors or a city rule. NRS ch. 569Nevada · Statute
How tall can a fence be in Henderson?
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Henderson answers this, but the answer changes depending on the district, the setback and what the fence is made of.
In a residential district the numbers come from Table 19.10.6-1. Inside a required side or rear setback the maximum is six feet, rising to eight where the fence is next to nonresidential zoning. Inside a required front setback it is thirty two inches for masonry, and four feet for chain link where chain link is permitted, for combination block, or for wrought iron, so the extra sixteen inches is bought with openness. An entry gate at a residential subdivision may be eight feet. In a non-residential district the maximum is eight feet, or up to twelve where extra height is needed to secure or screen storage, and anything in a front or corner side setback, or facing open space, parks or trails, is held to three feet unless screening requirements call for more. A sports or tennis court on a lot of ten thousand square feet or more may go to twelve feet provided everything above six feet is open.
The maximum height of a fence or wall is established in Table 19.10.6-1, Maximum Fence Height, except as otherwise permitted in this Code.
The answer turns on the district, the setback and what the fence is made of.
- a residential side or rear setback
- Six feet, or eight against nonresidential zoning. 6 ft
- masonry in a residential front setback
- Thirty two inches. 32 in
- a non-residential district
- Eight feet, twelve for secured storage. 12 ft
- a sports or tennis court
- Twelve feet, open above six.
Also on fence height in Henderson
- no rule, documents checkedNevada does not limit how tall a fence at a house can be. NRS 278.580 leaves building codes to each city and county, so no state code carries a fence height or a fence permit rule. The only fence heights in Nevada law are the forty eight inch top barrier on a livestock fence and the five and six foot barriers around a public pool. Cities and counties set the height rule for a yard fence. NRS 278.580Nevada · Statute
Do I need a permit for a fence in Henderson?
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Henderson answers this, but the answer changes depending on what kind of fence it is and who has to be satisfied.
The Development Code names no general fence permit, and the one permit it does name belongs to the one fence it is nervous about. A chain link fence on vacant property needs a building permit from the Building and Fire Safety Division, and Public Works reviews it before issue to confirm it does not create or worsen a drainage problem, which is the real risk of running a fence across an empty desert lot. Access gates are separately required to follow crime prevention through environmental design guidelines and be approved by the same division. Everything else runs through discretion rather than permits: fences and walls comply with the section unless a waiver or variance says otherwise, the Director signs off on alternative wall materials, on multifamily fencing materials and on design variations in a long wall, and city staff make the final call on what breaks up the monotony.
A building permit for a chain-link fence shall be obtained from the Building & Fire Safety Division and shall be reviewed as necessary by the Public Works department prior to issuance to ensure that the fence does not create or intensify any drainage problems.
The answer turns on what kind of fence it is and who has to be satisfied.
- chain link on vacant land
- A building permit, and a drainage review.
- an access gate
- Building and Fire Safety approves it.
- a standard the fence cannot meet
- A waiver or a variance.
- an alternative material or design
- The Director decides.
Also on permits in Henderson
- set in state lawNevada has no building code of its own. NRS 278.580 lets the governing body of any city or county adopt a building code, write the rules that enforce it, and set the permit fees. The statute names only two things a local code has to carry: the earthquake parts of the International Building Code, and standards for studying earthquake hazards. Whether a fence needs a permit is a city or county question. NRS 278.580Nevada · Statute
Pool fence requirements in Henderson
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Nevada answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Nevada pool law covers a public pool, which it describes as any structure holding a man made body of water meant to be used by people as a group for swimming or bathing, whether or not anyone is charged for it. A pool at a private home is left out when the owner or someone living there controls it and only family and invited guests use it. Foster homes, small child care homes and some private club pools are left out too.
This one is Nevada law, not Henderson law. All Nevada findings
means any structure containing an artificial body of water that is intended to be used collectively by persons for swimming or bathing, regardless of whether a fee is charged for its use
Also on pool barriers in Henderson
- set in state lawNevada requires a barrier that closes off the whole pool area at a public pool. It can be a fence, a wall, a building or something else. It has to keep small children out and give nothing to grab or stand on from the outside, and no part of a pool enclosure may double as a walkway people use to get somewhere else. NAC 444.136Nevada · Agency guidance
- set in state lawNevada sets two barrier heights for public pools, and both are taller than the four feet common in other states. A pool at a hotel, motel, other lodging, trailer park, apartment building, condominium or other building with many homes in it takes a barrier at least five feet high. Every other covered pool takes at least six feet. A layout where a gate or door opens straight from a room into the pool area is not allowed. NAC 444.136Nevada · Agency guidance
- set in state lawThe Nevada pool barrier rule also limits the gaps. Upright pieces sit no more than four inches apart, and any opening along the bottom stays under four inches tall. A gate or door into the pool area carries a permanent lock and a latch that closes and catches on its own, set at least three and a half feet above the ground. NAC 444.136Nevada · Agency guidance
Spite fence laws in Henderson
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Henderson law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
Nevada has no spite fence law and no height that makes a fence a legal wrong on its own. A spite fence is one built to bother a neighbor rather than to do a job. The nuisance sections of chapter 40 never use the word fence, and NRS 40.140 gives only a broad test covering anything that blocks the free use of property. The public nuisance sections of chapter 202 mention a fence once, to say that fencing public land is not a nuisance when a federal agency allows or requires it.
This one is Nevada law, not Henderson law. All Nevada findings
Documents read before writing that:
- NRS 40.140Nevada Legislature
- NRS ch. 202Nevada Legislature
- NRS ch. 111Nevada Legislature
How fence height is measured in Henderson
Compare how height is measured across all 50 states
Nevada answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Nevada answers the measuring question in one place, the livestock title. A legal fence has at least four side to side barriers, the lowest no more than twelve inches from the ground and the top at least forty eight inches above the ground. The ground is the starting point. The planning and zoning chapter has no match for it. NRS 278.020 gives cities and counties power over the improvement of land and over where structures go and how sound they are, without ever using the word height, so a fence at a house has no state starting point at all.
This one is Nevada law, not Henderson law. All Nevada findings
The lower barrier must be not more than 12 inches from the ground and the space between any two barriers must be not more than 12 inches and the height of top barrier must be at least 48 inches above the ground.
48 intop barrier of a legal fence, measured above the ground
Also on how height is measured in Henderson
- no rule, documents checkedNone of the heights in the section carries a datum. The six feet in a side or rear setback, the thirty two inches of masonry in a front setback, the eight feet against nonresidential land, the twelve feet around a tennis court and the three feet in a non-residential front setback are all stated as bare numbers. No grade is named, no curb, no finished ground level, and nothing says whose side of a boundary a height is read from, which matters on the terraced lots common in Henderson. A berm is not addressed. A fence standing on a retaining wall is not addressed either, although the section does require a perimeter retaining wall visible from a public right-of-way to be capped, so the drafters had retaining walls in mind. A fence running down a slope is not addressed in the fence section, and the chapter keeps its slope and grading standards in a separate section. Section 19.10.6Henderson · Zoning code
Fence rules for corner lots in Henderson
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Henderson does not set this. It leaves it to the City of Henderson Standard Drawings, which fix the sight visibility zones for street intersections.
The fence section opens its general standards with the corner rule and then hands the shape to a different document. Sight visibility zones for street intersections are to be provided per the Standard Drawings, and sight visibility zones for driveways per the driveway subsection of the Development Code. So no leg length, no protected band of height and no exception for an open fence appears in the fence section itself, and the answer can change when the engineering drawings are revised rather than when the Code is amended. The rule does bite elsewhere in the section by name: perimeter fencing at a multifamily development may exceed six feet where an exception is necessary to meet the sight visibility zone requirements, and a fence in a non-residential district may not impair the visibility of drivers entering or leaving a site.
In addition to the standards listed below for various zoning districts, sight visibility zones for street intersections shall be provided per the Standard Drawings. Sight visibility zones for driveways shall be provided per HMC Subsection 19.12.5.D, Driveways.
The code hands this to the City of Henderson Standard Drawings, which fix the sight visibility zones for street intersections, which is not published in the code itself.
Also on corner visibility in Henderson
- set in state lawNevada does have a state rule about blocking the view at an intersection, and it sits in the highway chapter rather than in any zoning law. NRS 405.110 says an advertising sign may not stand where it hides a clear view of a crossing highway. It reaches signs and advertising, nothing else. It draws no triangle, gives no distance, and says nothing about a fence on a house lot, so a corner fence is still a city or county matter under NRS 278. NRS 405.110Nevada · Traffic code
Retaining wall rules in Henderson
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Henderson does not set this. It leaves it to the building code adopted by the governing body of each city or county.
Nevada has no rule of its own for a wall that holds back earth. NRS 278.580 lets the governing body of a city or county adopt a building code covering the design, strength and materials of structures, and adopt the rules that enforce it. Whether that kind of wall needs a permit, and how tall it can stand before it does, is answered by the code that city or county adopted.
This one is Nevada law, not Henderson law. All Nevada findings
the governing body of any city or county may adopt a building code, specifying the design, soundness and materials of structures, and may adopt rules, ordinances and regulations for the enforcement of the building code
The code hands this to the building code adopted by the governing body of each city or county, which is not published in the code itself.
Fence materials allowed in Henderson
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Henderson answers this, but the answer changes depending on the material, the district and whether the wall can be seen from the street.
Reflective fencing, razor wire, barbed wire and smooth-face concrete masonry units are all prohibited outright. Chain link is prohibited too, with three exceptions: vacant property fenced to stop illegal dumping or vehicles churning up dust, land along regional flood control facilities, and anywhere the Code expressly allows it. The block rules go further than most. Plain gray or painted block is not allowed at all, and plain colored block may be used only together with decorative block, provided no more than half the wall is plain and no more than two courses of it run at a time. Smooth-face block is let back in for the RS-1-RN and RS-2-RN districts, where it may even face a street, and elsewhere in residential districts only as an interior wall that faces no right-of-way, private street, alley or drive aisle. Any perimeter retaining wall visible from a public right-of-way needs a cap, and slurry caps are prohibited.
Reflective, razor wire, and barbed wire fencing, and smooth-face concrete masonry units (CMU) are prohibited. Chain link fencing is prohibited except for vacant property as authorized below, along regional flood control facilities, or as otherwise expressly permitted by this Code.
The answer turns on the material, the district and whether the wall can be seen from the street.
- razor or barbed wire
- Prohibited.
- chain link
- Vacant land, flood control, or where the Code says so.
- plain colored block
- Only with decorative block, half the wall at most. 50%
- a battery-charged fence
- Not in residential districts, except a rural overlay.
Also on materials in Henderson
- set in state lawNevada orders every county board to pass a rule on battery charged fences, and the state says what that rule has to contain. The fence goes on land not marked for homes, or on rural home land. It runs off a battery of no more than 12 volts and meets the international standard for the charger. It sits behind a fence or wall with no current in it at least 5 feet tall, stops at 10 feet, and carries warning signs no more than 40 feet apart. A county may not ban one outright and may not charge a separate permit for it. NRS 244.3677Nevada · Statute
Livestock and boundary fence law in Henderson
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Nevada answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Nevada says what a legal fence for livestock has to be. It carries at least four side to side barriers of wire, board, pole or similar material in common use nearby, with posts no more than twenty feet apart. Each post has to hold a sideways pull of 250 pounds at a point four feet up, and each barrier has to hold the same pull halfway between two posts.
This one is Nevada law, not Henderson law. All Nevada findings
a fence with not less than four horizontal barriers, consisting of wires, boards, poles or other fence material in common use in the neighborhood, with posts set not more than 20 feet apart.
20 ftmaximum spacing between posts on a legal fence
Also on agricultural fencing in Henderson
- set in state lawThe same Nevada rule fixes the spacing and the height of a legal fence. The lowest barrier sits no more than twelve inches off the ground, no two barriers are more than twelve inches apart, and the top barrier stands at least forty eight inches above the ground. NRS 569.431Nevada · Statute
- set in state lawNevada is a fence out state for cropland. The farmer builds the fence, not the animal owner. Nobody may collect for livestock damage to cultivated land, and no Nevada court may award it, if the land was not closed in by a legal fence when the animals got in. NRS 569.450Nevada · Statute
- set in state lawOnce land is closed in by a legal fence the rule turns around. If livestock break into ground held by a legal fence, the owner or manager of the animals pays the landowner for all the damage. A second trespass caused by that person neglecting the animals costs double. NRS 569.440Nevada · Statute
- set in state lawNevada calls every unfenced piece of land outside cities and towns open range when cattle, sheep or other farm animals graze or roam there by custom, license, lease or permit. That matters most on the highway. Under NRS 568.360 a person who owns or controls an animal running on open range does not have to keep it off a highway crossing that range and pays nothing for a crash there. Letting an animal into a fenced highway right of way through carelessness is different, and that does bring liability. NRS 568.355Nevada · Statute
Documents behind this page
11 documents, of which 1 was published by Henderson itself. Each was read on the date shown.
- Nevada LegislatureNevada Revised Statutes, Chapter 569 (Estrays and Livestock)
- Nevada LegislatureNevada Revised Statutes, Chapter 568 (Grazing and Ranging)
- Nevada LegislatureNevada Revised Statutes, Chapter 111 (Estates in Property; Conveyancing and Recording)
- City of HendersonHenderson Municipal Code, Title 19, Development Code, Chapter 19.10, General Site and Development Standards, Section 19.10.6, Fences and Walls
- Nevada LegislatureNevada Revised Statutes, Section 278.580
- Nevada State Board of HealthNevada Administrative Code, Chapter 444
- Nevada LegislatureNevada Revised Statutes, Section 444.065
- Nevada LegislatureNevada Revised Statutes, Chapter 40 (Actions and Proceedings in Particular Cases Concerning Property)
- Nevada LegislatureNevada Revised Statutes, Chapter 202 (Crimes Against Public Health and Safety)
- Nevada LegislatureNevada Revised Statutes, Chapter 405, Control and Preservation of Public Highways
- Nevada LegislatureNevada Revised Statutes, Chapter 244, Counties: Government, Section 244.3677, Ordinance regulating battery charged fences: Requirements; prohibitions
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 Henderson publishes, plus the Nevada rules that apply where the city sets none. Fence laws in Nevada 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