Fence laws in Hoboken, New Jersey
What the Hoboken municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Hoboken sets no rule of its own, the New Jersey rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Hoboken, New Jersey, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- Hoboken lets a fence sit in front of the property line and then lets the neighbors decide how far, and the answer turns on what the rest of the block already has. The figure is 3 feet, for minimum projection allowed into a public way.
- How tall
- Hoboken states no maximum fence height for an ordinary lot, and the answer turns on how tall the fence is and what it stands beside. The figure is 6 feet, for height at or below which no setback applies.
- Permits
- A fence, gate or stairway on a Hoboken street, sidewalk or public easement runs on a revocable license from the Zoning Officer, renewable at five year intervals, and the answer turns on where the fence stands and when it was built.
- Pool barriers
- Hoboken sets no statewide pool barrier rule. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Spite fences
- Hoboken has no spite fence statute. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Measured from what
- Hoboken leaves the measuring rule to a municipal zoning ordinance adopted under the Municipal Land Use Law.
- Corner lots
- New Jersey protects the driver view in its highways title, and only for signs that need a state permit. It reaches signs permitted by the Roadside Sign Control and Outdoor Advertising Act along state highways only.
- Retaining walls
- New Jersey writes its own rule for a wall that holds back earth instead of leaving it to the national code. The figure is 4 feet, for retaining wall height at or above which a construction permit is required.
- Materials
- Hoboken writes its material rule for the fences the public walks past, and the answer turns on whether the fence stands on a public way or on private land.
- Livestock
- New Jersey sets one height for a lawful fence and one job for it to do. The figure is 50 inches, for minimum height of a lawful fence, which the statute states as four feet and two inches.
Who owns the fence between two properties in Hoboken?
Compare fences on the property line across all 50 states
Hoboken answers this, but the answer changes depending on what the rest of the block already has.
Hoboken lets a fence sit in front of the property line and then lets the neighbors decide how far. No fence, gate or stoop may project into a street, sidewalk or public easement more than the greatest projection of any fence, gate or stoop on the same side of the street between the next two cross streets that was finished on or before the first of January 1981, or three feet, whichever is greater. So a block with deep stoops keeps its line and a block with none gets three feet. On the private side of the line the zoning chapter states no setback for a fence at six feet or under, and above six feet the setback grows a foot for every foot of height. The city reserves the right to require the removal of any fence, gate or stoop on a public way that is improperly constructed or maintained.
No fence, gate or stoop shall be permitted to project into a street, sidewalk or public easement more than the maximum projection of any fence, gate or stoop erected on the same side of the street between the next nearest two cross streets, which were fully completed on or before January 1, 1981, or three feet, whichever is greater.
The answer turns on what the rest of the block already has.
- a block with existing projections
- Match the furthest one.
- a block with none
- Three feet. 3 ft
- a lot line, at six feet or under
- No setback stated. 0 ft
- a badly built fence
- The city may require removal.
Also on fences on the property line in Hoboken
- set in state lawNew Jersey only splits a fence on the line when at least one of the two neighbors is pasturing or keeping animals. Each neighbor who uses the land that way builds and keeps up a fair share. A neighbor who leaves the land empty and open, or who keeps no animals, owes nothing toward it. That is narrower than most states, where both sides share the cost whatever the land is used for. N.J.S.A. 4:20-7New Jersey · Statute
How tall can a fence be in Hoboken?
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Hoboken answers this, but the answer changes depending on how tall the fence is and what it stands beside.
Hoboken states no maximum fence height for an ordinary lot. What it states is a trade. Any wall or fence over six feet has to be set back from any lot line one foot for every additional foot of height, so a nine foot fence stands three feet in from the line and a twelve foot one stands six feet in. The only flat cap in the section applies along the boundary between the R District and any other district, where a fence or wall may not exceed eight feet. A fence erected on a public street, sidewalk or easement under the separate licensing article is the opposite case and is held between three and four feet. A pool more than three feet deep or fifteen feet long has to be enclosed by a fence of at least six feet.
Any wall or fence exceeding six feet in height shall be set back from any lot line one foot for each additional foot in height, except that along the boundary between the R District and any other district, the maximum permitted height of any fence or wall shall be eight feet.
The answer turns on how tall the fence is and what it stands beside.
- six feet or under
- No setback required. 6 ft
- over six feet
- A foot back for every foot up.
- an R district boundary
- Eight feet, whatever the setback. 8 ft
- on a public sidewalk
- Three to four feet. 4 ft
Also on fence height in Hoboken
- no rule, documents checkedNew Jersey does not limit how tall a fence at a house can be. State law gives that job to the towns, which may set the size, height and shape of fences between neighboring lots. Height is a town rule in every New Jersey town. R.S. 40:48-1(29)New Jersey · Statute
Do I need a permit for a fence in Hoboken?
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Hoboken answers this, but the answer changes depending on where the fence stands and when it was built.
A fence, gate or stairway on a Hoboken street, sidewalk or public easement runs on a revocable license from the Zoning Officer, renewable at five year intervals. The license is conditioned on filing a certificate of liability insurance of at least a hundred thousand dollars naming the Mayor and Council as coinsured, kept in force during construction and afterwards, and an owner occupied one or two-family home is exempt from that insurance requirement. Where the insurance lapses the owner has to remove the encroachment, and if they refuse the Zoning Officer removes it and charges the cost back. The application fee is a flat twenty dollars. Anything built on or before the first of January 1981 needs no license, although any alteration or addition brings it under the rules. In a historic district the Historic Preservation Commission has to approve first.
The Zoning Officer is hereby authorized to grant revocable licenses, renewable at five-year intervals to property owners for the purposes of erecting or maintaining new fences, gates or stairways upon any street, sidewalk, or public easement of the City of Hoboken
Section 168-36, with 168-39 and 168-40
The answer turns on where the fence stands and when it was built.
- a fence on a public way
- A revocable license, renewed every five years.
- the insurance
- A hundred thousand dollars, with the city coinsured.
- an owner occupied one or two-family home
- Exempt from the insurance.
- built before 1981
- No license, unless it is altered.
Also on permits in Hoboken
- set in state lawNew Jersey runs one construction code for the whole state. The Commissioner of Community Affairs adopts it after a public hearing, and it covers building work everywhere in the state. The list of work that needs a permit, and the list of work that does not, sit inside that code at N.J.A.C. 5:23 and not in the statute. N.J.S.A. 52:27D-123New Jersey · Statute
Pool fence requirements in Hoboken
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Hoboken law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
New Jersey does have a pool barrier rule. It sits in the state construction code at N.J.A.C. 5:23-3.21, which takes in the International Swimming Pool and Spa Code and then changes parts of it. The Department of Community Affairs publishes that rule only as a PDF and its text could not be read, so no height is claimed here. The numbers live in the national code rather than in New Jersey text.
This one is New Jersey law, not Hoboken law. All New Jersey findings
Documents read before writing that:
- N.J.A.C. 5:23-3.21New Jersey Department of Community Affairs
- N.J.S.A. 52:27D-123New Jersey Legislature
Spite fence laws in Hoboken
Compare spite fences across all 50 states
Hoboken law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
New Jersey has no statewide spite fence law. A spite fence is one built to bother a neighbor rather than to do a job. Title 4, Chapter 20 covers fences on the line and says nothing about spite. State law instead lets each town set the size and height of fences between neighbors, so the answer is a town rule.
This one is New Jersey law, not Hoboken law. All New Jersey findings
Documents read before writing that:
- N.J.S.A. 4:20-7New Jersey Legislature
- R.S. 40:48-1(29)New Jersey Legislature
How fence height is measured in Hoboken
Compare how height is measured across all 50 states
Hoboken does not set this. It leaves it to a municipal zoning ordinance adopted under the Municipal Land Use Law.
New Jersey states a fence number and never says where to measure it from. The state construction code says no permit is needed for a fence six feet or less in height, and it never says six feet above what. The Municipal Land Use Law fills the gap by handing the bulk, height, number of stories, direction and size of buildings and other structures to a town zoning rule. The town decides where the measuring starts.
This one is New Jersey law, not Hoboken law. All New Jersey findings
Regulate the bulk, height, number of stories, orientation, and size of buildings and the other structures; the percentage of lot or development area that may be occupied by structures; lot sizes and dimensions
The code hands this to a municipal zoning ordinance adopted under the Municipal Land Use Law, which is not published in the code itself.
Also on how height is measured in Hoboken
- no rule, documents checkedThe zoning chapter states six feet and eight feet, and the licensing article states three and four, and none of the four carries a reference. No grade is named, a berm is not addressed, a fence on a retaining wall is not addressed, and no allowance is made for a post cap. That gap matters more in Hoboken than in most places, because the height rule is a sliding one: a fence over six feet buys its extra height with a foot of setback per foot, so where the measurement starts changes not only whether the fence is legal but how far in from the line it has to stand. The chapter shows elsewhere that it can fix a datum when it wants one, measuring a rooftop appurtenance from the main roof slab and bird-friendly material requirements from a stated number of feet above grade. Section 196-28Hoboken · Zoning code
Fence rules for corner lots in Hoboken
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New Jersey answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
New Jersey protects the driver view in its highways title, and only for signs that need a state permit. Section 27:5-9 sets the conditions on that permit, and one of them is that the sign may not block a clear view of the road ahead or of official signs and signals. Nothing there reaches a fence at a house. A town gets the power to draw a corner sight triangle, the clear space kept open where two streets meet, from the Municipal Land Use Law.
This one is New Jersey law, not Hoboken law. All New Jersey findings
A sign may not interfere or be likely to interfere with the ability of the operator of a motor vehicle to have a clear and unobstructed view of the highway ahead or of official signs, signals or traffic control devices.
Also on corner visibility in Hoboken
- no rule, documents checkedNeither the zoning chapter nor the fence licensing article draws a sight triangle. The walls and fences section is a single sentence about height and setback and never mentions a corner, an intersection or a driver. The nearest thing in the zoning chapter belongs to the sign rules, which prohibit in every district a sign that interferes with, disrupts or blocks a pedestrian or vehicular circulation pattern or site line and so constitutes a safety hazard, and that sentence is about signs rather than fences. What keeps a Hoboken corner clear in practice is the licensing article, since a fence anywhere on the sidewalk is held between three and four feet, has to be cast iron or similar, and may not project past the established line of the block. Section 196-28Hoboken · Zoning code
Retaining wall rules in Hoboken
Compare retaining walls across all 50 states
New Jersey answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
New Jersey writes its own rule for a wall that holds back earth instead of leaving it to the national code. A construction permit is needed to build, enlarge, change, rebuild or tear down such a wall four feet or taller, and also a shorter one that hurts a foundation. The four feet counts every wall on the same slope added together, measured from the bottom of the footing to the top of the wall. Walls the town already reviewed in subdivision and site plan work, and walls a county engineer or the state transportation department reviews, are left out.
This one is New Jersey law, not Hoboken law. All New Jersey findings
No person shall construct, enlarge, alter, reconstruct, or demolish a retaining wall or series of retaining walls having a total height four feet or greater, or a retaining wall less than four feet having a negative impact on a foundation, without first obtaining a construction permit.
4 ftretaining wall height at or above which a construction permit is required
Fence materials allowed in Hoboken
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Hoboken answers this, but the answer changes depending on whether the fence stands on a public way or on private land.
Hoboken writes its material rule for the fences the public walks past. All gates and fences erected on public thoroughfares have to be of cast iron or a similar material and may not be less than three feet nor higher than four feet, and chain link is not permitted there at all. The space between the lot line and a licensed fence, gate or stoop may not be enclosed, sealed, built upon or used to store personal property without the express approval of the City Council, which stops the strip in front of a stoop turning into a shed. On private land behind the sidewalk the zoning chapter names no material for a fence, so the choice is open there. A fence on a property in a historic district or on a designated historic site needs the approval of the Hoboken Historic Preservation Commission before any permit issues.
All gates and fences erected on public thoroughfares shall be of cast iron or similar material and shall not be less than three feet nor higher than four feet in height. Chain-link fences are not permitted.
The answer turns on whether the fence stands on a public way or on private land.
- on a public thoroughfare
- Cast iron or similar.
- chain link there
- Not permitted.
- behind the sidewalk
- No material named.
- a historic district
- The Preservation Commission first.
Also on materials in Hoboken
- set in state lawNew Jersey calls an electric security fence a perimeter fence intrusion protection system, and it sets nine things such a fence has to do. It ties into an alarm somebody watches. It cannot go on land a town has set aside for homes only. It runs off a storage battery of no more than 12 volts and meets the international standard for the charger. It stands behind a fence or wall with no current in it at least five feet tall, stops at ten feet, carries warning signs no more than 40 feet apart, and is put in by somebody trained or certified to install it. N.J.S.A. 45:5A-54New Jersey · Statute
Livestock and boundary fence law in Hoboken
Compare agricultural fencing across all 50 states
New Jersey answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
New Jersey sets one height for a lawful fence and one job for it to do. It stands four feet and two inches from the surface of the ground, and it has to be close, strong and tight enough that horses and cattle cannot get through or under. Where the fence sits on the line and either neighbor works the land, it also has to be tight enough to stop sheep. Low meadow along a stream or river that floods is left out of that last part.
This one is New Jersey law, not Hoboken law. All New Jersey findings
if four feet and two inches high measuring from the level or surface of the earth, and close, strong and sufficient to prevent horses and cattle from going through or under it.
50 inminimum height of a lawful fence, which the statute states as four feet and two inches
Also on agricultural fencing in Hoboken
- set in state lawNew Jersey ties the damage claim to the fence. When horses, cattle or sheep get over, push through or break down a fence the chapter calls lawful, the owner of the animals pays the hurt neighbor for all of it. Two neutral people from the neighborhood set the amount, one picked by each side, and each has to own the same sort of property that was damaged. If the animal owner will not pick, the hurt neighbor picks both. If the two cannot agree, they bring in a third. N.J.S.A. 4:20-22New Jersey · Statute
- set in state lawNew Jersey bans barbed wire between neighbors unless the neighbor agrees to it. A fence on the line made of barbed wire, or of wire with barbs or points strung on it, is not a lawful fence without the next door owner's consent, and the statute forbids it outright without that consent. Most farm states treat barbed wire as the normal build. New Jersey does the opposite. N.J.S.A. 4:20-3New Jersey · Statute
Documents behind this page
13 documents, of which 2 were published by Hoboken itself. Each was read on the date shown.
- New Jersey LegislatureNew Jersey Statutes (Unannotated), Title 4, Section 4:20-7, Duty to make and maintain portion of partition fence
- City of HobokenCode of the City of Hoboken, Chapter 168, Streets and Sidewalks, Article III, Fences, Gateways and Stairways
- New Jersey LegislatureAssembly Bill A697 (2022 session), reproducing R.S.40:48-1 paragraph 29, Fences
- City of HobokenCode of the City of Hoboken, Chapter 196, Zoning, Section 196-28, Walls and fences
- New Jersey LegislatureNew Jersey Statutes (Unannotated), Title 52, Section 52:27D-123, State Uniform Construction Code; adoption
- New Jersey Department of Community AffairsN.J.A.C. 5:23-3, Uniform Construction Code subcodes (PDF, could not be read)
- New Jersey Business Action Center, Department of StateMunicipal Land Use Law, N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1 et seq.
- New Jersey LegislatureNew Jersey Statutes, Title 27, Highways, Chapter 5, Roadside Sign Control and Outdoor Advertising
- New Jersey Department of Community AffairsNew Jersey Administrative Code, Title 5, Chapter 23, Uniform Construction Code, Subchapter 2, Administration and Enforcement
- New Jersey LegislatureP.L.2021, Chapter 2, An Act concerning perimeter fence intrusion protection systems and other alarm systems
- New Jersey LegislatureNew Jersey Statutes (Unannotated), Title 4, Agriculture and Domestic Animals, Section 4:20-1, Sufficiency of fences in general
- New Jersey LegislatureNew Jersey Statutes (Unannotated), Title 4, Agriculture and Domestic Animals, Section 4:20-22, Damages by animals breaking through lawful fences
- New Jersey LegislatureNew Jersey Statutes (Unannotated), Title 4, Agriculture and Domestic Animals, Section 4:20-3, Partition fences of barbed wire
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 Hoboken publishes, plus the New Jersey rules that apply where the city sets none. Fence laws in New Jersey 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