Fence laws in Summerville, South Carolina
What the Summerville municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Summerville sets no rule of its own, the South Carolina rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Summerville, South Carolina, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- The boundary answer is the first half of the same sentence that supplies the height. The figure is 0 feet, for setback stated from a property line for a fence.
- How tall
- Summerville states one fence height and states it inside the encroachment rules rather than in a fence section, and the answer turns on whether the fence encroaches into a required front setback and whether it is solid. The figure is 4.5 feet, for non-opaque fence encroaching into a required front setback.
- Permits
- The UDO creates no fence permit, and the answer turns on where in town the fence is going.
- Pool barriers
- South Carolina fences every outdoor public swimming pool. The figure is 4 feet, for minimum fence height around an outdoor Type B, C, D or F public swimming pool.
- Spite fences
- Summerville has no spite fence statute. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Measured from what
- Summerville leaves the measuring rule to the zoning ordinance of a municipality or county.
- Corner lots
- Inside a sight distance triangle no fence, wall, sign other than a regulatory or street name sign, embankment, landscaping or structure may be placed, erected or maintained where it will obstruct visibility, and nothing at any intersection may materially impede vision above three and a half feet, and the answer turns on what meets what at the corner. The figure is 25 feet, for leg of the sight triangle where two town streets intersect.
- Retaining walls
- Summerville leaves retaining walls to the 2021 International Residential Code, published by the International Code Council, whose Sections R105.2 and R404 South Carolina leaves unchanged. It reaches one and two family dwellings only.
- Materials
- For an ordinary fence the ordinance names no permitted material and prohibits none, and the answer turns on whether the fence is doing a screening job and who can see it.
- Livestock
- South Carolina puts the duty on the animal owner.
Who owns the fence between two properties in Summerville?
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Summerville answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
The boundary answer is the first half of the same sentence that supplies the height. Walls and fences may encroach within minimum required setbacks up to the property lines, and they may also encroach into an easement where the easement holder permits it. So the ordinance gives express permission to build on the line rather than leaving it to be inferred from the absence of a setback. No distance from a neighbor is stated anywhere. The comparison inside the same list is useful, because most of the other encroachments are capped: a rear deck gets eight feet into the rear setback, a balcony or awning five feet into the front, stairs five feet, cornices and eaves two feet, and a swimming pool may come to within five feet of a side or rear line. A fence is the one item in the list with no number attached to how far it may go.
Walls, or fences may encroach within minimum required setbacks up to the property lines.
0 ftsetback stated from a property line for a fence
Also on fences on the property line in Summerville
- no rule, documents checkedSouth Carolina has no statewide law about a fence on the line. The Code of Laws never says how two neighbors split the cost of a fence on a shared line, and it sets no notice steps before one goes up. A phrase search of the whole Code of Laws returns nothing for partition fence, division fence, boundary fence, lawful fence, joint expense or fence viewers. Splitting that cost is left to a private agreement between the neighbors and to local rules. S.C. Code Title 47, Chapter 7South Carolina · Statute
How tall can a fence be in Summerville?
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Summerville answers this, but the answer changes depending on whether the fence encroaches into a required front setback and whether it is solid.
Summerville states one fence height and states it inside the encroachment rules rather than in a fence section. A fence encroaching into a required setback in a front yard may be no more than four and a half feet tall, and only if it is non-opaque. A wall doing the same thing is held to three feet. Nothing in the ordinance states a height for a fence in a side yard, a rear yard, or anywhere outside a required setback, and nothing states a height for an opaque fence in a front yard either, which is a real gap rather than a reading of mine. The heights the ordinance does state elsewhere are minimums attached to screening duties, not ceilings: six feet of fence or hedge as a buffer, seven feet of opaque screen around open storage in the LI and HI districts, and six feet around certain animal uses. The sight triangle caps anything at three and a half feet near an intersection.
Walls, or fences may encroach within minimum required setbacks up to the property lines. Encroaching non-opaque fences in the front yard shall be no greater than 4.5 feet in height. Encroaching walls in the front yard shall be no greater than 3 feet in height.
The answer turns on whether the fence encroaches into a required front setback and whether it is solid.
- a see-through fence in a front setback
- Four and a half feet. 4.5 ft
- a wall in the same place
- Three feet. 3 ft
- a side or rear yard fence
- No height stated.
- a sight triangle
- Three and a half feet. 3.5 ft
Also on fence height in Summerville
- no rule, documents checkedSouth Carolina sets no statewide limit on how tall a fence at a house can be. Title 6, Chapter 9 hands the choice of a building code to the Building Codes Council and says nothing about the height of a yard fence, and Title 27 has no fence chapter at all. Cities and counties set the height. S.C. Code Title 6, Chapter 9South Carolina · Statute
Do I need a permit for a fence in Summerville?
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Summerville answers this, but the answer changes depending on where in town the fence is going.
The UDO creates no fence permit. The Zoning Administrator reviews and processes building permits, zoning permits and certificates of occupancy alongside the Chief Building Official, and a fence falls under that general machinery rather than under anything written for it. Where a fence gets real scrutiny is in front of a board. The Design Review Board rules on the appropriateness of site development features and names fences in the list, next to building placement, landscaping, driveways and outbuildings. The Board of Architectural Review holds the same kind of power inside the designated historic districts, established under the state statute to govern the right to erect, demolish, remove or alter the exterior appearance of anything in the area. So in most of Summerville a fence is a permit clerk question, and in the historic core it is a design question decided by seven appointed people.
Appropriateness of site development features including building placement, landscaping, driveways, fences, outbuildings, master sign plans (excluding individual signs), building murals, public art, and other site appurtenances.
The answer turns on where in town the fence is going.
- an ordinary fence
- No fence permit is named.
- a site under design review
- The Design Review Board rules on it.
- the Historic District
- The Board of Architectural Review.
- the paperwork generally
- The Zoning Administrator with the Chief Building Official.
Also on permits in Summerville
- set in state lawSouth Carolina writes no building code of its own. Section 6-9-50 directs the South Carolina Building Codes Council to adopt the latest International Code Council codes by reference, the residential code among them, and section 6-9-10 makes every city and county in the state enforce them. So the fence permit exemption sits inside that adopted residential code. The code is sold by the International Code Council and is not posted on a South Carolina state site, so the exemption wording is not quoted here. S.C. Code 6-9-50(A)South Carolina · Statute
Pool fence requirements in Summerville
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South Carolina answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
South Carolina fences every outdoor public swimming pool. A Type A or Type E pool takes a chain link fence or equal barrier at least six feet tall. A Type B, C, D or F pool takes a fence at least four feet tall, measured from the outside of the pool area. Gates latch on their own and can be locked, and no gap in the fence may let a four inch ball through. The rule is health regulation R.61-51 and it covers public pools.
This one is South Carolina law, not Summerville law. All South Carolina findings
All outdoor Type "B", "C", "D" and "F" public swimming pools (including the deck area) shall be enclosed by a minimum four foot fence as measured from the exterior of the pool area.
4 ftminimum fence height around an outdoor Type B, C, D or F public swimming pool
Spite fence laws in Summerville
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Summerville law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
South Carolina has no spite fence law. The word spite does not appear anywhere in the Code of Laws, and no section limits a fence built to annoy a neighbor or sets a height that triggers one. A claim of that kind would rest on court rulings or a city ordinance.
This one is South Carolina law, not Summerville law. All South Carolina findings
Documents read before writing that:
- S.C. Code Title 27South Carolina General Assembly
- S.C. Code Title 46, Chapter 1South Carolina General Assembly
How fence height is measured in Summerville
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Summerville does not set this. It leaves it to the zoning ordinance of a municipality or county.
South Carolina sets one fence height in state law and never says six feet from what. The solar energy facility standards in the planning chapter require a perimeter fence of at least six feet, with no measuring point attached to it. For every other kind of property the answer is local. Section 6-29-720 lets a city or county zoning ordinance control the size, location, height, bulk and orientation of buildings and other structures, and that ordinance is where the measuring point is written.
This one is South Carolina law, not Summerville law. All South Carolina findings
the size, location, height, bulk, orientation, number of stories, erection, construction, reconstruction, alteration, demolition, or removal in whole or in part of buildings and other structures, including signage
The code hands this to the zoning ordinance of a municipality or county, which is not published in the code itself.
Also on how height is measured in Summerville
- no rule, documents checkedThe four and a half feet allowed for an encroaching front yard fence carries no datum. No grade is named, no curb, no crown of the road, no finished ground level. A berm is mentioned once in the ordinance, as one way to build a required screen, and never as something a fence might stand on. A retaining wall is not addressed as a base for a fence. A fence running down a slope is not addressed, and nothing says whose side of a boundary the height is read from, which matters here because the ordinance expressly lets a fence run all the way to the line. The horizontal measurements are stated with much more care by comparison: a fifteen by fifteen foot triangle at every driveway, twenty five feet each way at a street intersection, and separations from curb cuts that step from twenty five feet up to five hundred with the posted speed limit. Section 2.3.6Summerville · Zoning code
Fence rules for corner lots in Summerville
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Summerville answers this, but the answer changes depending on what meets what at the corner.
Inside a sight distance triangle no fence, wall, sign other than a regulatory or street name sign, embankment, landscaping or structure may be placed, erected or maintained where it will obstruct visibility, and nothing at any intersection may materially impede vision above three and a half feet. The size of the triangle depends on what meets what. Where two town streets cross it is twenty five feet along each. Where a town street meets a driveway it is fifteen feet along the street and ten along the driveway. Where either leg is an SCDOT street, the state standards apply instead. A separate rule in the parking chapter keeps a fifteen by fifteen foot triangle at every driveway and street intersection with the same list of things barred from it. The town engineer may ask the project engineer to supply the calculations proving the sight distance is achieved.
Within the sight distance triangle no fence, wall, sign (except regulatory and street name signs), embankment, landscaping or structure shall be placed, erected or maintained which will obstruct visibility.
The answer turns on what meets what at the corner.
- two town streets
- Twenty five feet along each. 25 ft
- a street and a driveway
- Fifteen feet and ten feet. 15 ft
- a state road
- SCDOT standards.
- the protected height
- Above three and a half feet.
Also on corner visibility in Summerville
- left to the townSouth Carolina draws no corner triangle of its own. Chapter 6-29 writes the zoning grant broadly and lets each city and county fill it in. The grant covers the size, location and height of structures and signs, the size of yards and open spaces, and site plan items such as landscaping and curb cuts. A corner triangle fits inside that list. S.C. Code 6-29-720South Carolina · Zoning code
Retaining wall rules in Summerville
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Summerville does not set this. It leaves it to the 2021 International Residential Code, published by the International Code Council, whose Sections R105.2 and R404 South Carolina leaves unchanged.
South Carolina writes no retaining wall rule of its own. The Building Codes Council adopts the 2021 International Residential Code and lists every change it made to that code, section by section, in Regulation Chapter 8. That list of changes was read end to end. It covers wind design, seismic design, fire separation, definitions and other items, and it never touches Section R105.2, the list of work that needs no permit, or Section R404, which covers foundation and retaining walls. So the rule that applies here is the model code text, which is sold by the International Code Council and is not printed on a South Carolina state site.
This one is South Carolina law, not Summerville law. All South Carolina findings
This code is identical to the 2021 Edition of the International Residential Code except for the following modifications:
The code hands this to the 2021 International Residential Code, published by the International Code Council, whose Sections R105.2 and R404 South Carolina leaves unchanged, which is not published in the code itself.
Fence materials allowed in Summerville
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Summerville answers this, but the answer changes depending on whether the fence is doing a screening job and who can see it.
For an ordinary fence the ordinance names no permitted material and prohibits none. Barbed wire does not appear. Razor wire does not appear. An electric fence does not appear. There is no rule that the finished side has to face out, which most codes in this project carry. The two places a material is named at all are both about screening rather than about fences as such. Chain link may not be used as a screening material for stored vehicles at a maintenance or repair use where the fence will be visible from any street or parking area. And the planning department is told, in the landscaping standards, that it may not require chain link fences to be used, which is the reverse instruction and aimed at the reviewer rather than the builder. A fence in the Historic District is judged on appearance by the Board of Architectural Review instead of by a materials list.
Chain link fencing shall not be permitted as a screening material if the fence will be visible from any street or parking area.
The answer turns on whether the fence is doing a screening job and who can see it.
- an ordinary fence
- No material named either way.
- chain link used as screening
- Not where a street or parking lot can see it.
- a required screen
- Solid, and at least six or seven feet.
- the Historic District
- The Board of Architectural Review judges it.
Also on materials in Summerville
- no rule, documents checkedSouth Carolina never says what a fence may be built from. There is no fence chapter and no definition of a lawful fence. The two chapters closest to the question were read end to end. The stray and trespassing livestock chapter deals with catching, holding and selling loose animals and with who pays for the damage they do, and it never says what a fence is made of. The general agriculture chapter is a list of offenses and has nothing on fences. Neither one mentions barbed wire, razor wire or an electric fence. S.C. Code 47-7-10 to 47-7-170South Carolina · Statute
Livestock and boundary fence law in Summerville
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South Carolina answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
South Carolina puts the duty on the animal owner. An owner or manager may not let a domestic animal of any kind get past the edge of the land they own, lease, occupy or control, whether on purpose or through carelessness. Each offense carries a fine of up to twenty five dollars or up to twenty five days in jail.
This one is South Carolina law, not Summerville law. All South Carolina findings
It shall be unlawful for the owner or manager of any domestic animal of any description wilfully or negligently to permit any such animal to run at large beyond the limits of his own land or the lands leased, occupied or controlled by him.
Also on agricultural fencing in Summerville
- set in state lawA damages claim in South Carolina does not depend on a fence. When a domestic animal is found on land belonging to somebody else, the owner of that animal owes all the damage plus the cost of catching and keeping it, and the animal itself stands as security for that debt ahead of other claims. The landowner or tenant may seize a trespassing animal and hold it. S.C. Code 47-7-130South Carolina · Statute
- no rule, documents checkedSouth Carolina never describes a lawful fence. Title 47 has no fence chapter, and its livestock chapter runs from stray animals through trespassing stock to impounding without setting a height, a wire count, a board count or a post spacing. Title 46, the agriculture title, has no fence chapter either. The gap leaves no hole, because damages for a trespassing animal in South Carolina never turned on an enclosure, so there was nothing for a fence standard to measure. S.C. Code Title 47, Chapter 7South Carolina · Statute
Documents behind this page
10 documents, of which 1 was published by Summerville itself. Each was read on the date shown.
- South Carolina General AssemblySouth Carolina Code of Laws, Title 47, Chapter 7, Estrays; Livestock Trespassing or Running at Large
- South Carolina General AssemblySouth Carolina Code of Laws, Title 46, Chapter 1, General Provisions; Offenses
- South Carolina General AssemblySouth Carolina Code of Laws, Title 27, Property and Conveyances, chapter list
- Town of SummervilleSummerville Unified Development Ordinance
- South Carolina General AssemblySouth Carolina Code of Laws, Title 6, Chapter 9, Building Codes
- South Carolina Department of Environmental ServicesSouth Carolina Code of Regulations, R.61-51, Public Swimming Pools
- South Carolina LegislatureSouth Carolina Code of Laws, Title 6, Chapter 29, South Carolina Local Government Comprehensive Planning Enabling Act of 1994
- South Carolina Building Codes CouncilSouth Carolina Code of Regulations, Chapter 8, International Residential Code
- South Carolina General AssemblySouth Carolina Code of Laws, Title 47, Animals, Livestock and Poultry, chapter list
- South Carolina General AssemblySouth Carolina Code of Laws, Title 46, Agriculture, chapter list
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 Summerville publishes, plus the South Carolina rules that apply where the city sets none. Fence laws in South Carolina 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