Fence laws in Midland, Texas
What the Midland municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Midland sets no rule of its own, the Texas rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Midland, Texas, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- Midland asks for the ground to reach a required screening fence to be set aside in advance. The figure is 5 feet, for width of the maintenance easement beside a required screening fence.
- How tall
- Midland gives fence heights by use rather than by district, and there is no figure for an ordinary house, and the answer turns on what the fence encloses. The figure is 36 inches, for fence across the front of a manufactured home space.
- Permits
- In most cities an argument about a fence ends at the board of adjustment.
- Pool barriers
- Texas requires a 48 inch fence around some pools, measured from the ground on the outside of the fence. The figure is 48 inches, for pool yard enclosure at a multiunit rental complex or property owners association pool.
- Spite fences
- Midland has no spite fence statute. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Measured from what
- Midland leaves the measuring rule to the governing body of a municipality.
- Corner lots
- The only visibility triangle the Midland zoning ordinance draws is at the end of a drive-through lane, and it is ten feet. The figure is 10 feet, for visibility triangle at the end of a drive-through lane.
- Retaining walls
- Midland leaves retaining walls to the International Residential Code as it existed on May 1, 2012, published by the International Code Council, plus any local amendment a city adopts by ordinance.
- Materials
- A required screening wall in Midland is brick, stone, split-face concrete masonry, or precast or poured concrete that looks like one of those, in earth-tone colors including white.
- Livestock
- Texas says what a farm fence has to look like. The figure is 4 feet, for minimum height of a sufficient fence under the stock law. It reaches counties and areas that have adopted the local option stock law under Subchapter B only.
Who owns the fence between two properties in Midland?
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Midland answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Midland asks for the ground to reach a required screening fence to be set aside in advance. Every lot abutting the screening carries a maintenance easement at least five feet wide, running the full length of the fence, unless an alley already provides the access. That answers the question that otherwise arrives ten years later, when the far side of a boundary wall has to be repaired and nobody can legally stand there.
A minimum five-foot wide screening fence maintenance easement shall be provided on all lots abutting the required screening along the full length of the required screening fence, unless separated by an alley.
5 ftwidth of the maintenance easement beside a required screening fence
Also on fences on the property line in Midland
- set in state lawTexas sets no statewide rule for splitting the cost of a fence on a boundary. What the Agriculture Code does say is that a joint owner of a dividing fence cannot pull it out without the other owner agreeing, and that a person who wants to detach a fence from a neighbor fence has to give six months of written notice first. The notice goes to the owner of the attached fence or to that person's agent, attorney, or lessee. Agric. Code 143.122Texas · Statute
How tall can a fence be in Midland?
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Midland answers this, but the answer changes depending on what the fence encloses.
Midland gives fence heights by use rather than by district, and there is no figure for an ordinary house. A fence across the front of a manufactured home space stops at thirty six inches. Outside storage needs a screening fence or wall of at least six feet. A wireless communication tower needs one of at least eight. Those are the heights the zoning ordinance sets, and a back yard fence on a single family lot is not among them.
Fences around manufactured homes shall not be over 36 inches high across the front of the space.
Manufactured home park standards
The answer turns on what the fence encloses.
- across the front of a manufactured home space
- Thirty six inches. 36 in
- screening outside storage
- At least six feet. 6 ft
- around a wireless communication support structure
- At least eight feet. 8 ft
Also on fence height in Midland
- no rule, documents checkedTexas does not limit how tall a fence at a house can be. The only heights in state law are for farm fences, such as the five foot fence required around cropland. For a fence at a house, the city sets the limit. Agric. Code ch. 143Texas · Statute
Do I need a permit for a fence in Midland?
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Midland answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
In most cities an argument about a fence ends at the board of adjustment. In Midland it cannot start there. The Board of Adjustment is denied jurisdiction over the height, the setback, the materials and the openness of any fence, along with the height of houses and accessory structures and several other things. An appeal on any of those goes to the Midland City Council instead, on a written application and a fee.
The height, setback, materials or openness of any fences;
Appeals from Administrative Decisions
Also on permits in Midland
- set in state lawTexas has no fence permit rule of its own. Instead it made one national code, the International Residential Code as it stood on May 1, 2012, the building code for every city in the state. So the permit rule for a fence comes from that code and not from a Texas statute. Cities can then change it, which is why the answer differs from one city to the next. Local Gov't Code 214.212(a)Texas · Statute
Pool fence requirements in Midland
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Texas answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Texas requires a 48 inch fence around some pools, measured from the ground on the outside of the fence. It does not cover most homes. Section 757.002 applies the law only to a pool run by the owner of an apartment complex or by a property owners association. A pool at a single family home is not covered, and the city rule applies there instead.
This one is Texas law, not Midland law. All Texas findings
The height of the pool yard enclosure must be at least 48 inches as measured from the ground on the side away from the pool.
Health & Safety Code 757.003(b)
48 inpool yard enclosure at a multiunit rental complex or property owners association pool
Spite fence laws in Midland
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Midland law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
Texas has no law about spite fences. Both chapters that could hold one were read start to finish. The fence chapter of the Agriculture Code covers livestock and farm land. The building chapter of the Local Government Code covers permits. Neither one mentions a fence built to bother a neighbor. That leaves a nuisance lawsuit or a city ordinance.
This one is Texas law, not Midland law. All Texas findings
Documents read before writing that:
- Agric. Code ch. 143Texas Legislature
- Local Gov't Code ch. 214Texas Legislature
How fence height is measured in Midland
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Midland does not set this. It leaves it to the governing body of a municipality.
Texas gives two fence heights and never says where to measure from. A farm fence around cropland has to be five feet tall. A farm fence under the stock law has to be four feet. The word ground does not appear anywhere in that chapter. For a fence at a house, Chapter 211 of the Local Government Code lets the city set the height rule, so the city decides how it is measured too.
This one is Texas law, not Midland law. All Texas findings
The governing body of a municipality may regulate: (1) the height, number of stories, and size of buildings and other structures;
Tex. Loc. Gov't Code 211.003(a)(1)
The code hands this to the governing body of a municipality, which is not published in the code itself.
Fence rules for corner lots in Midland
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Midland answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
The only visibility triangle the Midland zoning ordinance draws is at the end of a drive-through lane, and it is ten feet. It exists so a car leaving the lane can see before it merges into a driveway or a maneuvering aisle. There is no street corner triangle in the fence provisions, so the figure that decides how tall a fence may stand at an ordinary intersection is not in this ordinance.
Buildings and other structures shall have a 10 foot visibility triangle at the end point of drive-through lane to provide adequate visibility to allow vehicles to safely exit the drive-through lane prior to merging into intersecting driveways or maneuvering aisles.
Visibility Triangle Requirement for Drive-Through Lanes
10 ftvisibility triangle at the end of a drive-through lane
Also on corner visibility in Midland
- left to the townTexas has a whole chapter about seeing around corners, and it does not reach fences. Chapter 255 lets a county set the sight distance at an intersection on a county road outside city limits, and ban anything that blocks the view. But that ban covers plants, loose dirt and other items, not a building or structure fixed to the ground. A fence is fixed to the ground, so a county order under this chapter does not apply to it. Inside a city, the city decides. Tex. Transp. Code 255.002Texas · Traffic code
Retaining wall rules in Midland
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Midland does not set this. It leaves it to the International Residential Code as it existed on May 1, 2012, published by the International Code Council, plus any local amendment a city adopts by ordinance.
Texas has no rule of its own for a wall that holds back earth. It made the International Residential Code, as that code stood on May 1, 2012, the building code for every city in the state, and it does not print any of that code's text. So whatever that edition says about a retaining wall is what applies in Texas. Cities can change it after a public hearing, which is why the rule differs from one city to the next.
This one is Texas law, not Midland law. All Texas findings
To protect the public health, safety, and welfare, the International Residential Code, as it existed on May 1, 2012, is adopted as a municipal residential building code in this state.
Tex. Loc. Gov't Code 214.212(a)
The code hands this to the International Residential Code as it existed on May 1, 2012, published by the International Code Council, plus any local amendment a city adopts by ordinance, which is not published in the code itself.
Fence materials allowed in Midland
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Midland answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
A required screening wall in Midland is brick, stone, split-face concrete masonry, or precast or poured concrete that looks like one of those, in earth-tone colors including white. Smooth-faced concrete masonry unit is named as not permitted, and an unfinished haydite block wall or one in colors that are not earth tones is prohibited. Where the wall is split-face or concrete made to look like brick, the decorative face has to be the side the neighbors and the street see.
Smooth-faced concrete masonry units shall not be permitted as a construction material for a screening fence.
Also on materials in Midland
- set in state lawTexas only says what a fence has to be made of inside a county or area that has voted to stop animals roaming loose. There a fence works if it keeps out the animals that are still allowed to roam, and the law gives four ways to build one. Barbed wire takes three wires on posts no more than thirty feet apart, with a stay between each pair. Pickets go no more than six inches apart. Boards take three boards. Rails take four. All four have to stand at least four feet tall. Barbed wire is allowed outright, and voters in an area can decide that three barbed wires on their own are enough. Tex. Agric. Code 143.028Texas · Statute
Livestock and boundary fence law in Midland
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Texas answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Texas says what a farm fence has to look like. It has to be at least four feet tall, and there are four ways to build one. Barbed wire takes three wires on posts no more than thirty feet apart, with at least one stay between each pair of posts. Pickets have to be no more than six inches apart. Boards take three boards, each at least five inches wide and one inch thick. Rails take four rails.
This one is Texas law, not Midland law. All Texas findings
In order to be sufficient, a fence must be at least four feet high and comply with the following requirements: (1) a barbed wire fence must consist of three wires on posts no more than 30 feet apart, with one or more stays between every two posts; (2) a picket fence must consist of pickets that are not more than six inches apart;
4 ftminimum height of a sufficient fence under the stock law
Also on agricultural fencing in Midland
- depends, see the pageTexas has no single answer for who has to build the fence. Each county votes on it, and an area inside a county can vote on its own. The vote decides whether the animals it names are allowed to roam loose, and it only applies where the vote was held. Agric. Code 143.024(a)Texas · Statute
- set in state lawIn a county that has not voted, the farmer builds the fence, not the animal owner. Anyone farming or gardening cleared land has to put up a fence at least five feet tall that hogs cannot get through. Agric. Code 143.001Texas · Statute
Documents behind this page
6 documents, of which 1 was published by Midland itself. Each was read on the date shown.
- Texas LegislatureTexas Agriculture Code, Chapter 143, Subchapter F, Removal of Adjoining Fences
- City of MidlandCity of Midland Zoning Ordinance
- Texas LegislatureTexas Local Government Code, Chapter 214, Municipal Regulation of Housing and Other Structures
- Texas LegislatureTexas Health and Safety Code, Chapter 757, Pool Yard Enclosures
- Texas LegislatureTexas Local Government Code, Title 7, Chapter 211, Municipal Zoning Authority
- Texas LegislatureTexas Transportation Code, Title 6, Subtitle C, Chapter 255, County Regulation of Sight Distances
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 Midland publishes, plus the Texas rules that apply where the city sets none. Fence laws in Texas 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