Fence laws in Logan, Utah
What the Logan municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Logan sets no rule of its own, the Utah rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Logan, Utah, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- Logan states no distance between a fence and a lot line and asks for no consent from the adjoining owner, so a fence may sit on the boundary, and the answer turns on whether a right-of-way or easement crosses the line. The figure is 20 degrees, for lean at which a fence is deemed unsafe.
- How tall
- Fences and walls are allowed in a Logan front yard up to four feet, and in a side or rear yard up to six, and the answer turns on the yard, the number of frontages and the use. The figure is 4 feet, for fence in a front yard.
- Permits
- All fences and walls in Logan have to have a permit issued by the Department of Community Development before installation, with no small fence exemption, and failing to get one may bring enforcement action under Chapter 17.60, and the answer turns on where the fence is and who has to look at it.
- Pool barriers
- Utah requires a fence around the whole edge of a public pool, the pool deck and any extra deck. The figure is 6 feet, for minimum height of the barrier around a public pool, measured from the outside.
- Spite fences
- Logan has no spite fence statute. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Measured from what
- Logan measures a fence from the highest existing grade within a ten foot radius of where the fence is proposed, and the answer turns on the ground near the fence and what is under it. The figure is 10 feet, for radius the highest grade is taken over.
- Corner lots
- Logan does not state the corner rule in a section of its own, and the answer turns on whether the fence is outside the triangle and behind the house. The figure is 40 feet, for minimum sight distance triangle.
- Retaining walls
- Utah writes its own permit rule for a wall that holds back earth and puts it in the statute in place of the model code line. The figure is 4 feet, for depth of unbalanced fill at or above which a retaining wall needs a building permit. It reaches one and two family homes only.
- Materials
- Logan prohibits razor wire outright, and barbed wire and electrically charged fencing except where they go with an agricultural operation, and the answer turns on the use of the lot and what the fence is near. The figure is 15 feet, for clearance from the top of a canal bank.
- Livestock
- In Utah the owner of the animal pays for damage it does on someone else's land.
Who owns the fence between two properties in Logan?
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Logan answers this, but the answer changes depending on whether a right-of-way or easement crosses the line.
Logan states no distance between a fence and a lot line and asks for no consent from the adjoining owner, so a fence may sit on the boundary. What it does require permission for is a right-of-way or an easement: no fence or wall section on private property may be installed within either without written permission from the city or the easement holder. Read with the canal bank rule, that means the two bodies most likely to hold a strip across a Logan lot, the city and the canal company, each have a written veto. Maintenance sits with the property owner, who is responsible for repairing, replacing or removing any unsafe or structurally unsound section, and the code gives the test a number: a fence or wall more than twenty degrees beyond plumb is structurally unsafe, as is anything the Chief Building Official decides is.
Any fence or wall section on private property shall not be installed within a right of way or an easement without written permission from the City or easement holder.
The answer turns on whether a right-of-way or easement crosses the line.
- an ordinary lot line
- No distance is stated.
- a right-of-way or easement
- Written permission first.
- a leaning fence
- Twenty degrees beyond plumb is unsafe. 20 degrees
Also on fences on the property line in Logan
- set in state lawUtah splits the cost of a fence on the line between two owners. Each side pays in step with how much land it fences in. If one owner built the fence first and a neighbor later fences land against it, that neighbor pays half the value of the shared part before doing it. An owner who stops farming the land gives notice and waits 30 days before pulling any of the fence out. Utah Code 4-26-102Utah · Statute
- set in state lawUtah has a second cost rule for grazing land and big game country. One owner can make the neighbor pay half the cost of the fence. The cost has to be reasonable, the kind of fence has to be one that is common in that area, and the bill cannot run past the price of posts, wire and connectors. A neighbor who refuses can be sued for the half. Utah Code 4-26-103Utah · Statute
How tall can a fence be in Logan?
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Logan answers this, but the answer changes depending on the yard, the number of frontages and the use.
Fences and walls are allowed in a Logan front yard up to four feet, and in a side or rear yard up to six. On a corner lot the front yard keeps its four feet and the side yard fronting a street may carry six, provided the fence sits outside the minimum forty foot sight distance triangle and behind the front plane of the building. A lot with multiple frontages is treated more tightly than most: a fence to the rear of the house but next to a roadway is held to four feet, and only a fence outside both the rear yard setback and the sight triangle may reach six. The strip between such a fence and the public sidewalk has to be landscaped and maintained by the owner or the homeowners association. Commercial and industrial lots follow the same pattern with eight feet at the sides and rear instead of six. Posts may extend twelve inches above the maximum where they stand at least six linear feet apart.
Fences and walls are allowed in the front yard provided they do not exceed a maximum height of four (4) feet
The answer turns on the yard, the number of frontages and the use.
- a front yard
- Four feet. 4 ft
- a side or rear yard
- Six feet. 6 ft
- behind the house but facing a road
- Four feet.
- a commercial side or rear yard
- Eight feet. 8 ft
Also on fence height in Logan
- no rule, documents checkedUtah sets no limit on how tall a fence at a house can be. The construction code statute names which code editions apply and gives no fence height. The fence chapter of the farming code covers splitting cost and fencing bison, not yard fences. Cities and counties set the height. Utah Code 15A-2-103Utah · Statute
Do I need a permit for a fence in Logan?
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Logan answers this, but the answer changes depending on where the fence is and who has to look at it.
All fences and walls in Logan have to have a permit issued by the Department of Community Development before installation, with no small fence exemption, and failing to get one may bring enforcement action under Chapter 17.60. The application needs dimensioned drawings showing the layout and location of every proposed fence and wall, and has to state the height and materials for each section. Some fences need more than staff: the section says a fence or wall may require additional approval from the Planning Commission, the Historic Preservation Committee, or both, which puts a fence in a historic district through a design review as well as a permit. Inspections are not routine and are triggered by a citizen complaint or by the Chief Building Official deciding a fence is unsafe.
All fences and walls shall have a permit issued by the Department of Community Development prior to installation subject to the following: . Failure to obtain a fence permit may result in enforcement actions pursuant to §17.60.
The answer turns on where the fence is and who has to look at it.
- any fence or wall
- A permit before installation.
- the application
- Dimensioned drawings, heights and materials.
- a historic district
- The Planning Commission or the Historic Preservation Committee, or both.
- an inspection
- On a complaint, or the Chief Building Official.
Also on permits in Logan
- set in state lawUtah uses one construction code across the whole state and names the exact editions in the statute, including the 2024 International Building Code and the 2021 International Residential Code. State changes to those codes sit in a separate chapter of the same title. Utah changes only three items on the list of home work that needs no permit, covering walls that hold back earth, low decks and small storage containers. The fence item on that list is model code text that Utah leaves alone, so it is printed on no Utah state site. Utah Code 15A-2-103Utah · Statute
Pool fence requirements in Logan
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Utah answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Utah requires a fence around the whole edge of a public pool, the pool deck and any extra deck. It stands at least six feet tall, measured on the outside face. No opening can pass a four inch ball, and horizontal rails sit at least 45 inches apart. Gates close and latch on their own, and at least one gate swings outward so people can get out.
This one is Utah law, not Logan law. All Utah findings
is at least six feet in height measured from the exterior side of the barrier
6 ftminimum height of the barrier around a public pool, measured from the outside
Spite fence laws in Logan
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Logan law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
Utah has no spite fence law. The fence chapter of the farming code covers splitting cost and fencing bison, and nothing else. The stray animal chapter covers animals that wander onto other land. Neither one gives a neighbor a claim over a fence put up out of spite, and neither sets a height that starts one.
This one is Utah law, not Logan law. All Utah findings
Documents read before writing that:
- Utah Code 4-26-101 through 4-26-104Utah State Legislature
- Utah Code 4-25-101 through 4-25-406Utah State Legislature
How fence height is measured in Logan
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Logan answers this, but the answer changes depending on the ground near the fence and what is under it.
Logan measures a fence from the highest existing grade within a ten foot radius of where the fence is proposed. Using a radius rather than the ground directly under the fence is unusual and it does real work, because it reaches a mound or a raised bed a few feet away that would otherwise be ignored. The next sentence closes the route directly: it is prohibited to build grade up to a higher level in order to increase the height of a fence. Where a fence sits on a retaining wall the combined height may not exceed ten feet measured from the bottom of the wall, and the section shows its own arithmetic in a parenthesis, six feet of fence and four feet of wall. The same two rules are repeated word for word in the commercial and industrial standards, so the measurement does not change with the use.
The height of fence shall be measured from the highest existing grade within a ten (10) foot radius of the proposed fence location. It is prohibited to build grade up to a higher level in order to increase the height of a fence.
The answer turns on the ground near the fence and what is under it.
- uneven ground nearby
- The highest grade within ten feet. 10 ft
- raising the ground deliberately
- Prohibited.
- a fence on a retaining wall
- Ten feet for both, from the bottom of the wall. 10 ft
Also on how height is measured in Logan
- no rule, documents checkedUtah never says what a fence height is measured from, at any level of its code. The fence sections in title 4 are about deals between neighbors and how the cost of a shared fence is split, and they carry no dimension at all. The land use act was renumbered in 2025 into title 10, chapter 20, and the zoning power it hands a city covers putting up, building, rebuilding, changing, repairing and using buildings and structures, with no mention of height. Height turns up in that chapter only in what makes a structure one that no longer fits the rules, and in the standards a city may put on a charter school. Neither place says what a height starts from, so the city ordinance decides. Utah Code 10-20-505Utah · Zoning code
Fence rules for corner lots in Logan
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Logan answers this, but the answer changes depending on whether the fence is outside the triangle and behind the house.
Logan does not state the corner rule in a section of its own. It names the figure inside the fence standards instead, twice in the residential ones and twice again in the commercial. A six foot fence in the side yard fronting a street on a corner lot is permitted only where it sits outside the minimum forty foot sight distance triangle and behind the front plane of the building, and on a lot with multiple frontages a fence may reach six feet only outside both the rear yard setback and the same forty foot triangle. So forty feet is the number an owner has to work with, and the fence sections give it without ever defining how the triangle is drawn. What they do supply is the second condition, which is easier to check: the fence has to sit behind the front face of the house, so the house rather than a survey line marks where the taller fence may start.
In the side yard fronting on a street, a fence or wall located within the side setback is permitted provided the fence or wall does not exceed a maximum height of six (6) feet, shall be located outside of the minimum 40 foot sight distance triangle and is located behind the front plane of the building.
The answer turns on whether the fence is outside the triangle and behind the house.
- the size of the triangle
- Forty feet. 40 ft
- a six foot corner side fence
- Outside the triangle, behind the house face.
- how the triangle is drawn
- The fence sections do not say.
Also on corner visibility in Logan
- no rule, documents checkedUtah sets no corner triangle in state law. The two sections of the highway protection act that come closest were read in full. One bans putting a structure or object inside the right of way of a state highway, county road or city street without a permit, which turns on the right of way line and not on what a driver can see. The other bans blocking traffic on a sidewalk or a highway. The fence chapter of the farming code covers fences on a property line and livestock and never mentions a corner. Cities and counties set the triangle. Utah Code 72-7-102Utah · Statute
Retaining wall rules in Logan
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Utah answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Utah writes its own permit rule for a wall that holds back earth and puts it in the statute in place of the model code line. It measures the dirt rather than the wall. A wall holding back less than four feet of unbalanced fill needs no permit. Unbalanced fill is the dirt piled on the high side with nothing on the low side to push back. The pass is gone in two cases: where the wall carries a surcharge, meaning an extra load pressing on the dirt behind it, and where the wall is big enough that Section R404.4 of the residential code calls for a design. Utah changes only three items on that no permit list, and this is the first of them.
This one is Utah law, not Logan law. All Utah findings
Retaining walls retaining less than four feet (1219mm) of unbalanced fill, unless supporting a surcharge or requiring design per Section R404.4.
4 ftdepth of unbalanced fill at or above which a retaining wall needs a building permit
Fence materials allowed in Logan
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Logan answers this, but the answer changes depending on the use of the lot and what the fence is near.
Logan prohibits razor wire outright, and barbed wire and electrically charged fencing except where they go with an agricultural operation. Chain link is prohibited in any street facing yard rather than only at the front, which catches the second frontage of a corner lot. Highly reflective or metallic fencing and wall materials are barred, and so are tarps, stacked debris and similar materials. The seventh item on the list is not a material at all but a place, and it matters in a valley threaded with irrigation canals: no fence is allowed within fifteen feet of the top of a canal bank unless the canal company grants written approval. That gives a private company a veto over a fence on private land. The commercial and industrial list drops barbed wire and chain link but keeps the rest, so a business lot may use wire where a house lot may not.
No fences are allowed within 15’ of the top of canal bank unless written approval is granted by the canal company.
The answer turns on the use of the lot and what the fence is near.
- a canal bank
- Fifteen feet, unless the canal company agrees. 15 ft
- a street facing yard
- No chain link.
- barbed wire or an electric fence
- Agricultural operations only.
- razor wire, tarps or reflective panels
- Prohibited.
Also on materials in Logan
- set in state lawUtah sets no material rule for an ordinary fence. Its one material rule is about bison. An outside fence meant to hold bison has to reach at least eight feet, and the fence sections and gates have to be a mesh of high tensile steel wire of at least fourteen and one half gauge, with squares no bigger than six inches by six inches, or a material just as strong. The posts get their own rule: treated wood at least four inches across, or something as strong, standing at least six feet two inches above the ground. Utah Code 4-26-104Utah · Statute
Livestock and boundary fence law in Logan
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Utah answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
In Utah the owner of the animal pays for damage it does on someone else's land. That covers cattle, a horse, a donkey, a mule, a sheep, a goat or a pig. The owner is off the hook when the land was not fenced in by a lawful fence, in a county or city that has passed a fence ordinance. A second exception covers animals that come in off an old livestock trail onto land without a good enough fence.
This one is Utah law, not Logan law. All Utah findings
The owner of any cattle, horse, ass, mule, sheep, goat, or swine that trespasses upon the premises of another person, except in cases where the premises are not enclosed by a lawful fence in a county or municipality that has adopted a fence ordinance, is liable in a civil action to the owner or occupant of the premises for any damage inflicted by the trespass.
Also on agricultural fencing in Logan
- set in state lawUtah never says in state law what a lawful fence is, so there is no statewide wire count and no statewide height. Each county decides. A county can pass an ordinance on fencing farms, subdivisions and other private land so grazing animals stay off it, and a county that passes one has to spell out in it what counts as a lawful fence. A county can also split itself into parts with a different fence rule in each. Utah Code 4-25-204Utah · Statute
- set in state lawUtah does set hard numbers for one kind of livestock fence, and it is the bison fence. An outside fence meant to hold bison reaches at least eight feet above the ground, in both the fence sections and the gates. The mesh runs no wider than six inches by six inches, in high tensile steel wire of at least 14 and one half gauge, which is wire made to take more pull before it gives. Posts go no more than 20 feet apart and sit at least two feet in the ground. Utah Code 4-26-104Utah · Statute
Documents behind this page
14 documents, of which 1 was published by Logan itself. Each was read on the date shown.
- Utah State LegislatureUtah Code, Title 4, Chapter 26, Enclosures and Fences, Section 102
- Utah State LegislatureUtah Code, Title 4, Chapter 26, Enclosures and Fences, Section 103
- City of LoganCity of Logan Land Development Code, Chapter 17.37, Supplemental Development Standards
- Utah State LegislatureUtah Code, Title 15A, State Construction and Fire Codes Act, Chapter 2, Section 103
- Utah State LegislatureUtah Code, Title 4, Chapter 26, Enclosures and Fences
- Utah Department of Health and Human Services, Population Health, Environmental HealthUtah Administrative Code, Rule R392-302, Public Pool Design, Construction, and Operation, Section 17, Fencing and Barriers
- Utah State LegislatureUtah Code, Title 4, Chapter 25, Estrays
- Utah LegislatureUtah Code, Title 10, Chapter 20, Municipal Land Use, Development, and Management Act
- Utah LegislatureUtah Code, Title 72, Chapter 7, Protection of Highways Act, Part 1, Protection of Rights-Of-Way
- Utah LegislatureUtah Code, Title 72, Chapter 7, Protection of Highways Act, Part 1, Protection of Rights-Of-Way
- Utah State LegislatureUtah Code, Title 15A, Chapter 3, Part 2, Statewide Amendments to International Residential Code, Section 202
- Utah LegislatureUtah Code, Title 4, Chapter 26, Enclosures and Fences
- Utah State LegislatureUtah Code, Title 4, Chapter 25, Estrays, Section 205
- Utah State LegislatureUtah Code, Title 4, Chapter 25, Estrays, Section 204
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 Logan publishes, plus the Utah rules that apply where the city sets none. Fence laws in Utah 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