Fence laws in Chesapeake, Virginia
What the Chesapeake municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Chesapeake sets no rule of its own, the Virginia rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Chesapeake, Virginia, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- Chesapeake says nothing about the line shared with the neighbor and a great deal about the line along the second street, and the answer turns on how far back the fence sits and whether the street is built out. The figure is 10 feet, for setback for a fence over four feet in a secondary front yard on a corner lot.
- How tall
- On a Chesapeake house lot the established front yard takes four feet and everything along or behind the interior edge of that yard takes six, and the answer turns on the district, the yard and whether the lot has a second street. The figure is 4 feet, for fence, wall or hedge in the established front yard.
- Permits
- A fence of any height needs no building permit in Virginia.
- Pool barriers
- Virginia handles pool fences through its statewide building code.
- Spite fences
- Chesapeake has no spite fence statute. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Measured from what
- Chesapeake leaves the measuring rule to the zoning ordinance of a locality.
- Corner lots
- The Chesapeake corner triangle is forty five feet on each leg, which is one of the largest in this project, and it is drawn from the edge of the pavement of each intersecting street rather than from the property line or the right-of-way. The figure is 45 feet, for leg of the visibility triangle at a street intersection, measured from the edge of pavement.
- Retaining walls
- Virginia writes its own statewide code and sets the bar lower than the model code does. The figure is 3 feet, for depth of unbalanced fill at or above which a retaining wall needs a building permit.
- Materials
- Barbed wire, razor wire, electrified wire and similar wire types are out of every residential district in Chesapeake, and the single exception is written around the animal rather than around the owner, and the answer turns on the district and whether livestock are kept. The figure is 50 percent, for minimum open area of a decorative fence in a secondary front yard.
- Livestock
- Virginia describes a lawful fence several ways and any one of them counts, as long as the livestock cannot get through. The figure is 42 inches, for minimum height of a barbed wire or board lawful fence.
Who owns the fence between two properties in Chesapeake?
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Chesapeake answers this, but the answer changes depending on how far back the fence sits and whether the street is built out.
Chesapeake says nothing about the line shared with the neighbor and a great deal about the line along the second street. A fence over four feet in the secondary front yard of a corner lot has to stand at least ten feet back, and on a through lot five feet, and on top of that setback a matching buffer yard has to be planted and kept between the fence and the public right-of-way under an approved landscape plan. Two escapes from the planting exist. Where the secondary right-of-way is unimproved or is an alley at the time of the request, no buffer is required, although it comes back the day that alley stops being an alley. And where the fence sits fifteen feet or more from the right-of-way on a corner lot, no buffer yard is required at all, which turns the extra five feet of distance into a straight trade for the landscaping. Industrial property uses the same idea at the same figure, with anything over four feet built at least fifteen feet from the right-of-way.
It is setback at least ten (10) feet on corner lots. A setback of five (5) feet is required for any fence, wall or hedge taller than four (4) feet on through lots
The answer turns on how far back the fence sits and whether the street is built out.
- a tall fence on a corner lot
- Ten feet back. 10 ft
- a through lot
- Five feet back. 5 ft
- fifteen feet back on a corner lot
- No buffer yard needed. 15 ft
- an interior line with the neighbor
- Not addressed.
Also on fences on the property line in Chesapeake
- set in state lawIn Virginia neighbors split a fence on the property line down the middle. Both build it, both keep it up, and both pay the same share. Two things end that duty: one neighbor choosing to leave their land open, or the two of them agreeing to something else. Va. Code § 55.1-2821Virginia · Statute
How tall can a fence be in Chesapeake?
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Chesapeake answers this, but the answer changes depending on the district, the yard and whether the lot has a second street.
On a Chesapeake house lot the established front yard takes four feet and everything along or behind the interior edge of that yard takes six. The hedge is the outlier: behind the front yard a hedge carries no height limitation whatsoever, while the fence beside it stops at six feet, so the same screen is capped or uncapped depending on whether it is built or grown. Corner lots and through lots drop back to four feet across the whole lot unless five conditions are met together. One of those conditions needs a decision before it can be applied, because the rules turn on which street the house faces, and where the house sits cater-cornered between the two front yards the zoning administrator designates the primary and secondary front yard by looking at yard widths, driveway location, the street address and the pattern of the neighborhood. Business and institutional property runs four feet at the front and six behind, liftable to eight. Industrial runs ten behind the front yard and the zoning administrator may reach twelve.
For corner and through lots, all fences, walls and hedges shall not be higher than four (4) feet, unless they conform to the restrictions listed below.
The answer turns on the district, the yard and whether the lot has a second street.
- a residential front yard
- Four feet. 4 ft
- behind the front yard
- Six feet for a fence. 6 ft
- a hedge behind the front yard
- No limit at all.
- industrial property
- Ten feet, and twelve with approval. 12 ft
Also on fence height in Chesapeake
- no rule, documents checkedVirginia sets no limit on how tall a fence at a house can be. The state fence chapter says nothing about height, and the statewide building code lets a fence of any height go up with no building permit. Counties and cities set the limit in their zoning rules. Va. Code §§ 55.1-2800 through 55.1-2841Virginia · Statute
Do I need a permit for a fence in Chesapeake?
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Virginia answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
A fence of any height needs no building permit in Virginia. The Uniform Statewide Building Code puts no number on it at all, where most states stop the pass at six or seven feet. Two fences are left out: one needed to keep people on foot safe under Section 3306, and one used as the barrier for a swimming pool. A zoning permit from the county or city is a separate question from the building permit this section covers.
This one is Virginia law, not Chesapeake law. All Virginia findings
Fences of any height unless required for pedestrian safety as provided for by Section 3306 or used for the barrier for a swimming pool.
Also on permits in Chesapeake
- no rule, documents checkedThe fence sections carry no permit section, no fee, no application and no height at which a permit starts. They do assume one exists. The rule on greater heights for business property asks that the type of fence, wall or hedge be specified on the site plan or building permit application, and the corner lot buffer rule says that at any time after the issuance of a building permit a buffer has to be installed if the right-of-way stops being an alley or unimproved. Both sentences describe a building permit already in hand rather than creating the requirement, and the threshold that triggers it sits in the building code, which is a separate document that was not read for this page. Two approvals do appear in the zoning ordinance and neither is a general fence permit. The zoning administrator or a designee may approve extra height during site plan review or on application, and where an application fails one of the criteria the Board of Zoning Appeals hears a variance from the height or the setback. Section 14-201Chesapeake · Zoning code
Pool fence requirements in Chesapeake
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Virginia answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Virginia handles pool fences through its statewide building code. That code sends swimming pools and pool enclosures to the International Swimming Pool and Spa Code, 2021 edition. Virginia states no height of its own, so the numbers come from that private code and not from Virginia text.
This one is Virginia law, not Chesapeake law. All Virginia findings
Swimming pools, swimming pool enclosures, and aquatic recreational facilities, as that term is defined in the ISPSC, shall comply with applicable provisions of the ISPSC.
Spite fence laws in Chesapeake
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Chesapeake law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
Virginia has no spite fence law. Chapter 28 of Title 55.1 is the state fence chapter, and its eight parts cover electric fences, lawful fences, cattle guards, animals that get onto other land, no fence areas, fences on a property line, unincorporated communities and cutting trees. None of them mentions a fence built to bother a neighbor, and none sets a height that starts a claim.
This one is Virginia law, not Chesapeake law. All Virginia findings
Documents read before writing that:
- Va. Code §§ 55.1-2800 through 55.1-2841Virginia General Assembly
- Va. Code § 55.1-2821Virginia General Assembly
How fence height is measured in Chesapeake
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Chesapeake does not set this. It leaves it to the zoning ordinance of a locality.
Virginia does not set this. The county or city does. Section 15.2-2280 lets a locality split its land into districts and, in each one, set rules for the size, height, area, bulk, place, building, changing, repair and removal of structures. That word structures covers a fence, so a fence falls inside it. The section never says how a height is taken, so the local ordinance gives both the limit and the point the measuring starts from.
This one is Virginia law, not Chesapeake law. All Virginia findings
The size, height, area, bulk, location, erection, construction, reconstruction, alteration, repair, maintenance, razing, or removal of structures;
The code hands this to the zoning ordinance of a locality, which is not published in the code itself.
Also on how height is measured in Chesapeake
- no rule, documents checkedThe fence sections set four feet, six feet, eight feet, ten feet and twelve feet and never once say what any of them is measured from. The words grade and ground do not appear in them. A berm is not addressed, a fence on top of a retaining wall is not addressed, and sloping ground between two lots is not addressed, so nothing in the zoning ordinance settles whose side of a slope the six feet is counted from. Five sections away the same ordinance is exact about it, holding the corner clearance to a band between two and a half feet and ten feet above the pavement centerline grades of the intersecting streets, and drawing the triangle itself from the edge of the pavement. One rule in the fence sections does name a way of measuring, and it is horizontal rather than vertical: the brick or masonry pillars in a decorative fence are spaced a minimum of every twenty five feet as measured center to center. Sections 14-200 through 14-203Chesapeake · Zoning code
Fence rules for corner lots in Chesapeake
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Chesapeake answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
The Chesapeake corner triangle is forty five feet on each leg, which is one of the largest in this project, and it is drawn from the edge of the pavement of each intersecting street rather than from the property line or the right-of-way. That choice moves the whole triangle toward the lot wherever the pavement sits inside a wide right-of-way. The protected band runs from two and a half feet to ten feet above the pavement centerline grades of the intersecting streets, so the datum is the road surface and a lot that sits high above the street gets no credit for the difference. Two smaller triangles follow. A commercial entrance uses twenty feet on each side, and a driveway serving a single-family or duplex dwelling uses ten. The zoning administrator, with the concurrence of the director of development and permits, may allow less where terrain features present substantial obstacles, and the clearance approved is then the most that is reasonably practical.
On a corner lot no fence, wall, hedge or other planting or structure that will obstruct vision between a height of two and one-half feet and ten feet above the pavement centerline grades of the intersecting streets shall be erected, placed or maintained within the triangular area formed by the edge of the pavement of each intersecting street at such corner lot and a straight line which joins those pavement edges at points which are forty-five (45) feet from the point where the projections of the pavement edges intersect.
45 ftleg of the visibility triangle at a street intersection, measured from the edge of pavement
Also on corner visibility in Chesapeake
- set in state lawVirginia prints a real triangle in its code, and it is about signs rather than fences. Section 33.2-1216 bans an advertisement at a public road crossing where it would block the clear view between a point 20 feet back on the side road and points 400 feet away along the main road. The next clause draws a second triangle at a railroad crossing, 400 feet along the road and 500 feet along the track. Every one of these rules covers advertising, so none of them reaches a fence on a house lot. Va. Code 33.2-1216Virginia · Traffic code
Retaining wall rules in Chesapeake
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Virginia answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Virginia writes its own statewide code and sets the bar lower than the model code does. A wall that holds back earth gets a pass from the permit only while it holds back less than three feet of unbalanced fill, which is the dirt piled on the high side with nothing on the low side to push back. Virginia measures the dirt and not the wall, the same way Utah does, and it stops a foot sooner. No other state read here sets it lower. Two things end the pass: a wall built to hold Class I, II or III-A liquids, and a wall carrying a surcharge, which means a load pressing on the dirt behind it on top of the ordinary fill. Skipping the permit does not excuse work that breaks another part of the code, and a zoning permit from the county or city is a separate question.
This one is Virginia law, not Chesapeake law. All Virginia findings
Retaining walls supporting less than three feet of unbalanced fill that are not constructed for the purpose of impounding Class I, II, or III-A liquids or supporting a surcharge other than ordinary unbalanced fill.
13VAC5-63-80 B, Section 108.2, item 7
3 ftdepth of unbalanced fill at or above which a retaining wall needs a building permit
Fence materials allowed in Chesapeake
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Chesapeake answers this, but the answer changes depending on the district and whether livestock are kept.
Barbed wire, razor wire, electrified wire and similar wire types are out of every residential district in Chesapeake, and the single exception is written around the animal rather than around the owner. Districts that allow horses or other livestock may use that wire, and only where the fence is used solely to contain such animals, so the permission runs with the use and disappears the day the animals do. A second material rule bites on commercial corner lots. Any fence approved above the ordinary height in the secondary front yard has to be decorative, with brick or masonry pillars no more than twenty five feet apart measured center to center and open spaces making up at least half the fence area, and no wire, chain link or stockade fence is permitted there at all. On a house lot the code also states which way the fence faces: anything over four feet on a corner or through lot has to be built so the finished side faces the street.
The use of barbed wire, razor wire, electrified wire and similar wire types shall be prohibited in any residential zoning district, with the exception of districts which allow the keeping of horses or other livestock, and shall be permitted in those districts only where the fence is used solely to contain such animals.
The answer turns on the district and whether livestock are kept.
- wire in a residential district
- Prohibited.
- a district that allows livestock
- Allowed, but only to hold the animals.
- a tall commercial corner fence
- Decorative, half open, no chain link. 50%
- a tall fence on a house corner lot
- Finished side to the street.
Also on materials in Chesapeake
- set in state lawVirginia puts the electric fence first in its fence chapter, and the rule is about the box rather than the wire. On land used for farming, an electric fence cannot be sold, handed out, built, put in, kept or used unless a controlling device holds down the charge running through it. That device has to carry the Underwriters Laboratories label under UL 69, or meet the matching standard from the International Electrotechnical Commission. One device can feed only one connected run of fence, and it has to be grounded when it goes into service. A device that meets neither standard can be used only while it stays inside the current limits the next section prints. Breaking any of this is a Class 1 misdemeanor. Va. Code 55.1-2801Virginia · Statute
Livestock and boundary fence law in Chesapeake
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Virginia answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Virginia describes a lawful fence several ways and any one of them counts, as long as the livestock cannot get through. One is a fence at least five feet high. One is barbed wire at least 42 inches high with at least four strands, fixed to posts set no more than 12 feet apart, unless a stay or brace sits halfway between them. One is boards, planks or rails at least 42 inches high with at least three boards. A cattle guard strong enough to turn livestock counts too.
This one is Virginia law, not Chesapeake law. All Virginia findings
2. Made of barbed wire, at least 42 inches high, consisting of at least four strands of barbed wire, firmly fixed to posts, trees, or other supports substantially set in the ground, spaced no farther than 12 feet apart unless a substantial stay or brace is installed halfway between such posts, trees, or other supports to which such wires are also fixed;
42 inminimum height of a barbed wire or board lawful fence
Also on agricultural fencing in Chesapeake
- set in state lawIn Virginia the damages follow the fence. When livestock get into land that is already fenced in by a lawful fence, the owner of the animal pays the real damage. The fence has to be there first, which makes the landowner the one who builds, unless the county has changed the rule. Va. Code 55.1-2810Virginia · Statute
- set in state lawA county board can flip that rule for all or part of the county. By ordinance it can declare the line of every lot or tract, or a stream, to be a lawful fence, which means no fence has to be built at all for the damages rule to work. It can also name a different kind of fence than the one the state describes. Where that ordinance is in place, the owner of livestock may not let them off their own land. Va. Code 55.1-2814Virginia · Statute
Documents behind this page
8 documents, of which 2 were published by Chesapeake itself. Each was read on the date shown.
- Virginia General AssemblyCode of Virginia, Title 55.1, Chapter 28, Article 6, Section 55.1-2821, Obligation to provide division fences
- City of ChesapeakeChesapeake Zoning Ordinance, Article 14, Accessory Uses and Structures, Fences, Walls and Hedges
- Virginia General AssemblyCode of Virginia, Title 55.1, Chapter 28, Trespasses; Fences, full chapter listing
- Virginia Department of Housing and Community DevelopmentVirginia Administrative Code, 13VAC5-63-80, Section 108 Application for permit
- Virginia Department of Housing and Community DevelopmentVirginia Administrative Code, 13VAC5-63-336, Chapter 31 Special construction, Section 3109.1
- Virginia General AssemblyCode of Virginia, Title 15.2, Chapter 22, Planning, Subdivision of Land and Zoning
- City of ChesapeakeChesapeake Zoning Ordinance, Article 19, Design, Development and Performance Standards
- Virginia General AssemblyCode of Virginia, Title 33.2, Chapter 12, Outdoor Advertising in Sight of Public Highways
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 Chesapeake publishes, plus the Virginia rules that apply where the city sets none. Fence laws in Virginia 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