Fence laws in Bellevue, Washington
What the Bellevue municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Bellevue sets no rule of its own, the Washington rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Bellevue, Washington, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- A chain link security fence may be permitted inside the front setback in the CB, GC and LI districts, and in commercial parking lots and storage areas, but only where the Development Services Department approves the plans on two findings: that the fence will not violate the sight obstruction standards, and that it will not stand in, or in front of, any required landscaping.
- How tall
- A fence in a required front setback in Bellevue stops at four feet six inches, and the way past it is an argument rather than a permit, and the answer turns on the setback, what the extra height is for, and whether the three tests are met. The figure is 54 inches, for fence in a required front setback.
- Permits
- Washington has no fence permit rule of its own.
- Pool barriers
- Washington sends pools at homes to the International Swimming Pool and Spa Code, 2021 edition, through its residential building code.
- Spite fences
- A Washington court can stop a structure built out of spite.
- Measured from what
- Bellevue measures a fence from finished grade at the exterior side of it, so the neighbor side or the street side supplies the reading rather than the yard being enclosed.
- Corner lots
- Bellevue leaves corner clearance to BCC 14.60.240 in the traffic title, which sets the sight obstruction restrictions at intersections.
- Retaining walls
- Bellevue leaves retaining walls to the 2021 International Residential Code, published by the International Code Council, whose Sections R105.2 and R404 Washington leaves unamended. It reaches one and two family homes only.
- Materials
- Bellevue writes the tightest electric fence specification of any city on this site, and the answer turns on the district, and how the fence is powered. The figure is 6 feet, for fence height barbed wire may top.
- Livestock
- Washington prints the fence in the statute. The figure is 48 inches, for height above the ground of the top wire of a lawful fence.
Who owns the fence between two properties in Bellevue?
Compare fences on the property line across all 50 states
Bellevue answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
A chain link security fence may be permitted inside the front setback in the CB, GC and LI districts, and in commercial parking lots and storage areas, but only where the Development Services Department approves the plans on two findings: that the fence will not violate the sight obstruction standards, and that it will not stand in, or in front of, any required landscaping. That second test is a placement rule rather than a materials one, and it means a business cannot put a security fence between the street and the planting the city required, which would otherwise defeat the point of the landscaping. Barbed wire is separately barred from any property boundary except as the top of a solid or chain link fence six feet or more in height.
May be permitted within the front setback in CB, GC, or LI Districts, or in commercial parking lots and storage areas, providing plans are approved by the Development Services Department upon finding that the fence will not violate sight obstruction standards, BCC 14.60.240, nor stand in, or in front of, any required landscaping.
Also on fences on the property line in Bellevue
- set in state lawWashington splits a fence on the property line in half. Where neighbors share one fence around their land and one of them needs a dividing fence, the other builds half of it once notice is given. The fence goes on the property line, or as close to it as can be managed. RCW 16.60.030Washington · Statute
How tall can a fence be in Bellevue?
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Bellevue answers this, but the answer changes depending on the setback, what the extra height is for, and whether the three tests are met.
A fence in a required front setback in Bellevue stops at four feet six inches, and the way past it is an argument rather than a permit. Extra height is available where the fence runs perpendicular to the right of way and is needed for screening, or where it stands on an arterial or on one side of a corner lot and goes no higher than the minimum needed for privacy, security, screening or noise attenuation. Any increased height then has to clear three tests together: it will not cause or contribute to a hazardous traffic situation, it is necessary to afford reasonable privacy, security or noise attenuation, and it is not out of character with development in the immediate vicinity, with the finished side facing the right of way or the adjacent property. Above eight feet a building permit is required and the fence has to conform to the International Building Code as Bellevue has adopted and amended it.
No fence may exceed four feet, six inches, in height within a required front setback except as follows:
The answer turns on the setback, what the extra height is for, and whether the three tests are met.
- a required front setback
- Four feet six inches. 54 in
- a taller front fence meeting the three tests
- The minimum height needed for privacy, security, screening or noise.
- any fence over eight feet
- A building permit, and the International Building Code applies. 8 ft
Also on fence height in Bellevue
- no rule, documents checkedWashington sets no limit on how tall a fence at a house can be. The state fence chapter says what counts as a lawful fence for livestock and how the cost of a shared fence is split, and it caps nothing at a house. The state residential code takes up the model code and adds no fence height. Cities and counties set it. RCW 16.60Washington · Statute
Do I need a permit for a fence in Bellevue?
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Washington answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Washington has no fence permit rule of its own. It uses the 2021 International Residential Code as the code for one and two family homes across the state, and it did not change that code's list of work that needs no permit, so the model list applies as written. That list is model code text and is printed on no Washington state site, so no fence height is quoted here.
This one is Washington law, not Bellevue law. All Washington findings
The 2021 edition of the International Residential Code as published by the International Code Council is hereby adopted by reference
Pool fence requirements in Bellevue
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Washington answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Washington sends pools at homes to the International Swimming Pool and Spa Code, 2021 edition, through its residential building code. The rule reaches a pool used only by the people who live at a single family house and their invited guests. Washington states no fence height of its own, so the numbers sit in that private code.
This one is Washington law, not Bellevue law. All Washington findings
The design and construction of swimming pools, spas, and other aquatic recreation facilities shall comply with the 2021 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code, if the facility is one of the following:
Spite fence laws in Bellevue
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Washington answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
A Washington court can stop a structure built out of spite. A judge may order the owner or renter of land not to put up a structure meant to spite, injure or annoy a neighbor, and where one already stands, the court may order it taken down. The law turns on why it went up and not on how tall it is.
This one is Washington law, not Bellevue law. All Washington findings
An injunction may be granted to restrain the malicious erection, by any owner or lessee of land, of any structure intended to spite, injure or annoy an adjoining proprietor.
How fence height is measured in Bellevue
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Bellevue answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Bellevue measures a fence from finished grade at the exterior side of it, so the neighbor side or the street side supplies the reading rather than the yard being enclosed. The city then closes the way around that in the same paragraph, and does it more plainly than most: nobody may build a berm to put a fence on unless the berm and the fence together come to no more than the fence alone would have been allowed without the berm. That turns the berm into a way of shaping a yard rather than a way of gaining height, and it means a mound under a four foot six inch front fence has to be paid for out of the fence.
Height shall be measured from finished grade at the exterior side of the fence. No person may construct a berm upon which to build a fence unless the total height of the berm plus the fence does not exceed the maximum height allowable for the fence if the berm was not present.
Also on how height is measured in Bellevue
- set in state lawWashington gives one plain starting point, in its livestock fence law, and nowhere else. RCW 16.60.010 says a lawful fence has at least four barbed wires with the top wire 48 inches above the ground, give or take four inches, and the rest spaced 12, 22 and 32 inches below it. Above the ground is the answer, and it is the only answer the state gives. For a fence on a city lot, RCW 35.63.080 lets a council set rules for the height, number of stories, size, building and design of buildings and other structures, so the city ordinance gives both the limit and the point it starts from. RCW 16.60.010Washington · Statute
Fence rules for corner lots in Bellevue
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Bellevue does not set this. It leaves it to BCC 14.60.240 in the traffic title, which sets the sight obstruction restrictions at intersections.
The Bellevue fence section opens with a single sentence on corners and then points somewhere else: no fence may violate the sight obstruction restrictions at street intersections, and the citation is to BCC 14.60.240, which is in the traffic title rather than in the Land Use Code. Nothing in the fence section gives a triangle size, a height limit inside it or a measuring point. The cross reference is used twice more in the same section, once as a condition on increased front setback height, where the fence has to be shown not to cause or contribute to a hazardous traffic situation, and once as a finding the Development Services Department has to make before approving a chain link security fence.
No fence may violate the sight obstruction restrictions at street intersections. (See BCC 14.60.240.)
The code hands this to BCC 14.60.240 in the traffic title, which sets the sight obstruction restrictions at intersections, which is not published in the code itself.
Also on corner visibility in Bellevue
- set in state lawWashington puts its clear view duty at the railroad tracks. RCW 36.86.100 tells the county to clear brush and trees out of the county road right of way for 100 feet on each side of a railroad crossing, so a driver can see a train coming, and puts the same duty on the railroad for its own land. It also bans a sign within 100 feet of that crossing outside city limits, unless the county finds the sign does not cut the view. Nothing in it draws a triangle at an ordinary street corner. RCW 36.86.100Washington · Traffic code
Retaining wall rules in Bellevue
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Bellevue 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 Washington leaves unamended.
Washington has no rule of its own for a wall that holds back earth. It uses the 2021 International Residential Code for one and two family homes, and lists every section it changed as its own numbered rule. That list was read in full. Nothing changes Section R105, the list of work that needs no permit, so the model code pass for such a wall stands as written. The slot for Section R404, which covers foundations and walls that hold back earth, is marked reserved, so Washington added nothing there either. The number that answers the question is model code text, which the International Code Council sells and which no Washington state site prints.
This one is Washington law, not Bellevue law. All Washington findings
The 2021 edition of the International Residential Code as published by the International Code Council is hereby adopted by reference
The code hands this to the 2021 International Residential Code, published by the International Code Council, whose Sections R105.2 and R404 Washington leaves unamended, which is not published in the code itself.
Fence materials allowed in Bellevue
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Bellevue answers this, but the answer changes depending on the district, and how the fence is powered.
Bellevue writes the tightest electric fence specification of any city on this site. They are not permitted in a Residential Land Use District unless additional fencing or another barrier keeps small children on the neighboring property away from the fence. Elsewhere they are permitted at stated electrical limits: an interrupted current fence running about one second on and two seconds off is capped at two thousand volts at seventeen milliamps, and a continuous current fence at fifteen hundred volts at seven milliamps. Permanent signs at least thirty six square inches have to be posted every fifteen feet saying the fence is electrified, and a unit sold complete and assembled may be owner installed only if its controlling elements are certified by an A.N.S.I. approved testing agency. Barbed wire may not be used along a property boundary except at the top of a solid or chain link fence six feet or more high.
All electric fences shall be posted with permanent signs a minimum of 36 square inches in area at intervals of 15 feet stating that the fence is electrified.
The answer turns on the district, and how the fence is powered.
- an electric fence in a residential district
- Not permitted unless a second barrier keeps small children away.
- an interrupted current electric fence elsewhere
- Two thousand volts at seventeen milliamps.
- a continuous current electric fence
- Fifteen hundred volts at seven milliamps.
- barbed wire on a boundary
- Only on top of a solid or chain link fence six feet or higher. 6 ft
Also on materials in Bellevue
- set in state lawWashington writes a lawful fence as a barbed wire fence and prints the build. It takes at least four barbed, level, well stretched wires, with the top one about 48 inches off the ground and the others 12, 22 and 32 inches below it, tied to solid posts set no more than 24 feet apart. Posts more than 16 feet apart need stays every eight feet. The very next section says any other fence as strong and as well made counts too, so barbed wire is the standard to match and not the only material allowed. RCW 16.60.010Washington · Statute
Livestock and boundary fence law in Bellevue
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Washington answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Washington prints the fence in the statute. A lawful fence carries at least four barbed wires, level and pulled tight. The top wire sits 48 inches off the ground, give or take four inches, and the others hang 12, 22 and 32 inches below it. Posts go in firmly and evenly, no more than 24 feet apart. Posts more than 16 feet apart need stays no more than eight feet from each other or from a post. Any other fence built just as strong counts too.
This one is Washington law, not Bellevue law. All Washington findings
A lawful fence shall be of at least four barbed, horizontal, well-stretched wires, spaced so that the top wire is forty-eight inches, plus or minus four inches, above the ground and the other wires at intervals below the top wire of twelve, twenty-two, and thirty-two inches.
48 inheight above the ground of the top wire of a lawful fence
Also on agricultural fencing in Bellevue
- set in state lawIn Washington the damages claim hangs on the fence. A person who built a lawful fence around their land and kept it in repair can sue the owner of an animal that broke through it, collect the full damage and the costs of the suit, and hold the animal until it is paid. Proving the fence was lawful when the animal broke through is enough. The fence has to be there first, so the landowner who wants the animals out is the one who builds. RCW 16.60.015Washington · Statute
Documents behind this page
7 documents, of which 1 was published by Bellevue itself. Each was read on the date shown.
- Washington State LegislatureRevised Code of Washington, Chapter 16.60, Section 16.60.030, Partition fence, Erection, Notice
- City of BellevueLand Use Code, Section 20.20.400, Fences
- Washington State LegislatureRevised Code of Washington, Chapter 16.60, Fences, full chapter
- Washington State Building Code CouncilWashington Administrative Code, WAC 51-51-003, International Residential Code
- Washington State Building Code CouncilWashington Administrative Code, WAC 51-51-0327, Section R327, Swimming pools, spas and hot tubs
- Washington State LegislatureRevised Code of Washington, Chapter 7.40, Section 7.40.030, Malicious erection of structure may be enjoined
- Washington State LegislatureRevised Code of Washington, Title 36, Chapter 36.86, County Roads and Bridges
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 Bellevue publishes, plus the Washington rules that apply where the city sets none. Fence laws in Washington 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