Except for fences and screens located on a farm, as defined in § 162.001, and security fences in any industrial district, fences or screens shall be constructed and maintained only under the following conditions.
(A) For the purpose of this section, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
BERM. A strip of elevated ground.
FINISHED ELEVATION. Land elevation determined by the average elevation within 15 feet of either side of a fence.
(B) Fences and screens four feet in height or less may be located on any part of a lot, except fences in the front yards must be set back from the right-of-way or property line, whichever is farther from the street, five feet and no fence more than three feet in height may be located within 30 feet of the intersection of two public streets;
(D) Where a rear yard or side yard abuts or joins the front yard of a lot, no fence higher than four feet shall be located along the adjoining or abutting front yard;
(E) Fence height shall be determined by the panel height of the fence, excluding fence posts;
(F) The average distance between the base of the fence panels and the finished elevation shall not exceed six inches;
(G) On corner lots, no fence shall exceed four feet in height on the street side yard or rear yard, as defined in §§ 162.060 through 162.063; except that corner lots with street side yards with less than 60 feet of frontage may have fence, wall and screen heights six feet or less if set back from the side street right-of-way at least ten feet;
(H) The following rules shall apply to fences or screens on berms:
(1) A maximum height of six feet shall be allowed for fences which are located on berms 30 inches or less in height from the finished elevation;
(2) The combined height of a berm and fence or screen from the finished elevation shall not exceed eight and one-half feet when the fence or screen is located on an artificial berm greater than 30 inches in height from the finished elevation;
(3) Berms shall be constructed of earthen materials with a maximum slope of three to one; and
(4) Grass or other ground cover shall be used to prevent erosion of the berm.
(I) The height of all fences or screens shall be measured from the finished elevation.
Figure 6 - Fences
(J) Fences shall be constructed of materials customarily used and manufactured as common fence materials. Materials such as broken boards or discarded materials, wire mesh, tin, tarps and other similar coverings secured to posts are not common fence materials and are therefore not permitted.
(K) Electric charged fences, barbed wire, spikes or any similar devices are not permitted.
(L) The International Property Maintenance Code shall regulate fence maintenance and proper fence construction standards, which include but are not limited to materials and installation.
(M) Obstruction of ingress/egress of a dwelling. No fence shall be installed in any yard that will shield any window opening in a habitable space of a dwelling. A minimum distance of three feet shall be maintained between any fence and any such window or opening in a dwelling.
(1980 Code, § 29.705) (Ord. 9013, passed 5-3-2004; Ord. 9114, passed 11-26-2007; Ord. 9240, passed 7-29-2013; Ord. 9307, passed 5-15-2017; Ord. 9339, passed 7-16-2018)