Fence Rules in Atlanta - Grant Park, Georgia

Type II Certificate of Appropriateness: required to build a fence or a wall. The director of the Atlanta Urban Design Commission issues it if the plan meets the district standards and must deny it if the plan does not. Building permit: Atlanta's building code makes it unlawful to erect a structure without first obtaining a building permit unless the code specifically exempts it, and the exempt list does not name fences. No Certificate of Appropriateness is required unless the work would otherwise require a building permit. Type I certificates for ordinary repairs and maintenance are not required in this district. Repair work valued under 2,500 dollars needs no certificate, no building permit and no permit fee. Industrial uses in the transitional industrial subarea do not need a Certificate of Appropriateness, but building permit, variance and special use applications go to the Urban Design Commission for review and comment before any final action.

4 ft max in the front yard. Other than retaining walls, walls are not allowed in the front yard or in the yard along a second street. In the yard along a second street, a fence over 4 ft requires a zoning variance. The finished side of a one-sided fence must face the street.

6 ft max for fences and walls in the side or rear yard.

The district's fence and wall limits are written for fences and walls adjacent to a public street when finished. Alleys do not count as public streets in this district. The yard along a second street is the code's half-depth front yard, such as the side street yard on a corner lot. How height is measured: from the finished ground level, or from the top of a retaining wall, to the highest point of the fence. Where a retaining wall rises above the grade of the surface it retains, that extra wall height counts toward the height allowed for a fence placed on top of it. The district has three subareas. Residential Subarea I carries the limits above. Commercial Subarea II applies those same limits to single-family and two-family homes. Transitional Industrial Subarea III sets no fence height of its own. For industrial uses, fence height falls to Atlanta's citywide limits for the underlying zoning, which allow up to 9 ft outside the dwelling districts. Non-industrial uses in that subarea follow the Commercial Subarea II rules, so a single-family or two-family home there gets the limits above. Any opaque fencing in the industrial subarea must be placed so the required planted buffer stays visible from neighboring property or a public street. Atlanta's citywide fence heights, which apply where the district chapter is silent: where no retaining wall is built, 4 ft in the front yard and half-depth front yard and 6 ft in the side or rear yard in the R-1 through R-5 districts; 4 ft front and 8 ft side or rear in R-G; 9 ft in all other districts. Within 20 ft of a street intersection those citywide limits are overridden: in any dwelling district no fence or wall may exceed 2.5 ft, measured from the grade at the intersecting street right-of-way lines. No part of any fence may contain barbed wire or razor wire along the public right-of-way or along any private drive that serves pedestrians.

Within 20 ft of a street intersection: 2.5 ft max in any dwelling district, measured from the grade at the intersecting street right-of-way lines. This overrides the 4 ft and 6 ft limits. Visibility triangle: nothing may be erected, placed, planted or allowed to grow so as to materially impede visibility between 2.5 ft and 8 ft above the grade of the adjoining sidewalk or right-of-way. At a street intersection the triangle covers the first 20 ft along each intersecting right-of-way edge and the line joining their ends. At a driveway the triangle covers the first 20 ft along the intersecting edges of the roadway and driveway and the line joining their ends. The yard along a second street on a corner lot is the code's half-depth front yard, so the front yard fence rules apply there.

Front yard and the yard along a second street: brick, stone, wire mesh, architectural concrete masonry units, or vertical pickets made of ornamental metal, wood or simulated wood. Alternate materials may be submitted to the Urban Design Commission for review. Side and rear yards: the chapter sets no material list, and Atlanta's citywide fence section sets none either apart from its barbed wire and razor wire ban.

Barbed wire and razor wire: prohibited in any district along the public right-of-way or along any private drive that serves pedestrians. Walls other than retaining walls: not allowed in the front yard or in the yard along a second street. A fence in the front yard or the yard along a second street built of a material outside the approved list must be approved by the Urban Design Commission as an alternate. The chapter words the list as materials that are permitted rather than as a ban, but the director must deny a Certificate of Appropriateness for work that does not meet the district standards. The chapter sets no chain link prohibition. The front yard material list names wire mesh; it does not name chain link, and the Urban Design Commission decides whether a proposed material meets the list.

You are in the Grant Park Historic District. These rules apply on top of Atlanta's citywide code. The district is an overlay divided into three subareas: Residential Subarea I, Commercial Subarea II and Transitional Industrial Subarea III. Where the district rules and the underlying zoning rules conflict, the district rules control.

Where there is no sidewalk, a fence must be set back 3 ft from the public street. The chapter sets no other fence setback. Atlanta's citywide code lets fences occupy required yards, subject to the height limits and the visibility triangle.

A Type II Certificate of Appropriateness is required to build a fence or a wall. The district's own fence standards are the criteria the Urban Design Commission applies. The finished side or front side of a one-sided fence must face the public street. Screening with plant or fence materials is required if mechanical equipment is visible from a public street. The Urban Design Commission can grant a variance from the district rules where special conditions make a literal enforcement an unnecessary hardship.

The district chapter sets no gate rule, and Atlanta's citywide fence section sets none either. The height limits and the Certificate of Appropriateness requirement are written for the fence or wall as a whole.

Atlanta's flood area regulations count a fence as an ancillary structure. A permit from the commissioner is required to build any structure within a floodplain, including a special flood hazard area. Traditional floodplain: a fence may be allowed if it is designed and built to minimize and mitigate impact on the floodplain, to let stormwater enter the floodway by sheet flow rather than channelized flow, and to cause no net loss in flood storage volume. Ancillary structures are not allowed in the floodway at all. Historically modified floodplain: a fence may be allowed if it is designed and built to minimize and mitigate impact on that floodplain.

Painting or repainting any structure, or any part of one, does not require a Certificate of Appropriateness. The chapter sets no fence color rule, and Atlanta's citywide fence section sets none either.

Fence rules here come from Atlanta Code Chapter 16-20K, the Grant Park Historic District overlay. A fence or wall needs a Type II Certificate of Appropriateness from the Atlanta Urban Design Commission, but only when the work would otherwise need a building permit. The district chapter is silent on pools, floodplains, gates and colors, so Atlanta's citywide provisions carry those.