Permit Requirements
Fences and walls take a Type II Certificate of Appropriateness, reviewed by the director of the Atlanta Urban Design Commission.
The director issues or denies the Type II certificate within 14 days of the application.
No Certificate of Appropriateness is required unless the work would otherwise require a building permit.
Building permit: required before erecting any structure unless the code specifically exempts it. Atlanta's zoning code counts a fence as a structure.
The building permit exemption list covers repair work only, and it does not apply to exterior work in a historic district.
Repair work in a historic district under $2,500 in total value: no Certificate of Appropriateness, no building permit, and no permit fee.
Type I certificates for ordinary repairs and maintenance are not required in this district.
Going above the district limits takes a variance or special exception, heard by the Urban Design Commission, and a Type III Certificate of Appropriateness.
Height - Front Yard
4 ft max for fences in the front yard or half-depth front yard.
Walls other than permitted retaining walls are not allowed in the front yard or in any other yard next to a public street.
The district limits are written for fences and walls that will be visible from a public street or park once finished, and they apply on top of Atlanta's citywide fence rules.
In Subarea 2 along DeKalb Avenue and Subarea 3 along the railroad, one- and two-family homes follow these same Subarea 1 limits.
A Certificate of Appropriateness is required before the fence goes up.
Height - Side/Rear
6 ft max for fences and walls in side or rear yards, not counting permitted retaining walls.
The district limits are written for fences and walls that will be visible from a public street or park once finished, and they apply on top of Atlanta's citywide fence rules.
In Subarea 2 along DeKalb Avenue and Subarea 3 along the railroad, one- and two-family homes follow these same Subarea 1 limits.
A Certificate of Appropriateness is required before the fence goes up.
Height Notes
In the front yard and half-depth front yard the 4 ft limit is a fence limit. Walls other than permitted retaining walls are not allowed there at all.
The 6 ft side and rear limit covers both fences and walls, not counting permitted retaining walls.
Fence 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 ground it holds back, that extra height counts toward the height allowed for a fence set on that wall.
Fences and walls may occupy a required yard, within these limits.
The limits sit in the Subarea 1 design standards for one- and two-family homes, and the director checks a fence application against those standards.
Atlanta's citywide fence limits run alongside the district limits.
R-1 through R-5 districts, where no retaining wall is built: 4 ft in the front and half-depth front yards, 6 ft in side or rear yards.
R-G districts: 4 ft in the front yard, 8 ft in side or rear yards.
All other districts: 9 ft in a required yard.
In Subarea 2 and Subarea 3, uses other than one- and two-family homes have no district fence limit, so those citywide limits govern.
Corner Lots
In Subarea 1, the 4 ft front yard fence limit also covers the half-depth front yard, which is the yard along a street the lot touches other than its front street. On a corner lot that is the side street.
Within 20 ft of a street intersection, in any dwelling district: 2.5 ft max for a fence or wall, measured from the grade at the intersecting street right-of-way lines.
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, within the visibility triangles.
At a street intersection the visibility triangle is the first 20 ft along each intersecting edge of the right-of-way plus the line connecting the ends of those two 20 ft lines.
The same visibility rule applies where a driveway meets a street.
Chain link is not allowed in any yard next to a public street.
Walls other than permitted retaining walls are not allowed in any yard next to a public street.
Materials Allowed
Fences in the required front yard next to a street, Subarea 1: brick, stone, metal vertical pickets, or wood pickets.
The chapter names no material for fences in side or rear yards away from a street.
Atlanta's citywide fence rules set no material list either. They ban barbed wire and razor wire and require that a fence be kept in a safe and sightly condition.
Materials Prohibited
Chain link is not allowed in front yards or in other yards next to public streets.
Walls other than permitted retaining walls are not allowed in the front yard or in other yards next to public streets.
Barbed wire and razor wire are not allowed on any part of a fence along the public right-of-way or along any private drive that serves pedestrians. That ban applies in every district.
Historic Districts
You are in the Inman Park Historic District. These rules apply on top of Atlanta's citywide code.
The district has three subareas: the Inman Park Core District as Subarea 1, the DeKalb Avenue Corridor Transitional District as Subarea 2, and the Railroad Corridor Commercial and Industrial Transitional District as Subarea 3.
One- and two-family homes follow the Subarea 1 rules in all three subareas.
Where the district rules differ from the underlying zoning, the district rules apply.
Setbacks
Fences and walls may occupy the required yards, within the district height limits.
The chapter sets no separate fence setback.
Atlanta's citywide code also allows fences and walls in any yard, subject to the height and sight distance requirements.
Design Requirements
Fences and walls need a Type II Certificate of Appropriateness from the director of the Urban Design Commission.
The district limits are written for fences and walls that will be visible from a public street or park once finished.
The director issues the Type II certificate within 14 days if the fence meets the subarea standards, and denies it within 14 days if it does not.
Any aggrieved person may appeal the director's decision.
Mechanical equipment goes to the side and rear of the house, in the spot least visible from a public street or park, and must be screened with plant material or fencing if it is visible from a public street or park.
Gates
Not addressed in the district chapter.
Atlanta's citywide fence rules set no separate gate rule either, so the fence limits for the yard the gate sits in are what govern.
Floodplain Rules
Not addressed in the district chapter.
Atlanta's citywide floodplain rules apply.
Color Restrictions
Painting or repainting a structure or any part of it does not require a Certificate of Appropriateness in this district.
The chapter sets no fence color rule, and Atlanta's citywide fence rules set none either.
Notes
Chapter 16-20L governs the Inman Park Historic District and splits it into three subareas: the Inman Park Core District as Subarea 1, the DeKalb Avenue Corridor Transitional District as Subarea 2, and the Railroad Corridor Commercial and Industrial Transitional District as Subarea 3. The fence height and material limits on this page sit in the Subarea 1 design standards for one- and two-family residential structures. Subarea 2 and Subarea 3 each send one- and two-family homes back to those same Subarea 1 standards, so a house anywhere in the district follows them. Fences and walls need a Type II Certificate of Appropriateness from the director of the Atlanta Urban Design Commission. The district limits are expressly subject to Atlanta's citywide fence rules, which is where the 2.5 ft limit near a street intersection comes from. Subarea 1 covers a range of underlying zoning designations, from R-5 through RG-1, RG-2, RG-3, RG-3-C, NC-1, R-LC, R-LC-C, C-1, C-2, C-2-C, I-1, SPI-5, and PD-MU, and all of them must still comply with Chapter 20L.