FENCE RULES – NOTTOWAY (COUNTY), VIRGINIA
OVERVIEW
Residential fences are permitted on private property within Nottoway County, subject to local regulations.
This page applies to properties in the unincorporated areas of Nottoway County; incorporated towns such as Blackstone, Burkeville, and Crewe may regulate fences under their own ordinances.
Local fence-related rules are not collected in a single standalone fence ordinance. They appear across the Nottoway County Zoning Ordinance, including Article 4, Division 1, Accessory Uses and Parcel Limitations; the Floodplain Overlay District; the Nottoway County Code; the Nottoway County Subdivision Ordinance; and the county building-permit checklist materials.
This page focuses on typical single-family residential fencing. If the jurisdiction's adopted materials do not state a specific limit or requirement, this page notes that the code does not specify one.
Compiled From the Nottoway County Zoning Ordinance, the Nottoway County Code, the Nottoway County Subdivision Ordinance, the Nottoway County Building Permit Checklist, and Virginia statewide fence-law baseline sources as of July 2026.
GOVERNANCE
Nottoway County regulates residential fence issues through county zoning, building-code administration, floodplain administration, erosion and sediment control, subdivision and plat context, animal-control and livestock provisions, and statewide utility-safety requirements.
The Nottoway County Zoning Ordinance applies within the unincorporated areas of Nottoway County. The Zoning Administrator designated by the Board of Supervisors administers and enforces the zoning ordinance. Article 4 lists a fence or wall as a residential accessory use for A-1, C-1, RR, and UR, and Article 6 states that fences are not considered structures in the zoning ordinance.
The Building Permit Office, Building Official, and County Administration Office administer building-permit intake, inspections, and zoning-permit coordination under the county building-permit checklist and the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code framework. The checklist identifies zoning-permit coordination for listed building-permit projects, but it does not list standard residential fences as a building-permit item.
The Floodplain Administrator administers the Floodplain Overlay District. The county erosion and sediment control program is administered through the County Administrator, with the Piedmont Soil and Water Conservation District designated as the plan-approving authority for erosion and sediment control plans.
Nottoway County does not publish a consolidated residential fence code. Standard residential fence review is therefore structured through the Virginia building-permit baseline, zoning accessory-use status, county fence-height and visibility rules, floodplain review where applicable, erosion and sediment control exemptions and permits, subdivision and plat conditions, animal-control provisions, and statewide utility-safety requirements.
PERMIT AND APPROVAL REQUIREMENTS
• Building Permit Baseline: Under the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code baseline, application for a building permit and related inspections are not required for fences of any height, unless the fence is required for pedestrian safety during construction or is used as the barrier for a swimming pool. Nottoway County does not publish a stricter local residential fence building-permit threshold in the referenced published materials.
• General Building Permit Context: Chapter 45 of the Nottoway County Code and the county building-permit checklist publish a general building-permit process for construction, repairs, demolition, renovation, and listed building-permit jobs. The referenced published materials do not explicitly state that standard residential fences require a county building permit.
• General Zoning Permit Context: The Nottoway County Zoning Ordinance publishes a zoning-permit process for proposed buildings or uses, and the building-permit checklist lists zoning permits for county building-permit jobs such as new dwellings, additions, garages, decks, sheds, and pools. The referenced published materials do not explicitly state that standard residential fences require a zoning permit.
• Zoning Compliance: Building permit requirements are separate from zoning, setback, subdivision, floodplain, historic, Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area, Resource Protection Area, wetland, shoreline, right-of-way, easement, drainage, and plat requirements. Confirm any applicable zoning conditions, setbacks, and plat requirements with the Nottoway County Zoning Administrator before construction.
• Floodplain Permit: In the Floodplain Overlay District, all uses, activities, and development occurring within any floodplain district may be undertaken only upon issuance of a permit. A fence project in a floodplain district that involves regulated development, excavation, drilling, fill, grading, or similar site work falls within that separate floodplain review layer.
• Erosion And Sediment Control: The Erosion and Sediment Control Ordinance of Nottoway County requires an approved erosion and sediment control plan and land-disturbing permit for regulated land-disturbing activity, unless an exemption applies. The ordinance excludes installation of fence and signposts from the definition of land-disturbing activity. Broader clearing, grading, filling, excavation, drainage work, or larger site work connected with a fence project may still require erosion and sediment control review if it is not within a listed exemption.
• Pool Barrier Context: A fence used as the barrier for a swimming pool is not treated as an ordinary yard fence under the Virginia building-permit exemption. The county building-permit checklist lists pools among projects requiring county zoning permits before receiving a building permit, so pool-related fencing must be handled in the separate pool-review context.
FENCE PLACEMENT RULES
• Property Lines: The ordinance does not state a setback requirement for standard residential fences from property lines; however, fences must be located entirely on the owner's property and must not encroach into rights-of-way or easements.
• Accessory Use Status: A fence or wall is listed as a residential accessory use for A-1, C-1, RR, and UR. Accessory uses and structures must be on the same lot as the principal use or structure, and accessory uses and structures may not be established until the principal use or structure is established.
• Required Yards: Fences are permitted to encroach into any yard, including front yards, when applicable sight-distance and fire-safety requirements are met and maintained. The front-yard height limit for residential districts is 4 feet, and the residential-area height limit for yards other than front yards is 8 feet.
• Planned Development District: In the PD-1 Planned Development District, fences are not allowed in front yards except as necessary for security purposes or on individual lots where decorative fencing not exceeding 3 feet in height is used as an architectural element to separate private yards from public sidewalks, squares, or plazas. That fencing must be uniform and well kept.
• Corner-Lot Visibility: At intersections, no sign, fence, wall, hedge, planting, or other obstruction to vision extending more than 2 feet above the established street grade may be erected, planted, or maintained within the corner area formed by the intersecting street pavement lines and a straight line connecting points 20 feet from the intersection of those pavement lines.
• Floodplain And Drainage Areas: In a Floodplain Overlay District, regulated development must not adversely affect the capacity of channels, floodways, watercourses, drainage ditches, or other drainage facilities or systems. Alteration or relocation of a channel, watercourse, or stream requires the separate federal, state, and local review identified in the floodplain provisions.
• Erosion And Sediment Control: Ordinary installation of fence and signposts is excluded from the county definition of land-disturbing activity. That exclusion does not convert broader grading, filling, clearing, excavation, drainage alteration, or construction work into exempt fence-post installation.
• Subdivision, Plat, And Easement Context: The Nottoway County Subdivision Ordinance defines lots, lot lines, easements, rights-of-way, monuments, streets, drainage easements, and subdivision plats. Those subdivision materials do not publish a separate ordinary fence setback, but recorded plats, easements, drainage facilities, rights-of-way, monuments, and private restrictions may affect where a fence can be located on a specific property.
• Utility Safety: Virginia law requires notice to the notification center / Virginia 811 before excavation or demolition where the Underground Utility Damage Prevention Act applies. For fence projects that involve excavation, including digging, drilling, augering, or other movement of earth, the excavator must submit a locate request and must review the positive-response information before work begins unless an exemption applies. A Virginia locate request is generally valid for 15 working days, and re-marking may be required before that period ends or when markings become illegible. Virginia law includes an important exemption for hand digging performed by an owner or occupant of a property. This statewide utility-notice framework is separate from local fence permitting, zoning, development approval, easement limits, right-of-way approvals, floodplain review, Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area review, Resource Protection Area review, stormwater review, wetland or shoreline approvals, HOA restrictions, and other applicable requirements.
FENCE HEIGHT AND VISIBILITY RULES
• Residential Front Yards: No fence in a front yard of a residential district may exceed 4 feet in height.
• Residential Areas Outside Front Yards: In any yard except a front yard, fences in residential areas may not exceed 8 feet in height.
• Planned Development Front-Yard Fencing: In the PD-1 Planned Development District, front-yard fences are limited to security fencing where necessary or decorative fencing on individual lots not exceeding 3 feet in height when used as an architectural element to separate private yards from public sidewalks, squares, or plazas.
• Intersection Visibility: Within the zoning ordinance's corner-lot visibility area, no fence, wall, hedge, planting, or other obstruction to vision may extend more than 2 feet above the established street grade. The visibility area is measured between the intersecting street pavement lines and a straight line connecting points 20 feet from the pavement-line intersection.
• Sight-Distance And Fire-Safety Conditions: Fence encroachments into required yards are conditioned on applicable sight-distance and fire-safety requirements being met and maintained.
• Building-Permit Exemption Is Not A Height Limit: The Virginia building-code baseline for fences of any height is a building-permit application exemption only. It is not a local zoning maximum height and does not override the 4-foot, 8-foot, 3-foot, or visibility limits stated in the Nottoway County Zoning Ordinance.
MATERIAL AND CONSTRUCTION LIMITS
• Standard Residential Materials: The code does not specify permitted or prohibited materials for standard residential fences.
• Finished Side / Orientation: The code does not specify a finished-side, opacity, or orientation requirement for standard residential fences.
• PD-1 Appearance Context: In the PD-1 Planned Development District, the zoning ordinance states that allowed front-yard fencing must be uniform and well kept. The ordinance does not publish a broader finished-side or material list for standard residential fences.
• Barbed Wire, Razor Wire, Electric Fence, And Chain Link: The code does not specify a separate barbed-wire, razor-wire, electric-fence, security-fence, or chain-link rule for standard residential fences in the referenced published materials.
• Dangerous-Dog And Kennel Enclosures: Chapter 38 of the Nottoway County Code includes separate animal-control rules for kennels and dangerous dogs, including proper enclosures, fenced-yard confinement until a proper enclosure is constructed, and securely enclosed and locked structures for animals found by a court to be dangerous dogs. Those animal-control rules are not ordinary residential yard-fence material standards.
• Pool-Barrier Construction: A fence used as a swimming-pool barrier is handled in the separate pool-barrier and building-code context rather than as an ordinary yard-fence material rule.
PRIVATE RESTRICTIONS
HOA covenants, subdivision restrictions, deed restrictions, private easements, architectural-review covenants, agricultural agreements, private boundary agreements, recorded agreements, conservation easements, and other private restrictions operate independently and may be more restrictive than county zoning rules.
The Nottoway County Subdivision Ordinance states that it bears no relation to any private easement, covenant, agreement, or restriction and does not imply responsibility by any public official to enforce those private restrictions. It also states that where the subdivision ordinance calls for more restrictive standards than private contracts, the subdivision ordinance controls.
REVIEW AND ENFORCEMENT CONTEXT
Fence issues are typically reviewed during permit or approval review when required, and through complaint-based code enforcement. Examples include:
• Building-Permit Baseline: Ordinary standard residential fences are addressed through the Virginia building-code exemption for fences of any height, unless the fence is required for construction pedestrian safety or is used as a swimming-pool barrier.
• Zoning Fence Standards: Review may involve the zoning ordinance's 4-foot front-yard residential limit, 8-foot residential limit outside front yards, 3-foot PD-1 decorative front-yard limit, and the requirement that fence encroachments into required yards maintain applicable sight-distance and fire-safety requirements.
• Intersection Visibility: Review may involve the 2-foot visibility limit inside the 20-foot corner-lot visibility triangle at intersecting street pavement lines.
• General Zoning-Permit Context: The zoning ordinance publishes a general zoning-permit process for proposed buildings or uses, but the referenced published materials do not explicitly state that standard residential fences require that zoning permit.
• Floodplain Sites: Fence-related development, excavation, drilling, fill, grading, or similar work in a Floodplain Overlay District may be reviewed through the floodplain permit process, including protection of channels, floodways, watercourses, drainage ditches, and drainage facilities.
• Erosion And Sediment Control: Installation of fence and signposts is excluded from the county definition of land-disturbing activity, while broader clearing, grading, filling, excavation, drainage work, or construction work may still be reviewed if it is not within a listed exemption.
• Subdivision, Plat, And Easement Context: Review may involve recorded plats, lot lines, monuments, rights-of-way, drainage easements, utility easements, access easements, streets, private covenants, and other property-specific restrictions.
• Rural / Livestock Context: Chapter 38 of the Nottoway County Code declares the boundary line of each lot or tract of land, or any stream in Nottoway County, to be a lawful fence as to livestock. That livestock and lawful-fence context is separate from ordinary residential zoning height limits.
• Animal-Enclosure Context: Review may involve kennel enclosures or dangerous-dog enclosure requirements when those separate animal-control rules apply to the property.
• Utility Safety: Review may involve Virginia 811 notice, positive-response information, active locate markings, and the separate statewide utility-safety framework when fence work involves excavation, drilling, augering, or other movement of earth.
USING THIS INFORMATION
This page provides general orientation on how residential fence rules are structured and applied within Nottoway County, based on the referenced published materials as of July 2026.
In addition to local fence rules, certain Virginia laws apply statewide. See Statewide fence laws in Virginia.
It is not legal advice and does not replace official ordinances, permits, zoning approvals, zoning certifications, development approvals, surveys, or professional guidance. Rules and interpretations may change, and application may vary based on zoning district, site conditions, easements, rights-of-way, floodplain status, stormwater requirements, Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area status, Resource Protection Area status, wetland or shoreline status, historic district status, design-review status, rural or agricultural context, livestock or division-fence context, pool-barrier use, utility safety requirements, and private restrictions such as HOA covenants, deed restrictions, private agreements, or conservation easements. Before purchasing materials or beginning construction, confirm current requirements and any site-specific limitations with the Nottoway County Zoning Administrator and any applicable private agreements. If this page conflicts with official ordinances, published guidance, or direction from Nottoway County staff, the official sources control. For legal advice or legal interpretation, consult a licensed attorney.