FENCE RULES – GREENE (COUNTY), VIRGINIA

OVERVIEW

Residential fences are permitted on private property within Greene County, subject to local regulations. This page applies to properties in the unincorporated areas of Greene County; incorporated towns, cities, or other municipalities may regulate fences under their own ordinances.

Local fence-related materials are limited. The Greene County Planning & Zoning FAQ states that fences are not regulated by the Greene County Zoning Ordinance, and Article 16 of the Greene County Zoning Ordinance lists fences among items excepted from the ordinary zoning-permit requirement. Other fence-related context appears in the Code of the County of Greene, Virginia, the Greene County Zoning Ordinance, the Greene County Subdivision Ordinance, Building Inspections materials, the Erosion and Stormwater Management Ordinance, and animal-control provisions.

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 Code of the County of Greene, Virginia, Greene County Zoning Ordinance, Greene County Subdivision Ordinance, Greene County Planning & Zoning FAQ, Greene County Building Inspections materials, Additions, Garages, Decks, Porches, Sheds, Pools, Accessory Structures, Ground Solar application packet, Greene County Erosion and Stormwater Management Ordinance, Greene County Planning & Zoning Fee Schedule, and Virginia statewide building-code and utility-notice baseline materials as of July 2026.

GOVERNANCE

Greene County regulates land use and development through the Code of the County of Greene, Virginia, the Greene County Zoning Ordinance, the Greene County Subdivision Ordinance, and related ordinances adopted by the Greene County Board of Supervisors.

The Greene County Planning & Zoning Department guides land use and development, reviews applications for compliance with the county’s zoning ordinance, subdivision ordinance, and other applicable regulations, and administers zoning, planning permits, plans, and plats through the county’s planning and zoning process.

The Greene County Building Inspections Department handles the county’s building-code and building-permit issues under the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code framework. The Greene County Erosion and Sediment Control / Stormwater Management Department enforces the county’s erosion and stormwater ordinances for construction-related land-disturbing activity.

Greene County does not publish a consolidated residential fence code. Standard residential fence review is therefore structured through the Planning & Zoning FAQ’s fence statement, the Article 16 zoning-permit exception for fences, the Virginia building-permit baseline, floodplain provisions where applicable, erosion and stormwater rules where broader land disturbance is involved, rights-of-way, easements, recorded plats, rural or livestock context, pool-barrier use, and Virginia 811 utility safety.

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. The Greene County Building Inspections Department publishes general building-permit guidance for residential construction, but Greene County does not publish a stricter local residential fence building-permit threshold or all-fences building-permit rule in the referenced published materials.

• Zoning Permit: The Greene County Planning & Zoning FAQ states that fences are not regulated by the Greene County Zoning Ordinance. Article 16 of the Greene County Zoning Ordinance requires zoning permits for structures and land uses, but lists fences among the items excepted from that requirement. The referenced published materials do not publish standard residential fences as an ordinary zoning-permit application category.

• Zoning Certification And Fee Schedule Context: The Greene County Zoning Ordinance separately requires certificates of zoning compliance for listed use changes and specified activities. The Greene County Planning & Zoning Fee Schedule lists general fees for zoning permits and zoning certifications, but it does not publish a fence-specific fee or make standard residential fences a zoning-permit category.

• Zoning And Site Conditions: Building permit and zoning permit exemptions are separate from floodplain, subdivision, right-of-way, easement, drainage, plat, pool-barrier, and private restrictions. Confirm any applicable property-specific conditions with the Greene County Planning & Zoning Department and Greene County Building Inspections Department before construction.

• Floodplain District: In a Floodplain District, all uses, activities, and development must be undertaken only upon issuance of a zoning permit, and development must not adversely affect the capacity of channels, floodways, watercourses, drainage ditches, drainage facilities, or systems. This is a floodplain-site condition, not an ordinary all-fences permit requirement outside a Floodplain District.

• Erosion And Stormwater: The Greene County Erosion and Stormwater Management Ordinance requires an ESM permit before regulated land-disturbing activity, but lists installation of fence and sign posts and other posts or poles among activities not required to comply with the ordinance unless federal law otherwise requires. Broader clearing, grading, fill, excavation, drainage work, retaining-wall work, or construction activity connected to a larger project is not the same as ordinary fence-post installation and is reviewed under the applicable erosion and stormwater rules when it qualifies as regulated land-disturbing activity.

• Pool Barrier: A fence used as the barrier for a swimming pool is not treated as an ordinary exempt yard fence under the Virginia building-permit baseline. The Greene County Building Inspections application packet includes pools as a permit category, so pool-barrier fencing is handled separately from ordinary yard fencing.

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.

• Zoning-Ordinance Placement: The Greene County Planning & Zoning FAQ states that fences are not regulated by the Greene County Zoning Ordinance, and the code does not publish a yard-by-yard residential fence setback table. Zoning-district building setbacks and accessory-building setbacks are not stated as standard fence setbacks in the referenced published materials.

• Rights-Of-Way, Easements, And Plats: Fence placement must account for public or private rights-of-way, utility easements, drainage easements, access easements, recorded plats, and any limitations shown for the lot. The Greene County Subdivision Ordinance uses plats to identify rights-of-way, easements, drainage features, floodplain areas, streams, waterbodies, and related property conditions.

• Floodplain, Watercourse, And Drainage Areas: In a Floodplain District, uses, activities, and development must comply with the floodplain provisions and must not adversely affect channels, floodways, watercourses, drainage ditches, drainage facilities, or systems. Fence-related work in those areas is reviewed as a site condition rather than as an ordinary yard-placement rule.

• Stormwater And Land Disturbance: Ordinary installation of fence posts is listed among activities not required to comply with the Greene County Erosion and Stormwater Management Ordinance, unless federal law otherwise requires. Larger grading, clearing, fill, excavation, drainage alteration, or construction activity connected to a broader project is not covered by that narrow fence-post statement.

• Rural And Livestock Context: Chapter 14 of the Code of the County of Greene, Virginia declares the boundary line of each lot or tract of land, and any boundary stream, to be a lawful fence as to specified animals. This is rural, livestock, and lawful-fence context and does not create a standard residential zoning setback, height limit, or material rule.

• 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

• Maximum Height: The code does not specify a maximum height for standard residential fences. The Greene County Planning & Zoning FAQ directs possible fence-height questions to the Greene County Building Inspections Department, but the referenced published Building Inspections materials do not publish a numerical local fence-height limit for standard residential fences.

• Building-Permit Exemption Is Not A Height Limit: The Virginia building-code language for fences of any height is a building-permit application exemption only. It is not a local zoning maximum height, floodplain approval, right-of-way permission, pool-barrier approval, or permission to build in an easement or right-of-way.

• Zoning-District Height Tables: Because Article 16 of the Greene County Zoning Ordinance excepts fences from the zoning-permit requirement and Article 22 defines structure to exclude fences, zoning-district height regulations for buildings and accessory structures are not published as standard residential fence height limits.

• Visibility Standards: The code does not specify a clear-vision triangle, sight-triangle, driveway-visibility, alley-visibility, or intersection-visibility standard specifically for standard residential fences. The sign regulations include sight-distance rules for signs; those sign standards are not published as fence visibility rules.

• Corner Lots: The zoning ordinance includes corner-lot yard standards for buildings and structures in zoning districts, but the referenced published materials do not state a separate corner-lot fence height or visibility rule for standard residential fences.

MATERIAL AND CONSTRUCTION LIMITS

• Fence Definition: The Greene County Zoning Ordinance defines a fence as a non-loadbearing structure designed to impede the passage of persons, animals, or wind, to obstruct vision, or to support plants, customarily built of wood, metal, or masonry, and identifies it as a wall. That definition is not published as a residential fence material approval list.

• Standard Residential Materials: The code does not specify required or prohibited materials, finished-side orientation, opacity, chain-link limits, gate-swing rules, decorative standards, or construction-detail standards for standard residential fences.

• Screening And Site-Development Context: The zoning ordinance uses fences, walls, hedges, landscaping, and screening in development-specific, site-plan, commercial, industrial, equipment-screening, mobile-home-park, recreational-vehicle-park, and solar-energy contexts. Those provisions are not published as ordinary material or construction limits for standard single-family residential yard fences.

• Solar Security Fencing: Utility-scale solar provisions require project-area security fencing of at least 6 feet with anti-climbing devices such as strands of barbed wire on top. That solar-energy rule is not a standard residential fence material rule.

• Animal-Control Enclosure Context: Dangerous-dog provisions refer to a proper enclosure or a fenced-in yard in specific dangerous-dog certificate situations. That animal-control context does not set ordinary residential fence material, height, or placement standards.

PRIVATE RESTRICTIONS

Private covenants, HOA rules, subdivision restrictions, deed restrictions, easements, private road agreements, architectural-review covenants, agricultural agreements, conservation easements, and private boundary agreements operate independently from Greene County ordinances and may be more restrictive than county rules.

Greene County does not publish private HOA or covenant enforcement as part of the ordinary residential fence approval process in the referenced published materials.

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 residential fences are addressed through the Virginia building-permit exemption unless the fence is required for pedestrian safety during construction or is used as a swimming-pool barrier.

• Zoning Permit Exclusion: The Greene County Planning & Zoning FAQ states that fences are not regulated by the zoning ordinance, and Article 16 of the zoning ordinance lists fences among items excepted from the ordinary zoning-permit requirement.

• Floodplain District Review: Uses, activities, and development in a Floodplain District require a zoning permit and must not adversely affect channels, floodways, watercourses, drainage ditches, drainage facilities, or systems.

• Erosion And Stormwater Review: Ordinary fence-post installation is listed as not required to comply with the county erosion and stormwater ordinance unless federal law otherwise requires; broader land-disturbing activity remains separate from that narrow fence-post exception.

• Rights-Of-Way, Easements, Plats, And Drainage: Recorded plats, public or private rights-of-way, utility easements, drainage easements, access easements, private-road agreements, watercourses, and drainage systems can affect where a fence may be placed on a particular lot.

• Development-Specific Screening: Fences, walls, hedges, and landscaping may be reviewed where a site-development plan, screening yard, solar-energy facility, mobile-home park, recreational-vehicle park, equipment-screening requirement, or other development-specific provision applies.

• Rural, Livestock, And Animal-Control Context: Chapter 14 lawful-fence provisions and dangerous-dog enclosure provisions may matter for rural, livestock, or animal-control situations, but they do not establish ordinary residential zoning fence height or placement standards.

• Utility Safety: Fence projects involving excavation must account for Virginia 811 utility-notice requirements unless an exemption applies.

USING THIS INFORMATION

This page provides general orientation on how residential fence rules are structured and applied within Greene 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 Greene County Planning & Zoning Department and Greene County Building Inspections Department and any applicable private agreements. If this page conflicts with official ordinances, published guidance, or direction from Greene County staff, the official sources control. For legal advice or legal interpretation, consult a licensed attorney.