FENCE RULES – CLARK (COUNTY), INDIANA
OVERVIEW
This page applies to unincorporated Clark County within the jurisdiction of the Clark County Advisory Plan Commission. The Clark County Unified Development Ordinance also places the Town of Borden within that Plan Commission jurisdiction, but this county publication is organized around unincorporated county property. Other incorporated cities and towns generally use their own municipal ordinances and permitting systems unless an official shared arrangement applies.
Clark County publishes a direct residential fence framework. In R1, R2, R3, and R4, fences in front of the primary structure are limited to 3 feet, while side- and rear-yard fences are limited to 6 feet. An Improvement Location Permit (ILP) is required for fences in every zoning district except AG, and the current residential fee schedule lists a $50 fence fee. The UDO allows a fence adjacent to a property line when every part remains on one parcel and requires recorded written consent from both adjoining owners to place the fence directly on the line. Platted easements, drainage facilities, floodplain or floodway status, pools, and rural or agricultural conditions can change the result. Current local and state sources were verified in September 2026.
| Quick question | Clark County answer |
|---|---|
| Permit or approval | Clark County requires an Improvement Location Permit (ILP) for fences in every zoning district except AG. The current residential fee schedule lists a $50 fence fee. Separate floodplain, drainage, pool, road/right-of-way, or other approvals can apply when the site condition triggers them. |
| Typical fence height | In R1, R2, R3, and R4, a fence in front of the primary structure is limited to 3 feet; a fence in a side or rear yard is limited to 6 feet. The UDO separately caps fences in non-residential districts at 10 feet. It does not publish a separate fence-height rule for residential property in the AI, AG, or AE agricultural districts. |
| Placement & property lines | A fence may be placed adjacent to a property line if all fence parts and posts remain on one parcel. A fence may be placed on the property line only when written consent from both adjoining property owners is recorded with the Clark County Recorder. Fences are prohibited in platted easements and do not have to meet accessory-structure setbacks. |
| Common fence materials | Wood: not separately classified as a general ordinary-yard permission, but recognized by the UDO as a substantial solid-fence material and required as one bufferyard option. Vinyl/PVC: vinyl is similarly recognized; PVC is not separately named. Chain-link: not separately classified for ordinary yard fencing; expressly recognized as a pool-barrier type, while chain-link with slat inserts is not treated as a solid fence. |
| Important local conditions | Fence rules may be further affected by drainage easements and emergency overflow paths, floodplain or floodway status, swimming pools, planned unit development standards, agricultural or rural property, regulated drains, road or INDOT rights-of-way, Indiana 811 excavation requirements, and private covenants or easements. |
| Official local resource | Clark County Planning & Zoning Office – current UDO, residential permit information, fee schedules, floodplain materials, and online application access. |
The table above is for quick reference. Additional fence-rule details appear in the corresponding sections below. Before purchasing materials or beginning construction, read the sections that apply to the property, review the linked official sources, and confirm site-specific questions with the Clark County Planning & Zoning Office, the Clark County Drainage Board, or the responsible office identified for that issue.
GOVERNANCE
The governing land-use authority for this page is Clark County. The County Commissioners enact the UDO, and the Clark County Advisory Plan Commission and Clark County Planning & Zoning administer zoning, subdivision, ILP, and building-permit functions for the Plan Commission jurisdiction. The UDO expressly covers unincorporated Clark County and the Town of Borden and combines the County’s zoning and subdivision-control regulations in one code.
The principal fence rules are in Chapter 3 of the current Clark County Unified Development Ordinance, amended February 26, 2026. The same UDO also contains zoning-district definitions, agricultural and residential district standards, pool-barrier requirements, bufferyard rules, planned-unit-development procedures, subdivision provisions, and ILP administration.
The Clark County Drainage Board administers the County’s current stormwater and drainage framework for unincorporated county territory. Ordinance 40-2024 adopted a new Stormwater Management Ordinance, and the County currently publishes revised Stormwater Technical Standards dated November 2025. These rules can affect a fence where a recorded drainage easement, storm sewer, detention or retention facility, emergency overflow route, regulated drain, or qualifying land-disturbance project is involved.
Clark County Planning & Zoning also administers the County Flood Plain Ordinance. The ordinance treats erection of walls and fences as floodplain “development” and requires a Floodplain Development Permit before development begins in a Special Flood Hazard Area. The Planning & Zoning Executive Director serves as the Floodplain Administrator for this local program.
Indiana’s current residential code framework remains the 2020 Indiana Residential Code, 675 IAC 14-4.4, based on the 2018 International Residential Code with Indiana amendments. Indiana deleted model IRC Section R105, so the model-code seven-foot fence permit exemption is not an Indiana statewide rule. Clark County’s express ILP provisions therefore control the ordinary local fence-permit question described on this page.
PERMIT AND APPROVAL REQUIREMENTS
• Fence ILP: The UDO’s accessory-structure permit list includes fences, and the dedicated fence subsection states that all fences in every district except AG must obtain an Improvement Location Permit and comply with permit-application requirements. The AG exception is fence-specific; separate approvals can still apply to an AG-zoned project because of a pool, floodplain, drainage, road, or other condition.
• Residential fence fee: Clark County’s current residential permit fee schedule lists Fence – $50. Fee schedules can change, so the current Planning & Zoning publication controls when the application is filed.
• Application and ILP life: Clark County accepts residential improvement applications through its online permitting process. Under the UDO’s ILP procedures, an ILP is valid for one year; significant construction is to begin within six months. The Administrator may grant up to two additional six-month periods, and an expired ILP requires a new application and fee.
• Floodplain property: The Clark County Flood Plain Ordinance requires a Floodplain Development Permit before any development activity begins in a Special Flood Hazard Area. Because the ordinance definition of development expressly includes erection of walls and fences, a residential fence in the regulated floodplain is within this permit layer.
• Identified floodway: For development in an identified floodway, the Floodplain Administrator requires the application and plans to be forwarded to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. A DNR construction-in-a-floodway permit or authorization, when applicable, must be obtained before the local Floodplain Development Permit is issued. The local permit may not be less restrictive than the DNR authorization.
• Stormwater Management Permit threshold: Clark County’s Stormwater Management Ordinance applies its formal permit procedures to development or redevelopment that causes one acre or more of land disturbance. Fence work is subject to this separate stormwater-permit layer when the actual project meets that threshold or is otherwise part of a regulated larger project.
• Individual-lot stormwater review: An individual lot disturbing 10,000 square feet or more but less than one acre requires formal Individual Lot Plot Plan review before a building permit. An individual lot disturbing less than 10,000 square feet can also remain under individual-lot review when it is developed within a larger permitted project. These are land-disturbance rules, not a separate permit triggered merely by the existence of a fence.
• Swimming-pool barrier: A fence or barrier used to enclose a swimming pool must meet the UDO’s pool-barrier standards described below. Pool construction and the barrier can therefore involve additional permit and inspection requirements beyond an ordinary yard fence.
• Planned Unit Development property: A PUD may contain approved development standards that differ from the base zoning district. A fence on PUD property remains subject to those approved site-specific standards in addition to the general fence rules that still apply.
FENCE PLACEMENT RULES
• Adjacent to a property line: A fence may be placed adjacent to the property line only when all parts of the fence and all posts remain on a single parcel. The UDO does not publish a general numeric fence setback from the private property line.
• Directly on the property line: A fence may be placed directly on the property line only when written consent from both adjoining property owners is recorded in the Clark County Recorder’s office. This is a specific additional condition for shared-line placement.
• Accessory-structure setbacks: The UDO states that fences do not have to comply with accessory-structure setbacks. That rule does not erase separate limits created by a platted easement, drainage facility, floodplain, right-of-way, PUD condition, or other mapped or recorded restriction.
• Platted easements: Fences shall not be placed in a platted easement. A recorded plat or other property record should therefore be distinguished from the apparent occupation line, an existing fence, a tax/GIS line, a ditch, or the visible edge of pavement.
• Drainage easements: The County’s current Stormwater Technical Standards require new public or through drainage facilities to be placed in recorded drainage easements. Within those drainage easements, trees, shrubs, structures, fences, and other obstructions that diminish drainage capacity are not allowed without appropriate Clark County Drainage Board approval. The UDO’s separate prohibition on fences in a platted easement remains an additional placement restriction.
• Storm-sewer drainage-easement width: For a storm sewer with a pipe diameter of 24 inches or less and depth from finished grade to crown of 3 feet or less, the technical standards specify a minimum 15-foot drainage easement. The listed minimum is 20 feet when the pipe is deeper than 3 feet, larger than 24 inches, or both. These dimensions describe drainage-facility easements; they are not ordinary fence setbacks from every property line.
• Detention and retention facilities: A drainage easement is to extend at least 10 feet beyond the actual footprint or top of bank of a stormwater detention facility, with a minimum 15-foot-wide access easement unless the facility is immediately next to a public right-of-way. Fencing around a detention or retention facility is generally left to the owner or developer unless specifically required by the Clark County Drainage Board, but any fence location must still comply with the drainage-easement restrictions.
• Emergency overflow routes: The current technical standards require the emergency overflow route from a detention or retention facility to be located in common area or an easement. Fifteen feet on each side of the route centerline is to be designated as permanent drainage easement, and no fences or landscaping may be constructed within those drainage-easement areas.
• Floodplain and floodway: In a Special Flood Hazard Area, erection of a fence is regulated as floodplain development. In an identified floodway, development may not adversely affect the efficiency or capacity of the floodway; the local ordinance defines the prohibited adverse effect as an increase in regulatory flood elevation of at least 0.15 foot. DNR authorization may also be required before the local floodplain permit is issued.
• Regulated drains: Indiana’s regulated-drain law creates county surveyor and drainage-board access rights and statutory rights-of-way that can extend up to 75 feet from the centerline of a tiled drain or the top of bank of an open drain, subject to statutory reductions and local determinations. A fence project near a regulated drain must be evaluated against the actual drain corridor; the maximum statutory corridor is not a universal fence setback.
• Road and highway right-of-way: A private property line, a road right-of-way line, and the visible pavement or ditch edge are different boundaries. Fence work that enters a public road or state-highway right-of-way is subject to the applicable road authority and, for state highways, INDOT encroachment requirements.
• Utility safety before post-hole digging: Before covered digging, augering, drilling, boring, trenching, grading, or other excavation for fence posts, submit a locate notice through Indiana 811 at least two full working days before excavation begins and no more than 10 calendar days before the expected start. A ticket is valid for 20 calendar days. Indiana publishes a narrow owner-or-tenant exception when the person uses only hand tools, stays no more than 12 inches deep, and excavates on the person’s own property; powered or deeper fence-post excavation remains within the ordinary notice framework.
FENCE HEIGHT AND VISIBILITY RULES
• R1, R2, R3, and R4 – in front of the primary structure: A fence located in front of the primary structure may not exceed 3 feet in height.
• R1, R2, R3, and R4 – side or rear yard: A fence in a side or rear yard may not exceed 6 feet in height.
• Non-residential districts: The UDO separately states that fences in all non-residential districts may not exceed 10 feet. That is not the ordinary R1-R4 residential maximum.
• AI, AG, and AE agricultural districts with residential use: Clark County’s zoning tables expressly recognize single-family residential development in the agricultural districts, but the fence-height subsection publishes its 3-foot/6-foot limits only for R1-R4 and separately uses the term non-residential districts for the 10-foot rule. The UDO does not publish a separate fence-height maximum for a residential fence on AI-, AG-, or AE-zoned property. Planning & Zoning should confirm the applicable height for that zoning circumstance before construction.
• Pool-barrier height: A fence or barrier used to enclose a swimming pool must be at least 60 inches high. This is a pool-safety minimum and does not replace the ordinary 3-foot and 6-foot R1-R4 yard-fence limits where those zoning limits apply.
• Required bufferyard fence or wall: Where a development is subject to a type F or G bufferyard, the UDO specifies a 6-foot solid opaque wood or vinyl fence. Type H uses a 6-foot solid opaque masonry wall. These are conditional development-buffer standards rather than ordinary residential yard-fence choices.
• Fence-specific visibility: The current UDO fence subsection does not publish a separate intersection or driveway sight-triangle dimension for ordinary residential fences. Roadside vegetation, hedges, and live fences can still be subject to Indiana highway-visibility rules where the statutory road and location conditions apply.
• Indiana spite-fence rule: Indiana law treats a structure in the nature of a fence that unnecessarily exceeds 6 feet and is maliciously erected or maintained for the purpose of annoying an adjoining owner or occupant as a nuisance. This statewide rule is not a general six-foot zoning maximum and does not replace Clark County’s district-specific fence heights.
MATERIAL AND CONSTRUCTION LIMITS
• Ordinary residential material list: Clark County’s general fence subsection does not publish a comprehensive allowed-material list for an ordinary single-family yard fence and does not publish a general finished-side orientation rule.
• Wood: The UDO definition of a solid fence uses wood as an example of a substantial material that prevents viewing from one side to the other. Wood is also one of the two required material choices for a type F or G solid opaque bufferyard fence. These provisions recognize wood but do not create a separate ordinary-yard wood-fence standard.
• Vinyl/PVC: Vinyl is likewise named as a substantial solid-fence material and as a permitted material for the 6-foot opaque bufferyard fence. The UDO does not separately name PVC as a distinct material category.
• Chain-link: Chain-link is expressly recognized as an acceptable swimming-pool protective-barrier type. The UDO’s solid-fence definition states that chain-link with slat inserts is not considered a solid fence. The ordinary residential fence subsection does not otherwise publish a general chain-link permission or prohibition.
• Shadowbox construction: The UDO’s definition of a solid fence also states that a shadowbox fence is not considered a solid fence. This matters where a separate standard specifically requires a solid opaque fence, such as certain bufferyards.
• Swimming-pool barrier types: A pool may be enclosed by a mechanical pool cover or a substantial fence or other barrier. A qualifying fence/barrier may be chain-link, ornamental, solid fence, another solid vertical barrier, or a building used as the barrier. A gate must be self-closing and self-latching, the protective barrier must prevent passage of a 4-inch-diameter sphere, and it may not create a ladder effect.
• Above-ground pool access: When a barrier is mounted on top of the pool and access is by ladder or steps, the ladder or steps must be capable of being secured by lock or removed, or the access must be surrounded by a protective barrier.
• Masonry: A 6-foot solid opaque masonry wall is required where the UDO’s type H bufferyard applies. Masonry-wall/berm combinations also appear in more intensive bufferyard standards. Those rules apply only when the property is actually subject to the corresponding bufferyard.
• Barbed wire, razor wire, and ordinary electric fencing: The ordinary single-family fence subsection does not publish a general material-specific rule for these fence types. Separate commercial solar provisions address barbed wire and chain-link for those projects and do not govern ordinary residential yard fencing.
• Battery-charged security devices: Indiana’s separate battery-charged security-device statute applies only to qualifying monitored systems on property that is not designated exclusively for single-family or multifamily residential use and requires a surrounding nonelectric perimeter barrier and other safeguards. It does not establish a general electric-fence permission for an ordinary single-family residence.
• Boundary hedges and live fences: Indiana law separately addresses qualifying hedges or live fences used on a dividing line, including an annual-cutting framework and a 5-foot height / 3-foot width standard. That statewide live-fence rule is conditional and does not apply to every ornamental shrub or privacy planting.
• Rural and agricultural fencing: Indiana’s agricultural partition-fence and lawful-fence statutes can govern qualifying farm, livestock, adjoining-enclosure, or agricultural-boundary situations. Those statewide rules operate separately from Clark County’s ordinary residential zoning standards and should be applied only when the statutory agricultural or livestock conditions are present.
PRIVATE RESTRICTIONS
HOA covenants, private subdivision restrictions, deed restrictions, architectural-review covenants, recorded private easements, agricultural agreements, private boundary agreements, recorded partition-fence agreements, and conservation easements operate independently from Clark County’s public fence rules and may be more restrictive.
Private instruments should be distinguished from public platted easements, public drainage easements, regulated-drain rights-of-way, and public road rights-of-way. The UDO itself prohibits a fence in a platted easement, while the County’s drainage standards impose additional restrictions on qualifying drainage and emergency-overflow easements. A private covenant or private easement can impose a separate limitation even when the County’s zoning standards would otherwise permit the fence location.
Indiana law also allows certain recorded agreements involving agricultural partition fences and boundary responsibilities. Those private or recorded arrangements do not change the County zoning district, and the County’s ILP, floodplain, drainage, pool, and other public requirements remain separate.
REVIEW AND ENFORCEMENT CONTEXT
Fence issues are typically reviewed during permit or approval review when required, and through complaint-based code enforcement. Examples include:
• ILP review: Planning & Zoning reviews fences that require an ILP for compliance with the UDO’s height, placement, easement, and other applicable site-development standards.
• Property-line placement: A fence placed directly on a property line is subject to the recorded written-consent requirement; a fence placed adjacent to the line must keep all fence parts and posts on one parcel.
• Platted-easement conflicts: The UDO prohibits fences in platted easements, and the Drainage Board’s technical standards separately protect drainage easements and emergency-overflow routes from fences and other obstructions under the conditions described above.
• Floodplain and floodway review: The Floodplain Administrator reviews floodplain development permits. Fence erection is expressly included in the ordinance’s definition of development, and identified-floodway work can require Indiana DNR authorization before the local permit is issued.
• Stormwater and land disturbance: The Drainage Board reviews projects meeting the County’s one-acre stormwater-permit threshold and the individual-lot review thresholds for qualifying larger or subdivision-related land disturbance.
• Pool-barrier review: A fence serving as a swimming-pool barrier is checked against the 60-inch minimum, self-closing/self-latching gate, 4-inch-sphere, anti-climb, and access-control requirements.
• Rural and agricultural context: Agricultural zoning, regulated drains, livestock, agricultural partition fences, lawful fences, live fences, and statewide boundary-fence law can add conditions that do not apply to an ordinary R1-R4 yard fence.
• Utility excavation: Indiana 811 notice requirements apply to covered fence-post excavation independently from Clark County’s ILP, drainage, floodplain, or zoning review.
Clark County Planning & Zoning is authorized to inspect property within the Plan Commission jurisdiction and enforce the UDO. Floodplain and drainage matters are administered through their respective County programs, and state agencies retain their separate authority where Indiana law requires state review or authorization.
USING THIS INFORMATION
This page provides general orientation on how residential fence rules are structured and applied within unincorporated Clark County, Indiana. Updated September 2026.
In addition to local fence rules, certain Indiana laws apply statewide. See Statewide Fence Laws in Indiana.
It is not legal advice and does not replace official ordinances, permits, certificates, improvement-location approvals, development approvals, applicable building-code requirements, surveys, or professional guidance. Rules and interpretations may change, and application may vary based on zoning district, plan-commission jurisdiction, county zoning coverage, site conditions, subdivision/land-development status, easements, rights-of-way, floodplain or floodway status, stream conditions, stormwater or drainage requirements, regulated-drain conditions, road or highway conditions, INDOT jurisdiction, historic/design/special-district status, rural or agricultural context, livestock, lawful-fence or agricultural partition-fence context, live-fence or spite-fence conditions, local permit administration, pool-barrier use, Indiana 811 utility-excavation requirements, and private restrictions such as HOA covenants, deed restrictions, private agreements, recorded partition-fence agreements, or conservation easements. Before purchasing materials or beginning construction, confirm current requirements and site-specific limitations with the Clark County Planning & Zoning Office, the Clark County Drainage Board when drainage is involved, and any applicable private agreements. If this page conflicts with official ordinances, published guidance, adopted district standards, or direction from the Clark County Planning & Zoning Office or another responsible public authority, the official sources control. For legal advice or legal interpretation, consult a licensed attorney.