FENCE RULES – ANDREWS (CITY), TEXAS

OVERVIEW

This page covers ordinary residential fences within the incorporated City of Andrews, Texas.

Andrews limits ordinary solid front-yard fencing to 3 feet and allows 4 feet where a majority of the fence can be seen through. Backyard fencing may reach 7 feet. Its published permit directions conflict: the zoning code requires a fence permit, while the current city fencing page says no permit is required. Obtain a project-specific determination before construction, and arrange the city’s required on-site review for a corner-lot installation or replacement. Chain-link is expressly recognized for open front fencing; wood and vinyl/PVC are not separately classified. Alley gates, road rights-of-way, floodplain conditions and pool-barrier use can change the details. Updated November 2026.

Quick question	Andrews answer
Permit or approval	The code requires a fence permit, but the city’s fencing page says no permit is required. Obtain Building Inspections’ determination before work. Corner-lot installation or replacement requires an on-site city review.
Typical fence height	Front yard: 3 feet, or 4 feet when a majority is see-through. Backyard: 7 feet. The city guidance also describes 7-foot side fencing up to the front face of the house.
Placement & property lines	Keep fencing entirely on the owner’s property and off public land, rights-of-way, alleys and roads. Corner-yard and access-gate conditions also apply.
Common fence materials	Wood: not separately classified in the ordinary fence provision. Vinyl/PVC: not separately classified. Chain-link: expressly recognized as see-through fencing for the 4-foot front-yard option.
Important local conditions	Fence rules may be further affected by corner lots, front-yard building lines, alley access, easements, drainage and floodplain conditions, pool barriers, private restrictions and agricultural use.
Official local resource	City of Andrews fencing guidance

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 Andrews Building Inspections and Code Compliance or the responsible office identified for that issue.

GOVERNANCE

The Andrews City Council adopts the zoning and construction requirements. The city’s fence and yard provisions are in Chapter 66, including Sections 66-757 and 66-758 and the parallel single-family district provision in Section 66-276. Building Inspections administers construction review; Code Compliance handles the city’s fence-location and compliance questions.

Andrews has adopted the 2021 International Residential Code and International Building Code and the 2021 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code. The Building Official is also the floodplain administrator under Chapter 54. Road rights-of-way and recorded easements remain separate from an ordinary fence’s yard-height classification.

PERMIT AND APPROVAL REQUIREMENTS

• Conflicting published permit directions: Sections 66-757(a) and 66-276(a) require a permit from the Building Official before anyone, including the owner, installs a fence. The current city fencing webpage states that a permit is not required. Before construction, obtain Building Inspections’ determination of the process for the proposed work. The code refers to the current city fee schedule if a permit is required.

• Corner-lot work: The city fencing guidance requires an on-site review by Code Compliance or the Building Inspector before a corner-property owner installs or replaces a fence.

• Floodplain development: Chapter 54 applies to special flood hazard areas and requires development review. For a fence, wall or related earthwork in that area, provide the proposed location, dimensions and relevant elevations, along with any changes to natural drainage or a watercourse. The floodplain administrator determines the applicable approval and conditions before covered development.

• Pool projects and construction fencing: The city’s swimming pool permit and barrier guidance identifies pool-permit triggers including water depth of 24 inches, circulating equipment, an in-ground pool, or dimensions exceeding 10 by 10 feet or 10 feet in diameter. Its application process calls for site and pool plans and applicable plumbing and electrical permits. The adopted 2021 pool code requires at least a 4-foot temporary construction fence from excavation until the permanent barrier is complete; the city’s webpage still describes a 36-inch temporary barrier. Have Building Inspections resolve that difference for the pool project before excavation.

• Property used for an agricultural operation: Agriculture Code Sections 251.005 and 251.0055 limit city requirements affecting agricultural operations. Inside city limits, a requirement needs clear and convincing evidence of a specified imminent danger that cannot be addressed by less restrictive means, a qualifying health report and a governing-body resolution, and must satisfy the statute’s other limits. Agricultural land or acreage is not automatically exempt from every fence rule. City governmental requirements do not apply to agricultural operations outside corporate limits.

• Agricultural fence improvements: Section 251.006 protects qualifying agricultural improvements, including fences designed for sheltering, restricting or feeding animal life, against the specified liability, nuisance suits and injunctions when construction is not expressly prohibited by statute or a properly adopted requirement then in effect. State and federal statutes remain enforceable.

FENCE PLACEMENT RULES

• Property boundaries and recorded rights: Use the deed, recorded plat and appropriate survey information to establish the proposed location. An existing fence, tax map, GIS line, tree line or mowing line is not a conclusive property boundary. Utility, access, drainage and other easements can restrict fencing or require continued access even where no general fence setback is published. The terms and location of the actual easement or plat condition matter.

• Public property and rights-of-way: No fence or gate may be constructed on or across dedicated or publicly owned property, a right-of-way, alley or roadway. The city requires the fence to remain within the owner’s boundaries and may require a survey.

• Required front yards: The zoning code uses the required front-yard building setback to establish the lower front-fence height area. Through lots and irregular lots with more than one street frontage may have a required front yard on each street unless a qualifying plat or ordinance establishes a different accessory-building line. An established building line can therefore affect which fence-height branch applies.

• Corner exterior side intended as a front yard: Within 15 feet of that exterior-side property line, apply the front-yard 3-foot or qualifying see-through 4-foot limit.

• Backyard access gates: When a backyard fence exceeds 5 feet, provide at least one rear gate, door or opening at the alley and one at or near the main building. These gates and doors may be locked.

• Drainage and surface water: Water Code Section 11.086 prohibits diverting or impounding the natural flow of surface water in a manner that damages another property by overflow. Fence walls, footings, fill and grading need to preserve the drainage rights and restrictions affecting the site. The statute has separate provisions for lawful flood-control and irrigation improvements and specified bank repairs; it establishes no general fence-to-property-line distance.

• Watercourses and flood conditions: Floodplain review considers flood and erosion danger, effects on adjoining property and drainage, access during flooding and materials that may be swept away. Where a watercourse is altered, its flood-carrying capacity must be maintained. A floodway variance may not result in an increase in flood levels during the base flood.

• Replacing a joint or attached fence: Agriculture Code Sections 143.121–143.123 prohibit removal of a jointly owned separating fence or a fence attached to another person’s fence except by mutual consent or the statutory process. An owner of an interest in an attached fence may withdraw it after 6 months’ written notice to the other fence’s owner or that person’s agent, attorney or lessee. An owner whose fence is wholly on their land may require an attached fence’s disconnection after the same notice to its owner or that person’s agent, attorney or lessee. These rules concern ownership and attachment, rather than every fence replacement.

• Construction affecting a pipeline corridor: Health and Safety Code Sections 756.121–756.123 address construction on, across, over or under a pipeline easement or right-of-way, or physically affecting a pipeline’s risk. Subject to the statute’s contrary-written-agreement exclusion, its exclusion for municipal work on municipally owned land other than private commercial use, and its exclusion for property of qualifying navigation districts or port authorities, give notice to the operator and satisfy the applicable route: an operator determination of no increased risk; payment of reasonable, necessary, documented protective-work costs before proceeding; work under an existing written agreement; or prompt work by a regulated utility because of a natural disaster. This construction process is separate from an 811 locate request.

• Post-hole excavation under the Utilities Code: Utilities Code Chapter 251 covers explosives or powered or mechanized equipment, including augers, that disturbs soil to 16 or more inches. Ordinary notice must be given not earlier than the 14th day before excavation or later than 48 hours before it, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays. For a Saturday notice given before 11:59 a.m., the statutory start is the following Tuesday at 11:59 a.m., or Wednesday at 11:59 a.m. if Monday is a holiday. Use the ticket’s lawful start information.

• Limited excavation exceptions: Emergency work may begin immediately when the statutory emergency conditions exist, with reasonable care and notice as promptly as practicably possible. Section 251.156 also has exceptions for activities on private property connected with defined agricultural operations, and for excavation by or for an owner or lessee who operates all underground facilities at the excavation site. Yard ownership alone is not that latter exception. Separate pipeline rules can still apply.

• Digging near covered underground pipelines: Railroad Commission Chapter 18 can cover manual post-hole digging deeper than 16 inches near the covered gas, hazardous-liquid or carbon-dioxide pipelines. Its default locate-ticket life is 14 working days, unless the excavator and operator make a longer written, signed and dated agreement. Refresh unfinished work for the remaining excavation area. Keep the required locate-ticket and positive-response records for at least 4 years. Check the site, ticket and markings and use the required second-notice process for missing, incorrect or inconsistent pipeline responses.

• Utility safety before digging: Request a Texas811 locate before digging fence posts, wait the applicable lawful period, check ticket responses and site markings, resolve missing or conflicting information through the current ticket process, protect the marks and excavate carefully. Private irrigation, pool, outbuilding and other owner-operated lines may need separate locating; an 811 request does not assure that every private service or water and sewer line is marked. Locate compliance does not replace permits, property permission, easement rights or pipeline construction notice.

FENCE HEIGHT AND VISIBILITY RULES

• Front-yard height: Within the required residential front-yard setback area, the maximum is 3 feet. A fence allowing a view through a majority of its area, such as chain-link or railing, may be 4 feet high.

• Backyard and side-yard guidance: The code limits backyard fences to 7 feet. The city webpage describes a maximum of 7 feet in back and side yards up to the front face of the house.

• Side-to-front transition: The city guidance allows a sloped, stepped, curved or abrupt transition to the 3- or 4-foot front height within the first 8 feet from the front face of the house. The required front-yard setback area remains subject to the code’s front-height limit; have the city identify the transition point for an unusual lot or building line.

• Corner yards and other zoning contexts: The 15-foot exterior-side area described above uses the front-height rule. General commercial and industrial property has a separate 8-foot open-front fencing provision, while local retail and central business districts prohibit fencing the required front setback. For a dwelling in one of those districts, obtain the city’s district-specific determination rather than applying the ordinary residential yard schedule alone.

MATERIAL AND CONSTRUCTION LIMITS

• Wood and vinyl/PVC: The ordinary fence provision does not separately approve or prohibit wood or vinyl/PVC. The proposed material must satisfy the applicable height, openness, location and other project requirements.

• Chain-link and railing: The code expressly identifies chain-link and railing as examples of see-through materials for the 4-foot residential front-yard option.

• Electric fences: Sections 66-757 and 66-758 prohibit electric fences within city limits, including fences connected to a current capable of producing an electric shock.

For a fence serving as a private residential pool or spa barrier, the adopted 2021 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code adds the following requirements.

• Pool-barrier height and lower openings: The required enclosure is at least 48 inches high. The model measures barrier height from the side away from the water and requires its height to be maintained around the perimeter and for 3 feet horizontally outside it. The lower clearance is at most 2 inches above nonsolid ground or 4 inches above a solid surface. A barrier mounted on the pool structure may have at most a 4-inch gap above the structure. General openings must prevent passage of a 4-inch sphere.

• Climb resistance and horizontal members: Solid barriers may not have climbable handholds or footholds other than normal tolerances and tooled masonry joints. With horizontal-member tops less than 45 inches apart, place those members on the pool side and limit vertical gaps and decorative cutouts to 1¾ inches. With horizontal-member tops at least 45 inches apart, vertical gaps may be up to 4 inches, but decorative cutouts remain limited to 1¾ inches.

• Chain-link, diagonal fencing and outside equipment: Chain-link openings may not exceed 1¾ inches; slats secured at top and bottom may reduce larger openings to that size. Diagonal-member openings also may not exceed 1¾ inches, and the members’ angle may be no more than 45 degrees from vertical. Equipment on the same lot outside the barrier, including pumps, filters and heaters, must be at least 36 inches from it.

• Mesh pool barriers: A mesh barrier must follow the manufacturer’s instructions and the adopted code’s attachment and clearance requirements. Keep its inside at least 20 inches from the water’s edge; it may not be installed on top of an onground residential pool. Its gates must meet the pool-gate requirements.

• Pool gates and latch protection: Pedestrian gates must open away from the pool, self-close and self-latch, and all barrier gates must accommodate a lock. Utility or service gates must stay locked when unused. For double or multiple gates, secure at least one leaf in place and self-latch the adjacent leaf. An outside-accessed, non-self-locking residential latch release is at least 54 inches above the finished surface; a self-locking control is at most 54 inches. A private-pool release accessible only from the pool side is at least 3 inches below the gate top. Openings within 18 inches of an inside release may not exceed ½ inch.

• Dwelling walls and onground pool structures: When a house wall provides direct access to the pool, use the required water-hazard entrance alarms, a qualifying listed safety cover or an approved equivalent protective system. The alarm rule covers doors, gates and operable windows with sills below 48 inches above the indoor finished floor; alarm deactivation controls are at least 54 inches high in dwellings not required to be accessible, and 48–54 inches in the specified accessible dwellings. An onground pool wall may serve as a barrier only where the manufacturer allows it and the wall, any mounted barrier and the entire perimeter meet the applicable barrier standard. Secure, lock or remove access ladders or steps unless separately enclosed, and prevent a 4-inch sphere from passing through resulting openings.

• Pool-barrier alternatives: A qualifying lockable ASTM F1346 cover for a spa or hot tub, or a qualifying powered ASTM F1346 cover for a pool, can satisfy the model’s stated barrier exception. Have Building Inspections approve any proposed cover, natural barrier or equivalent alternative under all applicable city requirements.

• Additional city pool guidance: The city’s pool webpage specifies chain-link of at least 11 gauge and openings that will not pass a 1¾-inch sphere. It describes a horizontal-member exception where the top surface slopes at least 45 degrees, and an exception to pool-side placement for an existing adjoining-private-property fence. Because the adopted 2021 barrier provisions also apply, obtain Building Inspections’ approval of any proposed exception and the complete gate/latch arrangement before using the existing fence as the pool barrier.

PRIVATE RESTRICTIONS

Deed restrictions, homeowners association rules, architectural-review requirements, private easements, and agreements about fence ownership, maintenance or costs can impose separate obligations, subject to Texas law. Public approval does not decide those private rights. Review the actual recorded documents and applicable association procedures before construction.

• HOA security and perimeter fencing: Under Property Code Section 202.023, an association generally cannot adopt or enforce a covenant preventing an owner from installing security measures, including perimeter fencing. The section excludes condominiums governed by Chapters 81 or 82 and master mixed-use associations subject to Chapter 215.

• Controls an HOA may retain: An association may regulate fence type and prohibit fencing that obstructs a license area, a public or community sidewalk, or a drainage easement or drainage area. It may require a driveway gate to be set back at least 10 feet from the right-of-way where the driveway intersects a laned roadway. If a restrictive covenant provides for it, the association may prohibit fencing in front of the dwelling’s front-most building line. The gate provision is an association power, not a general county fence setback.

• Existing fences and enhanced security: Notwithstanding those retained controls, owners may maintain perimeter or front-building-line fencing installed or constructed before September 1, 2025. The front-building-line prohibition also does not apply when the owner’s residential address is exempt from public disclosure under state or federal law, or the owner provides the association with law-enforcement documentation of a need for enhanced security measures.

• Protected pool enclosures: Property Code Section 202.022 protects a nonclimbable fence surrounding a water feature that consists of transparent mesh or clear panels in metal frames, is no more than 6 feet high, and conforms to applicable state or local safety requirements. An association may regulate appearance and color but cannot prohibit the protected black transparent-mesh enclosure in metal frames. The 6-foot figure defines this HOA protection; it is not a general pool-barrier minimum or ordinary fence-height limit.

REVIEW AND ENFORCEMENT CONTEXT

Fence issues are typically reviewed during permit or approval review when required, and through complaint-based code enforcement. Examples include:

• Permit and corner review: Whether the published permit conflict has been resolved for the project and any required corner-lot on-site review has occurred.

• Yard height and access: Whether the fence meets the applicable front, back, side-transition and corner-yard limits and required backyard gate access.

• Location and floodplain: Whether the fence stays within the owner’s property, avoids public corridors and preserves drainage and any required floodplain conditions.

• Materials and pool barriers: Whether the electric-fence prohibition and applicable pool dimensions, construction fencing, gates and approved exceptions are satisfied.

• Excavation and agricultural conditions: Whether the applicable utility, pipeline and agricultural provisions affect construction.

• Private and shared-fence matters: Association review, boundary disputes and ownership or cost agreements are separate from city approval. The joint or attached fence-removal conditions described above can affect replacement work.

USING THIS INFORMATION

This page provides general orientation on how residential fence rules are structured and applied within the City of Andrews, Texas. Updated November 2026.

In addition to local fence rules, certain Texas laws apply statewide. See Statewide Fence Laws in Texas.

It is not legal advice and does not replace official statutes, ordinances, orders, permits, certificates, development approvals, applicable building-code requirements, surveys, recorded documents or professional guidance. Rules and interpretations may change, and application may vary with municipal or unincorporated location, applicable extraterritorial authority, zoning or special-area status, code adoption and amendments, site conditions, subdivision or plat conditions, easements, rights-of-way, drainage and floodplain requirements, historic or design districts, pool use, agricultural operations and stock laws, fence ownership or attachment, coastal or public-access conditions, utility and pipeline excavation requirements, and private restrictions subject to Texas law. Before purchasing materials or beginning construction, confirm current requirements and site-specific limitations with Andrews Building Inspections and Code Compliance and the responsible office for each applicable issue, and review applicable private agreements. If this page conflicts with controlling law, adopted regulations or official requirements, the controlling authorities govern. For legal advice or legal interpretation, consult a licensed attorney.