FENCE RULES – EAGLE PASS (CITY), TEXAS

OVERVIEW

This page covers residential fence installation and replacement within the incorporated City of Eagle Pass, Texas, in Maverick County.

Eagle Pass requires a building permit to install, replace or relocate a fence. Its general height limit is eight feet from finished grade, with lower limits for front-yard fences and walls. Residential materials are specifically listed, and alternative products need City review. Utility easements, street and driveway visibility, historic-area requirements and floodways can change a fence’s location or design. A fence serving a private pool must also satisfy the adopted pool-barrier rules. Homes with agricultural acreage have specific ranch-fencing allowances and limited permit exceptions, with separate conditions for lawful livestock keeping. Updated November 2026.

Quick question	Eagle Pass answer
Permit or approval	A City building permit is required for fence installation, replacement or relocation. Specific ranch internal-fencing and normal-maintenance exceptions apply. Historic, floodplain or public-surface work can require separate approval.
Typical fence height	The general maximum is 8 feet from finished grade. In front-yard setbacks, where permitted, approved fences and gates with at least 50% visibility may reach 4 feet; fences or walls more than 50% opaque are limited to 30 inches.
Placement & property lines	Identify the actual boundary, rights-of-way and easements. Preserve utility access and drainage. Obtain specific approval before proposed easement encroachment; keep required sight areas clear.
Common fence materials	Wood: listed when protected against decay. Vinyl/PVC: not listed; alternative-material concept review is required. Chain-link: prohibited in front yards and not listed as an ordinary residential material.
Important local conditions	Fence rules may be further affected by corner lots and driveways, historic areas, private pools, utility and drainage easements, floodways, double-frontage maintenance requirements and qualifying ranch or agricultural use.
Official local resource	City of Eagle Pass Community Development

The table above is for quick reference; the corresponding sections below explain additional fence-rule details. 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 Planning Department or the responsible office identified below.

GOVERNANCE

Eagle Pass is a home-rule city with a council-manager government. The City Council adopts the municipal regulations. The Eagle Pass Code of Ordinances places the principal fence requirements in Appendix A, Section 12(D)(1). Building and pool provisions appear in Chapter 8; historic preservation in Chapter 8, Article IX; floodplain and construction-runoff provisions in Chapter 13.5; public-way requirements in Chapter 22; and subdivision, easement and landscaping provisions in Chapter 23.

The Community Development Department’s Planning Department and Building Official administer fence permits and inspections. The Planning Director and City Engineer review alternative residential fencing materials. Public Works administers permission for work that damages City-maintained public surfaces. The Floodplain Administrator handles floodplain-development review, and the City Engineer approves the stated breakaway-fence exception in floodways. The Main Street Advisory Board administers historic certificates of appropriateness, with the Planning Department handling applications. Animal Control administers the special animal-enclosure requirements.

The City adopts the 2018 International Building, Residential, Mechanical, Existing Building and Energy Conservation Codes, with local amendments, and the 2012 Texas Accessibility Standards. Its pool adoption is the 2018 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code, and its electrical adoption is the 2017 National Electrical Code. Fence-specific zoning requirements, local amendments, public easements and applicable recorded plat conditions operate alongside these codes.

• Residential agricultural operations: Agriculture Code Section 251.0055 limits City requirements imposed on qualifying agricultural operations within municipal boundaries. The City must have clear and convincing evidence that a requirement is necessary to address a listed imminent danger to nearby residents or people on nearby public property and that less restrictive means cannot address its purpose. A public-health finding by resolution must be based on the required health-officer or consultant report, and the requirement must satisfy the statute’s other limits. The operation’s actual activities and statutory qualifications determine these protections. Where agricultural-operation status is based on wildlife management, the City may require the written management plan specified by Tax Code Section 23.521(c).

• Agricultural fence improvements: Agriculture Code Section 251.006 protects an owner, lessee or occupant of agricultural land from liability to the state, a governmental unit, or the owner, lessee or occupant of other agricultural land for constructing or maintaining a qualifying agricultural improvement on that land, provided its construction was not expressly prohibited by statute or a governmental requirement adopted under Section 251.005 and in effect when constructed. Such an improvement is not a nuisance and is not otherwise subject to suit or injunction. State and federal statutes remain enforceable. Agricultural land includes land qualifying for agricultural-use appraisal under Tax Code Chapter 23, Subchapter D, and other land on which agricultural operations exist or may take place. Qualifying improvements include fences designed for sheltering, restricting or feeding animal or aquatic life, or for storage of produce, feed, management implements or equipment necessary for agricultural operations. The land, use and valid-law timing conditions determine this protection.

PERMIT AND APPROVAL REQUIREMENTS

• Fence building permit: Installing, replacing or relocating a fence within Eagle Pass requires a City building permit. This includes replacement of an existing residential fence. The City’s residential building-permit application includes a fence-work category. Some fence designs require engineering.

• Ranch-fencing permit exceptions: For the ranch-style premises addressed by Section 12(D)(1)(f), permits are not required for internal cross-sectioning to control animals or enforce rotational grazing, or for ranch-fence repair to the extent necessary for normal maintenance. New or relocated perimeter fencing remains subject to the ordinary permit requirement. The material and lawful-animal conditions appear below.

• Plans and property information: The code calls for three copies of a scaled site plan on paper from 8.5 by 11 inches to 11 by 17 inches. The residential application separately calls for one complete plan set plus one electronic set for other construction. Confirm the submission format with Planning. The site plan must identify the north arrow; survey-accurate property dimensions; existing and proposed structures and their distances from lot lines; easements; any floodplain or floodway; required parking and landscaping; existing and proposed grades; abutting streets; and existing or proposed fire hydrants, as applicable. The Building Official may waive or modify the site-plan requirement for an alteration or repair that does not increase the structure’s footprint.

• Fence details and inspections: Provide the fence’s proposed location, height, materials, structural support and total work valuation, including labor and materials. Identify the property lines for inspection and arrange the required completion inspection. The residential application identifies fencing, drainage and historic inspections as applicable to the project and requests inspection scheduling at least 24 hours in advance.

• Application and permit duration: An application is abandoned after 180 days unless pursued as required. A permit becomes invalid if work does not begin within 180 days of issuance, or if work is suspended or abandoned for 180 days after commencement. Confirm the applicable permit charges with Planning before work begins.

• Alternative residential materials: A request to upgrade to an alternative fencing material requires concept-plan review by the Planning Director and City Engineer. This review applies to products outside the residential material list, including vinyl/PVC proposals.

• Retaining walls: The local building and residential amendments exempt retaining walls not over 4 feet high, measured from the bottom of the footing to the top of the wall, unless they support a surcharge or impound Class I, II or III liquids. A fence installed with or on a retaining wall still has its separate fence-permit requirement. Retaining-wall construction and drainage conditions appear in Material and Construction Limits.

• Historic preservation areas: A certificate of appropriateness must precede the permit and work for wall or fence changes or construction along public ways within a primary historic area. New publicly visible principal or accessory buildings or structures have a certificate trigger throughout a historic district, including its initial establishment phase. The district map, primary-area designation and applicable establishment phase determine the review category. The Eagle Pass Main Street Program provides the historic-review route.

• Historic application and decision: Apply through Planning on the prescribed form. The Main Street Advisory Board may require sketches, drawings, photographs, descriptions or other information needed for its decision. A certificate issues upon approval or if the Board does not act within 30 calendar days after filing. A timely written denial prevents issuance and further permit processing; the applicant may agree to an extension of the decision period.

• Flood-hazard areas: Development in a special flood-hazard area requires a floodplain-development permit. Development includes manmade changes such as structures, filling, grading and excavation. Provide scaled site information and the elevations, watercourse information or engineering analysis required for the actual work. The floodplain application fee is $193, with reimbursement of additional City review, inspection and approval costs; a deposit for those additional costs may not exceed $500. These charges concern the separate floodplain permit.

• City-maintained public surfaces: Obtain written Public Works permission before work cuts, breaks, punctures, excavates or otherwise damages the surface of a City-maintained public street, alley, curb or sidewalk. This approval is additional to the fence permit.

FENCE PLACEMENT RULES

• Boundaries and yards: Establish the legal lot boundary and recorded easements before setting the fence line. An existing fence, tax-map line, curb, sidewalk or pavement edge is not conclusive proof of the boundary. Section 12(D)(1) does not prescribe a single citywide fence-to-property-line offset. Public rights-of-way, easements, sight areas, recorded conditions and the approval for the actual location remain applicable.

• Front, rear and side yards: The front yard extends across the lot between the street right-of-way line and the main building or its projections, excluding usual steps, unenclosed balconies and open porches. The rear yard is measured from the rear lot line to the main building or its projections, excluding steps, unenclosed balconies and unenclosed porches; on a corner lot it is parallel to the street along which the lot has its least dimension and remains opposite the front yard. The side yard lies between the main building and side lot line and extends from the front lot line to the rear-yard line. These yard locations determine the applicable front-yard fence and gate restrictions.

• Utility easements: Preserve clearance and access, and show the easement on the plan. Section 23-62 allows backyard fencing up to the property line after a Planning permit and onsite inspection, with denial if a utility conflict exists. Owners must allow easement ingress and egress when needed; the easement’s clear-area requirements also remain. The Public Works manual directs backyard fences to the easement line. Obtain specific approval before proposed encroachment into or across an easement.

• Approved easement fences: A fence may not impede access to public utilities or metering devices. Where a fence in or across a utility easement is approved, the owner remains responsible for it. If exercise of City or utility rights substantially damages or destroys the fence, its repair or replacement is the owner’s responsibility.

• Corner lots and driveways: Fences must remain outside required visibility triangles at street intersections. The sight-area provision also includes driveways and other access points to the public right-of-way. The obstruction-height restriction appears in the next section; confirm the required sight area for the particular intersection or access point with Planning.

• Approved alley refuse collection: Keep the alley free of obstructions, with vehicle clearance at least 11 feet wide and 14 feet high where the City’s alley-collection provision applies. When protection of collectors in a narrow alley requires it, the Director may direct property owners by written notice to provide setbacks or fence inserts.

• Drainage channels and easements: Fence work, fill or other encroachment in or near a natural drainage channel, watercourse or easement must preserve its stormwater-carrying function and avoid exposing nearby property to flooding or erosion. Water Code Section 11.086 also prohibits diverting or impounding natural surface water in a manner that damages another’s property by overflow, except as otherwise permitted by law.

• Construction runoff: Within the City, construction activity may not send a measurable volume of sediment, soil, soil material or pollutants into the municipal storm-sewer system. Owners and contractors responsible for the work must use necessary best management practices to protect the system from construction runoff and transported material. Separately required state or federal stormwater plans must be available for City inspection.

• Floodways: Fences are prohibited in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)-designated floodway areas except for a breakaway fence type approved through the City Engineer. Confirm floodway location before selecting the fence line or construction method.

• Existing landscaping and screening conditions: Chapter 23’s landscaping article applies to specified new development, replacement buildings, changes from exempt uses and qualifying large expansions, with stated exemptions for previously approved development and other situations. Existing applicable landscape and screening conditions must be preserved during fence replacement. Where the article applies, street-yard loading spaces, refuse and outside storage areas, antennas, satellite dishes and mechanical equipment must be screened from public streets. The screen must be 6 feet high or high enough to obscure the area or equipment, whichever is less; plants, a solid fence or wall, or a combination may provide it.

• Homes keeping larger numbers of dogs: The City’s residential animal-nuisance rule generally limits keeping or routinely feeding or sheltering more than five dogs for over seven days, subject to its exceptions. When all the dogs are registered to compete in a dog show open to the public, that seven-day period and five-dog limit do not apply. An outdoor-fencing exception allows up to seven dogs on 10,000 square feet to one-half acre if the fence is at least 75 feet from another person’s owned or occupied dwelling or business. It allows up to ten dogs on one-half to two acres, or fifteen dogs on more than two acres, if the fence is at least 150 feet from such a dwelling or business. These are animal-keeping conditions for those exceptions.

• Dog-count alternatives: Those three dog counts may be doubled when the animals are inside a completely enclosed structure at least 150 feet from another person’s owned or occupied dwelling or business. Puppies and kittens are excluded from the counts until four months old. Animals already kept in excess when the animal article was adopted remain within its stated exception while they receive good, humane care as the Director determines.

• Agricultural boundaries: Fences around cleared land in cultivation running more than three miles in the same general direction require an unlocked gate at least 10 feet wide under Agriculture Code Section 143.002.

• Joint or physically attached fences: Agriculture Code Sections 143.121–143.123 govern particular removal situations. Without mutual consent or the statutory process, a person may not remove a separating or dividing fence in which that person is a joint owner, or a fence attached to one owned or controlled by someone else. An owner of an interest in an attached fence may physically withdraw that fence after six months’ written notice to the other fence’s owner, agent, attorney or lessee. An owner whose fence is wholly on that owner’s land may require an attached fence’s owner to disconnect and withdraw it after the same six months’ written notice.

• Pipeline easement construction: For covered construction on, across, over or under a pipeline easement or right-of-way, Health and Safety Code Chapter 756 requires notice to the pipeline operator. Work proceeds under the statute’s conditions: an operator determination of no increased risk; payment of reasonable, necessary and documented protective improvements before proceeding where risk increases; or the applicable existing-written-agreement route. A contrary written agreement can govern applicability. Coordinate the proposed fence location and construction with the operator.

• Excavation notice and timing: Utilities Code Chapter 251 covers specified powered, mechanized or explosive soil disturbance at least 16 inches deep, including powered augers. Its ordinary notice window runs from the 14th day before work to at least 48 hours before work, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays from that calculation. If notification is made before 11:59 a.m. on Saturday, work may begin at 11:59 a.m. the following Tuesday, or Wednesday if Monday is a legal holiday. Follow the ticket’s lawful start instructions.

• Digging near pipelines: Railroad Commission Chapter 18 also covers qualifying manual excavation and has its own exceptions, including soil movement not exceeding 16 inches. Keep a valid locate ticket available and check the work location and markings. Pipeline tickets ordinarily last 14 working days from original notice; refresh the unexcavated area when needed. A longer ticket life requires the excavator’s and operator’s written, signed and dated agreement. Retain required ticket and positive-response records for at least four years.

• Damage during digging: Report pipeline damage through the notification center at the earliest practical time and within one hour; do not cover an exposed damaged pipeline without operator approval. For damage to a facility covered by the Utilities Code, immediately contact its operator, or the notification center if the operator is unknown. Only the operator or its authorized person may repair it. Delay backfilling near the damage until it has been reported and a repair schedule is mutually agreed. Keep ignition sources away if flammable material creates a danger.

• Texas811 action before digging: Request a locate through Texas811’s digging and locate guidance before post digging. Wait the applicable lawful period and follow the ticket’s start instructions. Check responses, the work location and site markings; resolve missing or conflicting responses, markings or visible pipeline information through the current ticket process before proceeding. Confirm coverage for water, sewer and private or onsite facilities, and arrange needed private-line locating separately. Protect the marks and dig carefully. Locates accompany the project’s permits, easement rights, pipeline construction notice and private approvals.

FENCE HEIGHT AND VISIBILITY RULES

• General maximum: Fences in any zoning district may not exceed 8 feet, measured from finished grade.

• Front-yard fences and gates: Within the front-yard setback, where permitted, wrought iron or another semitransparent material approved by the Building Official may reach 4 feet with at least 50% visibility. Chain-link or cyclone fencing is prohibited in front yards. A front-yard fence or wall that is more than 50% opaque may not exceed 30 inches.

• Intersection and access visibility: The visibility triangle must remain free of fences or other screening between 30 inches and 7 feet high that would obstruct a motorist’s view of approaching traffic. The fence provision identifies intersections, corner lots, driveways and other public-right-of-way access points; it does not assign a fixed triangle-leg distance.

• Residential/nonresidential boundary: Between residential and nonresidential uses, an opaque visual buffer at least 7 feet high is required, with the materials and reinforcement specified below.

• Historic properties: A property’s applicable historic-preservation requirements may further control the fence’s appearance and relationship to the street and nearby historic structures. The more restrictive requirement governs a conflict between historic-district and zoning regulations.

• Cleared agricultural land in cultivation: Agriculture Code Section 143.001 calls for a sufficient fence at least 5 feet high that prevents hog passage, except as Chapter 143 provides for areas with an adopted local-option stock law. Applicable stock-law territory and animal classes determine those agricultural fence-sufficiency rules.

MATERIAL AND CONSTRUCTION LIMITS

• Residential material list: Fences in residential zoning must be constructed of brick, stone, masonry, cement, stucco, cinder block, iron or wood. Wood must be stained, pressure-treated, painted or adequately sealed against decay. Alternative materials require the Planning Director and City Engineer’s concept-plan review.

• Vinyl/PVC and chain-link: Vinyl/PVC is outside the listed residential materials and follows the alternative-material review process. Chain-link/cyclone is prohibited in front yards and is not included in the ordinary residential material list. Pool-barrier construction must also satisfy the City’s zoning material requirements.

• Ranch-style premises: Ranch-style livestock or predator-control fencing, including field fencing, split rail and ranch board, may be used on premises of 3 acres or more. Barbed-wire fencing is allowed on premises where large farm animals are legally kept and maintained. Chapter 6 regulates lawful livestock keeping, including its specified home-based 4-H/FFA arrangements and other permitted settings. Confirm that the particular animal use meets those requirements before choosing barbed wire.

• Harmful fencing: The code prohibits electrically charged fences, barbed wire, concertina wire, razor wire, broken glass and other features reasonably capable of harming people or animals, except in industrial zoning or where the code otherwise allows them. The lawful-animal barbed-wire allowance is one stated exception.

• Street-facing construction: Sections essentially parallel to a public street must face their exposed-post-and-rail side toward the residential lot’s interior. Posts and rails may face outward when concealed within construction consistent with and complementary to the fence. Visual depictions are required for appearance review before the permit issues.

• Double-frontage lots: Individual property owners must maintain the material and color of collector- or arterial-street fence sections to preserve uniformity and appearance from the public right-of-way.

• Maintenance and older approved materials: Maintain the fence in compliance and in sound structural condition as a whole, or remove it completely, including its posts. A previously Planning-approved fence built before the fence article with materials now disallowed may be maintained while no part is unsafe, dilapidated or a public nuisance as Planning determines.

• Required residential/nonresidential screens: Use brick, stone, masonry, cement, stucco, cinder block or pressure-treated weather-resistant lumber. Required screens must provide visual screening and be structurally reinforced against wind damage.

• Retaining-wall construction: Portions below grade or below supporting surcharge material must be concrete rather than cinder block. A fence retaining wall must be designed so it does not convey surface water onto adjoining property.

• Historic fence character: Historic walls, fences and appurtenances must retain their historical and architectural character when moved, reconstructed, altered or maintained. Review considers historical value, original materials, compatible additions, texture, color, style, detailing and the relationship to streets, public ways and other structures. Within a primary historic area, applicable new or altered nonhistoric structures must be visually compatible; walls, wrought-iron fences and landscape masses must form cohesive street enclosure where necessary for that compatibility.

• Ordinary historic maintenance: Ordinary repair and maintenance remains possible when it produces no conspicuous change in design, form, proportion, mass, configuration, material, texture, color, location or external visual appearance. The applicable certificate requirements still govern work within their review categories.

• Vacant homes in the central or historic enforcement area: The vacant-structure provisions apply within their defined Central Business District or Historic Preservation District boundaries. Covered exterior surfaces, including fences, must receive the required protective treatment and maintenance against deterioration; exposed wood or metal must be protected against decay or rust, with corrosion stabilized and coated. For an unsecured unoccupied building subject to a securing notice, fencing is one method of effectively barring entry, and the City may fence the premises.

• Dogs determined to be dangerous: A fence or pen used as the enclosure must be at least 5 by 10 feet, prevent young-child entry, remain locked, prevent climbing, digging, jumping or other escape, have secure sides and provide protection from the elements. Animal Control may require a fence higher than 6 feet and/or a secure top or bottom when demonstrated escape risk warrants it. A secure enclosure must exclude the public, prevent release and be marked for the dangerous dog. The owner must provide the required enclosure proof, post the premises warning visible and readable from the public street, and allow the required annual residence inspection.

• Homes using the City fire key-box program: Residential structures are exempt from the fire key-box provisions unless the owner requests the system. For a covered home surrounded by a locked fence that bars emergency access, at least one fence entrance must use the Fire Department-approved padlock keyed to the approved key-box system.

• Livestock-protection dogs at qualifying agricultural operations: Agriculture Code Section 251.0055 exempts a dog from a City’s agricultural-operation restraint requirement while the dog is used to protect livestock on property controlled by the property owner. The exemption follows that particular use and location.

A fence is generally not mandatory under the fence article, subject to required pool enclosures, applicable residential perimeter requirements and other code provisions. For a private residential pool or spa, the adopted 2018 pool code provides the following barrier requirements and alternatives.

• Pool/spa safety-cover alternative: A spa or hot tub with an ASTM F1346-compliant lockable safety cover, or a swimming pool with an ASTM F1346-compliant powered safety cover, qualifies for the Section 305.1 exception from the other Section 305 barrier provisions.

• Pool-barrier height and ground gaps: The barrier top must be at least 48 inches above grade on the side away from the pool or spa, around the full perimeter and for 3 feet horizontally outside it. The bottom gap is limited to 2 inches over nonsolid ground such as grass or gravel, or 4 inches over a solid surface. A barrier for an above-grade pool/spa is installed on grade or on the structure; when mounted on it, the gap above the structure is limited to 4 inches.

• Pool-barrier openings and solid surfaces: Openings must reject a 4-inch-diameter sphere. A solid barrier cannot provide climbable handholds or footholds, apart from normal construction tolerances and tooled masonry joints.

• Pool mesh fencing: Install it to the manufacturer’s instructions. The bottom must be within 1 inch of the deck, surface or grade, cannot lift more than 4 inches, and must prevent a 4-inch sphere passing under a panel. Each section needs a secure attachment at least 45 inches above grade, with security at least equal to a hook-and-eye latch with a spring-actuated retaining lever. Hinged gates must meet the pool-gate rules. In-deck post sleeves must be nonconductive. Mesh fencing cannot be mounted on an onground residential pool.

• Pool fences with horizontal and vertical members: If the tops of horizontal members are less than 45 inches apart, place those members on the pool side and limit vertical-member and decorative-cutout openings to 1¾ inches. With horizontal-member tops at least 45 inches apart, vertical openings may reach 4 inches, while decorative-cutout interior widths remain limited to 1¾ inches.

• Pool chain-link and diagonal construction: Chain-link openings may not exceed 1¾ inches; any reducing slats must be fastened at top and bottom and maintain that opening limit. Diagonal-member openings are limited to 1¾ inches, and the members’ angle cannot exceed 45 degrees from vertical. City residential-material and front-yard restrictions remain applicable to the proposed barrier.

• Pool-barrier location: Maintain at least 36 inches between the barrier’s exterior and permanent structures or equipment that could assist climbing. The poolside face of the barrier must be at least 20 inches from the water’s edge.

• Pool gates: Access gates must accommodate a lock. Pedestrian gates must swing outward from the pool/spa, close themselves and latch themselves. Service or utility gates remain locked when unused. Double or multiple gates need at least one secured leaf and a self-latching adjacent leaf; openings within 18 inches of the latch release cannot exceed one-half inch. If a latch release is below 54 inches above grade, place it on the pool side at least 3 inches below the gate top, with no openings over one-half inch within 18 inches of the release.

• Building wall used as a pool barrier: Where doors or windows through the wall directly access the pool/spa, use one of the code’s alternatives: an audible UL 2017-listed and labeled water-hazard entrance alarm for doors and operable windows with indoor sills below 48 inches; an ASTM F1346-listed and labeled safety cover; or another approved protection providing equivalent safety, such as self-closing, self-latching doors. Alarm-deactivation controls must be at least 54 inches above the finished floor in ordinary units; units required to be Accessible, Type A or Type B use the 48-to-54-inch range.

• Onground pool wall used as a barrier: A wall alone must meet the barrier provisions, have its bottom on grade and its top at least 48 inches above grade for the entire perimeter, and be approved for that use by the manufacturer. With a barrier mounted on the wall, the combined top must reach at least 48 inches above grade around the perimeter, and both parts must meet Section 305.2. Install mounted barriers to the manufacturer’s instructions. Secure, lock or remove access ladders and steps unless a compliant barrier surrounds them; resulting openings must reject a 4-inch sphere.

• Natural pool-barrier alternatives: Where a pool/spa area abuts a lake or natural water body, the shoreline may serve as the barrier only where public shoreline access is not allowed and the required barriers extend at least 18 inches beyond the water’s edge. Natural topography that prevents direct access, such as natural rock formations, requires governing-body approval and protection equivalent to the code’s constructed-barrier requirements.

PRIVATE RESTRICTIONS

Review deed restrictions, homeowners’ association (HOA) covenants, private architectural approvals, recorded private easements and boundary, cost or maintenance agreements. Public permit approval does not determine fence ownership, the legal boundary, shared costs or compliance with a private agreement.

• HOA security fencing: Property Code Section 202.023 protects security measures, including perimeter fences, subject to its retained controls. It excludes condominiums governed by Chapters 81 or 82 and master mixed-use associations subject to Chapter 215. An association may regulate fencing type and prohibit fencing that obstructs a written-agreement or plat license area, a public/community sidewalk, or a drainage easement or drainage area.

• HOA gate and front-line conditions: An association may require a driveway gate to be at least 10 feet from the right-of-way where the driveway meets a laned roadway as defined in Transportation Code Section 541.302. A restrictive covenant may prohibit fencing in front of the dwelling’s front-most building line, subject to the statutory protections below.

• Existing and enhanced-security HOA protections: Owners may maintain perimeter fencing or front-building-line fencing installed or constructed before September 1, 2025, notwithstanding the association’s retained Section 202.023(c) controls described above. This protection covers maintenance of qualifying existing fencing; replacement or expansion remains subject to its applicable requirements. The front-building-line prohibition is also limited where the owner’s residential address is legally exempt from public disclosure, or the owner supplies law-enforcement documentation of a need for enhanced security measures.

• HOA pool enclosures: Property Code Section 202.022 protects a pool/spa enclosure that meets applicable state or local safety requirements and consists of nonclimbable transparent mesh or clear panels in metal frames, no more than 6 feet high. An association may regulate appearance and permissible colors, but cannot prohibit the qualifying black transparent-mesh enclosure in metal frames. Applicable governmental pool-barrier and City material requirements still apply.

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 plan review: Checking the proposed work, property lines, easements, engineering where required and completion inspections.

• Height, visibility and construction: Applying the front-yard and general height limits, sight-area protection, residential material list, alternative-material review, street-facing orientation and maintenance requirements.

• Location and access: Addressing utility access, proposed easement encroachment, public-surface work, drainage, floodways and applicable alley conditions.

• Special residential conditions: Reviewing historic certificates and character, pool barriers and their permitted alternatives, animal enclosures and qualifying agricultural conditions.

• Excavation and adjoining fences: Addressing utility/pipeline notice and damage prevention, and the statutory conditions for joint or physically attached fence removal. Private association approvals and ownership or cost disputes remain separate from City code enforcement.

USING THIS INFORMATION

This page provides general orientation on how residential fence rules are structured and applied within the City of Eagle Pass, 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 the City of Eagle Pass Planning Department 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.