FENCE RULES – HAYS (COUNTY), TEXAS

OVERVIEW

This page covers residential fencing in unincorporated Hays County, Texas, outside incorporated municipalities. Some unincorporated property is subject to a municipality’s limited extraterritorial functions or the mapped San Marcos Regional Airport zoning program. County roads, drainage easements, floodplain administration and other special programs have their own coverage.

Hays County has no ordinary zoning outside the airport program and does not publish general front-, side- or rear-yard fence-height limits. New fence work involving land modification falls within the county’s development-approval process, subject to applicable exemptions. The important controls are tied to the property and the work. Floodplain fences have an exact open-fence permit exemption, while other floodplain fences require approval. Drainage easements must carry water, and fences in road rights-of-way face measurable visibility restrictions. Wood, vinyl/PVC and chain-link have no general county material-specific permission or prohibition; pond, pool, animal-containment and private restrictions can change the answer. Utility excavation and pipeline protection remain separate obligations.

Quick question	Hays County answer
Permit or approval	County development approval is required for new fence work involving land modification, such as new post holes, grading or fill, unless an applicable exemption covers the work. Qualifying open fences have a specific Flood Hazard Area Permit exemption. County-property encroachments and covered emergency-access gates have separate approval paths.
Typical fence height	No general county front-, side- or rear-yard fence-height maximum is published. Floodplain openness and post geometry, road visibility, covered pool barriers, animal containment and private restrictions have separate requirements.
Placement & property lines	No general numeric county fence-to-property-line setback is published. Legal boundaries, rights-of-way, drainage and utility easements, stream crossings, approved plats and special-site conditions remain important.
Common fence materials	Wood: no general material-specific county rule is published. Vinyl/PVC: not specifically addressed by the ordinary county fence provisions. Chain-link: no general county permission or prohibition is published; a county-reviewed pond enclosure may require it, while covered pool rules restrict it.
Important local conditions	Fence rules may be further affected by floodplain or floodway location, drainage and pipeline easements, roads and crossings, airport or extraterritorial functions, approved development conditions, pools, animal containment, agricultural use and private covenants.
Official local resource	Hays County Development & Planning

The table above is for quick reference; the corresponding sections below explain the additional conditions. Before buying materials or beginning construction, read the sections that apply to the property, review the linked official sources, and confirm site-specific questions with Hays County Development Services or the office responsible for the particular issue.

GOVERNANCE

Hays County is the county government for the unincorporated territory addressed here. The Hays County Development Regulations establish separate subdivision, development, drainage, floodplain, county-property and special-use programs. The Commissioners Court adopts county requirements under the applicable state grants; Development Services, the County Floodplain Administrator, Transportation, the Fire Marshal and Animal Control administer their respective functions.

• Ordinary zoning and airport territory: The county affirmatively states that it lacks zoning authority outside the San Marcos Regional Airport zoning regulations. The City of San Marcos administers that separate airport-hazard and surrounding-land-use program in its mapped territory. Ordinary municipal fence zoning and the airport program have different coverage.

• Municipal limits and extraterritorial functions: Incorporated municipalities are outside this county guide’s ordinary territory. A municipality may exercise particular subdivision or environmental functions in its legally applicable extraterritorial jurisdiction. Chapter 242 subdivision agreements allocate specific city and county responsibilities. Current boundaries, releases and the actual function govern which office acts; a city mailing address does not settle that question. County service supplied inside a city remains a separate service arrangement.

• Subdivision, development and special programs: Recorded plats, drainage dedications, approved development conditions and applicable public easements can affect a residential fence. An approved planned development or special program may carry property-specific conditions. Conservation-development restrictions apply to projects using that program. Utility or emergency-service districts administer their particular functions and facilities.

• County residential construction and fire-code scope: The county’s residential-construction notification program concerns a new house or duplex on vacant land and qualifying additions increasing square footage or value by more than 50%. The county describes builder-arranged third-party inspections rather than county single-family construction inspections. Its adopted 2018 International Fire Code, with local amendments, addresses public/commercial buildings and covered multifamily buildings of four or more dwelling units. Ordinary yard fencing and the separately applicable emergency-access gate program have their own approval treatment below.

• Agricultural operations: Agriculture Code Chapter 251 and the Texas constitutional farming-and-ranching provision protect qualifying agricultural operations. For a county or other noncity political subdivision, the operation’s established date and the requirement’s effective date matter: the statute preserves applicable earlier requirements and limits later requirements on established operations. City governmental requirements do not apply to agricultural operations outside city corporate boundaries. State and federal requirements remain applicable.

• Agricultural fence improvements: Chapter 251 includes fences designed to shelter, restrict or feed animal or aquatic life among agricultural improvements. Its protection depends on the statutory conditions, including whether construction is expressly prohibited by statute or by an applicable governmental requirement adopted under Section 251.005 and in effect when construction occurs. The chapter preserves state and federal enforcement. The state’s agricultural-practices manual is descriptive guidance; agricultural status and the actual operation remain important. The statutory right of action for an aggrieved agricultural operator concerns unlawful governmental enforcement and provides its stated declaratory, injunctive and fee remedies.

PERMIT AND APPROVAL REQUIREMENTS

• Standard freestanding residential fences: Obtain county development approval before new fence work involving land modification, including new post holes, grading or fill, unless an applicable exemption covers the work. The county’s Development Permits FAQ defines development to include man-made land changes and states that a permit is required for any kind of development. This applies the general development process to the actual fence work; a separate fence-named permit is not necessary for that trigger. The county’s Class A process addresses development outside the Special Flood Hazard Area, and the specific open-fence flood-permit exemption below remains relevant. Maintenance without land modification needs separate assessment rather than a blanket permit assumption. Pool work, drainage alterations and county-property encroachments can require additional approval.

• Fence exemption in a Special Flood Hazard Area: Section 735.5.02(D)(1) exempts open pipe, rail or wire fencing from a Flood Hazard Area Permit only when it is 90% open, its posts are less than 14 inches in diameter, and the posts are placed no closer than 8 feet apart. The exemption is specific to that permit. Drainage-easement flow, stream-crossing construction and other applicable restrictions remain in force.

• Other fences in the 100-year floodplain: A proposed fence that does not meet the flood exemption is development and requires a Flood Hazard Area Permit. The County Floodplain Administrator reviews the actual site, including flood hazards and effects on other property. County regulations use the Flood Insurance Study and Flood Insurance Rate Maps dated January 17, 2025, together with applicable revisions; actual flood and drainage conditions also matter.

• County flood-development classifications: The county uses a Class A exemption certificate for development outside the Special Flood Hazard Area, where the flood-construction standards do not apply; Class B covers habitable construction inside it; and Class C covers nonhabitable structures or other development inside it. A required nonhabitable fence project in the floodplain falls within the applicable development review, rather than a separately published general fence fee. The January 2026 schedule lists $100 for Class A, $300 for Class B and $300 for Class C.

• Flood-development applications and completion: Before regulated development, the application must supply the required scaled plans showing the nature, location, dimensions and elevations of the work, landscape alterations, fill or storage, drainage and relevant flood or environmental features. Certified elevation and watercourse information is required where applicable. County review also addresses parcel compliance, flood and erosion danger, swept materials, neighboring impacts and safe access. A Flood Hazard Area Permit requires work to start within one year of issuance and be completed within two years of issuance. Development Services uses MGOConnect; its January 2026 schedule specifies online applications rather than paper submissions.

• Site-development and extraterritorial review: County site review identifies the particular development authorization and applicable requirements for the proposed activity. Location, activity descriptions, site sketches and additional road, drainage or erosion information depend on that review. An applicant claiming release from a municipal extraterritorial jurisdiction must provide the county’s release affidavit and applicable supporting evidence with the development application. The county form distinguishes a notified release from release by operation of law.

• County property, rights-of-way and public easements: County authorization is required before applicable encroachment, construction or land disturbance on county property, facilities, rights-of-way or easements. Temporary and permanent encroachments have separate procedures. Work involving a state highway or another government’s property also involves the authority responsible for that property.

• Community emergency-access gates: Covered gated subdivisions and multiunit housing projects have a separate county emergency-access permit program. Its exclusions include municipal access-control regulation, communities existing on the county chapter’s effective date and qualifying family-only occupancy. County Chapter 755 describes permit renewals, while Local Government Code Section 352.117 limits the fee under its subchapter to a one-time fee no greater than $50. These provisions concern the covered community’s access system; the approval path for a gate across a fire-apparatus access road is described below.

• Gates across fire-apparatus access roads: In the applicable fire-code program, installation or modification requires approval and maintained emergency operation. The current Fire Marshal fee schedule lists $240 for gate/barricade plan review and inspection across a fire-apparatus access road. This is a different published approval context from the Chapter 352 gated-community permit. Automatic gate operators must meet UL 325, and automatic gates must meet ASTM F2200, under the adopted fire-code provision.

• Construction stormwater and disturbed land: The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) construction general permit generally covers disturbance of one acre or more, including smaller work within a common plan that ultimately disturbs at least one acre. Small construction generally disturbs one to less than five acres; large construction disturbs five acres or more, including common-plan aggregation. Covered work requires the applicable Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan and authorization before construction. County erosion documentation also recognizes the stated county-manual or TCEQ-plan route.

• Construction-stormwater authorization: If fence-related land disturbance meets the construction general permit’s coverage thresholds, the applicable authorization and notice procedure must be completed before work. Small- and large-construction operators have different filing and timing procedures.

• County storm-sewer program: The county’s municipal separate storm sewer system program applies in its regulated mapped area, rather than uniformly to every county parcel. County development, state construction-stormwater and municipal environmental functions can overlap according to their actual territorial and project coverage.

• Edwards Aquifer recharge and transition areas: Regulated construction or disturbance requires the applicable Edwards Aquifer protection-plan approval before work. The activity definition includes a limited routine-maintenance exclusion for existing structures without additional site disturbance, including fences or similar activities with little or no potential to contaminate groundwater or little or no change to topographic, geologic or existing sensitive features. Clearing vegetation without soil disturbance, specified agricultural activities other than regulated concentrated animal feeding operations, and oil/gas/geothermal activities under Railroad Commission jurisdiction have their stated exclusions. The single-family-residence exclusion concerns a lot larger than five acres with no more than one residence per lot.

• Edwards Aquifer contributing-zone activity: The contributing-zone program applies to regulated activity disturbing at least five acres, or smaller activity within a common plan cumulatively disturbing at least five acres. It has an exclusion for routine maintenance without site disturbance, including fences or similar work presenting little or no potential to contaminate hydrologically connected surface water, and a separate routine-maintenance exclusion for little or no topographic or geologic change. Its other stated vegetation, agricultural, Railroad Commission and larger-than-five-acre single-residence exclusions remain activity-specific. A contributing-zone plan must be approved before regulated construction. A site partly in the recharge and contributing zones receives the stated recharge-zone treatment. Mapped recharge, transition and contributing boundaries govern; the Hays/Travis contributing-zone definition excludes the specified Colorado River drainage above the point 1.3 miles upstream of Tom Miller Dam at Barrow Brook Cove.

FENCE PLACEMENT RULES

• Property boundaries and fence setbacks: The county’s ordinary fence provisions do not publish a general numeric fence-to-property-line setback. The legal boundary, public right-of-way, recorded easements and approved plat conditions remain separate constraints. An existing fence, pavement edge, curb, ditch, mowing line or tax-map line is not a substitute for the legal boundary or a survey. Fence ownership, encroachment and private access rights are separate from governmental approval.

• Drainage easements: County Section 725.3.07 permits only limited utility, roadway or pedestrian crossings and fences that do not obstruct flow within drainage easements. Where an undelineated contributing drainage area is 64 acres or more, the county requires identification of a local floodplain. Below that size, concentrated flow still necessitates a drainage easement. Flood-permit exemption and drainage-easement compliance remain separate requirements.

• Stream channels and navigable waters: Any fence crossing a stream channel must be designed and built to break away or collapse so floodwater can discharge. A fence on a navigable stream or river must comply with the Parks and Wildlife Code’s protection of public recreation against limitation, obstruction, restriction or interference. Chapter 90’s statutory navigable-stream definition includes an average width of 30 feet from the mouth upstream, with its bed and boundary definitions. Public-water recreation rights and permission to cross private upland are separate matters.

• Floodways and flood variances: A regulatory-floodway encroachment requires the prescribed hydrologic and hydraulic analysis showing no increase in base-flood levels, unless the separate federal map-revision process applies. County rules for specified A1-30/AE areas without a designated floodway use their separate cumulative one-foot rise condition. Floodway variances cannot cause a rise. Other flood variances require the stated good cause, exceptional hardship, minimum necessary relief and safeguards against increased flood heights, threats, public expense, nuisance, fraud or legal conflict. A request belongs before work, not after construction. Historic-structure flood relief has its own conditions.

• Natural surface drainage: Water Code Section 11.086 prohibits diversion or impoundment of natural surface-water flow that damages another’s property by overflow, subject to the statute’s exceptions and remedies. Fence foundations, solid panels, grading and fill must be evaluated with the actual drainage route.

• Detention and retention ponds: The county’s Drainage Criteria Manual requires a 10-foot maintenance area clear of obstructions around a pond unless the reviewing authority approves otherwise, and a 12-foot-wide maintenance access with slopes of 4:1 or flatter. Pedestrians at the top of pond retaining walls require a fence or railing under the referenced Texas Accessibility Standards or Americans with Disabilities Act standards. The county determines whether pond depth warrants the six-foot enclosure described below.

• County roads and crossing areas: Fences are included in the roadway specifications’ right-of-way landscaping provisions. Placement must satisfy the intersection, traffic-device, school-crossing and railroad-crossing visibility measurements in the next section. Noncomplying or unlicensed landscaping is subject to removal by its sponsor at the sponsor’s cost.

• Fire hydrants in the county fire-flow program: The county’s fire-water-supply standard places the hydrant on the pavement side of a fence or requires the fence to be rebuilt around it for access from the pavement. A fence or other object must not obstruct hydrant maintenance or use within three feet of the hydrant.

• Approved conservation developments: Property in the county’s voluntary conservation-development program is subject to its recorded conservation easements and approved resource plans, including protection of historic stone walls. A fence must respect the applicable protected areas and easements.

• Kyle extraterritorial stormwater conditions: Where Kyle’s stormwater article lawfully applies to water entering its storm-sewer system, including its covered extraterritorial territory, watercourses must remain free of pollution and obstacles that significantly retard flow. The city may determine that erosion controls are needed regardless of disturbed acreage or whether a construction permit is required. Its soil-stabilization rule requires immediate initiation after permanent cessation or a temporary cessation exceeding 14 calendar days. Controls remain until the prescribed stabilization, including its stated residential-lot transfer alternatives. Failed controls causing offsite sediment require sediment recovery, restoration and control revision or repair within 48 hours, to the city’s satisfaction. The article also protects overland flow, infiltration and upstream, downstream and neighboring property from adverse stormwater impacts.

• Dividing fences and fences attached to another owner’s fence: Agriculture Code Section 143.121 restricts removal of a jointly owned separating/dividing fence or a fence attached to another person’s owned or controlled fence, except through mutual consent or the statutory procedure. Under Section 143.122, an owner with an interest in a fence attached to another’s fence may withdraw that owner’s fence after six months’ written notice to the owner of the fence to which it is attached, or that owner’s agent, attorney or lessee. Section 143.123 allows the owner of a fence wholly on that owner’s land to require disconnection and withdrawal of an attached fence after six months’ written notice to the attached fence’s owner or that owner’s agent, attorney or lessee. Ownership and the particular attachment determine which provision applies.

• Pipeline-easement construction: Health and Safety Code Sections 756.121–.123 address construction, repair, replacement and maintenance on, across, over or under a pipeline easement or right-of-way, or physically affecting or creating risk to the defined facility. Subject to the statute’s contrary-written-agreement and other exceptions, the constructor must notify the pipeline operator and satisfy the applicable statutory route: an operator determination of no increased risk; payment, before proceeding, of reasonable, necessary and documented protective costs when increased risk exists; work under an existing written agreement; or the stated prompt regulated-utility natural-disaster work. Locate notices and pipeline-easement construction requirements are separate.

• Post digging and the Texas notification law: The Texas Utilities Code excavation-notice provisions cover the defined powered or mechanized excavation disturbing soil to a depth of 16 inches or more, subject to their actual exclusions. Class A facilities include the defined electrical, gas, petroleum, steam and telecommunications facilities; Class B includes water, slurry and sewage facilities, with voluntary participation provisions. Facilities serving only their owner or that owner’s tenant and located solely on the owner’s property have Section 251.003’s facility exclusion; the section also addresses storage tanks and connected piping on the same tract. Notification does not guarantee marking of every private or nonparticipating facility. The private-property agricultural exception and the exception for an owner/lessee or mineral-interest holder operating all facilities at the excavation site have their own conditions. The emergency exception is also separately defined.

• Notice timing for covered excavation: Notify a notification center no earlier than the 14th day before excavation and no later than the 48th hour before excavation, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays. A statutory Saturday notification means notice made on Saturday before 11:59 a.m. For that notice, Section 251.151(b) permits a start the following Tuesday at 11:59 a.m., or Wednesday at 11:59 a.m. if the intervening Monday is a holiday. Operator responses, extraordinary circumstances and the applicable pipeline rules still govern the work. When an operator arranges a representative’s attendance, a changed start time must be mutually arranged as the statute provides.

• Digging near covered underground pipelines: Railroad Commission Chapter 18 covers movement of earth by any means near the defined gas, hazardous-liquid or carbon-dioxide pipelines. It excludes movement not exceeding 16 inches, so covered deeper hand digging has a different scope from the powered-equipment definition above. Its expressly adopted exemptions apply; a Chapter 251 notice exception does not generally remove Chapter 18 obligations. Time stated in days ordinarily means working days. A locate ticket normally lasts 14 working days; an extension requires the operator’s and excavator’s written, signed and dated agreement. Refresh unfinished work for the remaining excavation area. Required tickets and positive-response records must be retained for at least four years.

• Pipeline tickets, markings and responses: Verify the correct location and applicable white-lining; use white paint, flags or stakes when the excavation area cannot be clearly described. Check visible indications of unmarked pipelines and protect locate marks. The designated representative must possess the valid ticket or be able to provide it within one hour of the specified request. Required second notice applies to a missing response, unclear or obviously erroneous response, or known/evident pipeline conflicting with an all-clear response. Section 18.4(f) permits excavation after a required second notice receives no positive response within four hours; the other applicable location, care and protection duties remain. Failure to respond to the first or second call triggers the stated Commission reporting duties. Pipeline markings are valid for the stated 14-working-day period from positive response, with the emergency and refreshed-ticket conditions.

• Pipeline tolerance zone and damage: The rule defines the horizontal tolerance zone as half the pipeline’s nominal diameter plus a minimum of 18 inches on either side of its outside edge. Joint protocols cannot reduce that minimum. Within the zone, reasonable care includes appropriate hand, soft, vacuum or pneumatic methods; other techniques require operator approval, and the rule has a pavement-removal exception. Under Sections 18.4(h) and 18.11(b), pipeline damage must be reported to the operator through the notification center at the earliest practical moment, no later than one hour after the incident; an exposed pipeline must not be covered without operator approval. The excavator must file the Texas Damage Reporting Form within 30 working days under Section 18.11(b) and the chapter’s time rule. A resulting release of the specified pipeline contents requires a prompt 911 call under Section 18.11(c). Utilities Code Section 251.159 separately requires immediate damage notice, authorized repair and its backfill arrangements.

• Damage to a facility covered by Utilities Code Chapter 251: Immediately report damage to its operator; if the operator’s identity is uncertain, report it to a notification center. Only the operator or its authorized person may repair the facility, and repairs must be expeditious. Delay backfilling in the immediate damaged area until the operator has the report and the excavator and operator mutually agree on a repair schedule. Keep ignition sources away when flammable material from the damage endangers life, health or property.

• Before digging fence posts: Request the applicable Texas811 locate, follow the governing notice and start-time requirements, check operator responses and site markings, resolve missing or conflicting information through the required process, protect the marks and dig carefully. Confirm private-facility and pipeline-easement responsibilities separately from government permits and private fence approval.

FENCE HEIGHT AND VISIBILITY RULES

• Ordinary residential height: Hays County does not publish a general front-, side- or rear-yard fence-height maximum or a general county fence-height measurement method. The following measurable requirements apply in their stated special contexts.

• Intersection visibility in road rights-of-way: The county roadway design, paving and drainage specifications include fences in right-of-way landscaping. At intersections, landscaping must not obstruct vision between two and eight feet above the top of curb.

• Traffic-control-device visibility in road rights-of-way: Within 25 feet of an existing or proposed traffic-control device, landscaping must not obstruct vision between seven and 14 feet above the top of curb.

• School and railroad crossings in road rights-of-way: Obstruction material two feet or higher is prohibited within 150 feet of a school crossing and within 250 feet of a railroad crossing under the roadway landscaping provisions.

• County-reviewed detention or retention ponds: Development Services determines from pond depth whether a six-foot-high chain-link fence surrounding the pond is needed to limit unauthorized access. Maintenance access and retaining-wall pedestrian protection remain separate pond requirements.

• Mapped airport-hazard territory: The San Marcos airport ordinance measures its hazard elevations in mean sea level and uses mapped approach, transitional, horizontal and conical surfaces. The stricter applicable height limitation controls an overlapping area. Its height provision preserves construction, maintenance or growth of a structure or tree up to 50 feet above the land surface at its location; other applicable requirements remain separate. Existing nonconforming objects cannot increase the height or hazard on the specified replacement or repair. Airport glare, electrical interference and other operational hazards are also regulated. Federal Aviation Administration Form 7460-1 notice applies when the federal notice criteria apply, and city procedures govern airport approvals and variances.

MATERIAL AND CONSTRUCTION LIMITS

• Wood: The ordinary county fence provisions do not publish a general wood-fence permission, prohibition, finish or finished-side orientation rule. Floodplain construction, drainage, public easements, special-site conditions and private covenants remain separately applicable.

• Vinyl/PVC: Vinyl and PVC are not specifically addressed by the ordinary county fence provisions. The floodplain permit exemption expressly identifies open pipe, rail and wire fencing and its cumulative openness, post-size and spacing conditions.

• Chain-link: The county does not publish a general material-specific permission or prohibition for ordinary chain-link fencing. Its pond-review provision expressly identifies a six-foot chain-link enclosure when required after depth review. Covered pool enclosures have the different restrictions below.

• Other ordinary materials and features: The county does not publish a general residential fence schedule for masonry, barbed wire, razor wire, electrically charged fencing, decorative points, opacity or finished-side orientation. The published flood, animal, agricultural, gate and pool rules below address their particular uses. Local Government Code Section 250.010’s qualifying alarm-connected battery-security-fence protection concerns property not designated for residential use.

• Floodplain fencing: The permit exemption is confined to the specified open pipe, rail or wire fencing that is 90% open, with posts less than 14 inches in diameter and at least eight feet apart. Nonexempt floodplain fences require the permit described above. Stream-crossing construction must break away or collapse for floodwater discharge.

• Ordinary dogs and animal-containment fencing: The animal ordinance recognizes a fully enclosing fence constructed to prevent the animal from leaving its owner’s premises. A wireless fence transmitting high-frequency sound or pulse shock is not a means of restraint under that definition. The separate tether provision keeps a tied animal from extending past the property or coming within 10 feet of a public right-of-way.

• Dogs under direct supervision: The running-at-large definition preserves its specified supervised situations: a dog on a leash; held in the owner’s hands or arms; on the owner’s private property and obedient to verbal commands; properly restrained in the owner’s vehicle; or participating in a field trial, dog show or obedience class. The county’s running-at-large prohibition operates with that definition.

• Dangerous-dog enclosures: A secure enclosure must be locked, prevent public entry including children, prevent the dangerous dog’s escape or release, be marked as containing a dangerous dog and meet Animal Control’s enclosure requirements. The officer must approve the enclosure; the alternative is a leash in a person’s immediate control. The required warning must be visible and readable from a public street or highway. The dangerous-dog program separately requires its $100 annual fee and insurance or financial responsibility of at least $100,000.

• Hays County stock-law animals: The countywide election held October 24, 1936, and proclaimed October 29, 1936, prohibited horses, mules, jacks, jennets and cattle from running at large. The county animal ordinance separately addresses loose livestock off the owner’s property or property where the owner has permission to keep it as estray livestock. The ordinance’s municipal-supersession clause governs its interaction with municipal animal rules.

• Agricultural sufficient-fence standards: Agriculture Code Section 143.001 states a five-foot, hog-tight fence for cleared land in cultivation, except as Chapter 143 provides for adopted local stock-law areas. Section 143.028, in its local-option context, says a person need not fence against animals prohibited from running at large and describes a fence sufficient to keep out ordinary livestock permitted to run at large. Its sufficient-fence provisions require at least four feet and specify, for the relevant construction type: three barbed wires on posts no more than 30 feet apart with one or more stays between posts; pickets no more than six inches apart; three boards at least five inches wide and one inch thick; or four rails. A separate local-election provision concerns three barbed wires without a board. Section 143.077 separately measures fence sufficiency in the cattle-local-option subchapter by whether it keeps out classes of animals unaffected by that subchapter. These agricultural standards operate within their stock-law context.

• Long fences around cultivated land: Agriculture Code Section 143.002 prohibits building, joining or maintaining more than three lineal miles of fence running in the same general direction around cleared land in cultivation without a gate that is at least 10 feet wide and unlocked.

• Livestock and public roads: Section 143.003 has a specific cattle rule for a county road separating commonly owned or leased tracts and containing the authorized cattle guard that forms part of their fencing. Separately, Section 143.102 prohibits an owner or person controlling a horse, mule, donkey, cow, bull, steer, hog, sheep or goat from knowingly permitting it to traverse or roam unattended on a highway right-of-way. In this subchapter, highway means a U.S. or state highway and excludes a numbered farm-to-market road. The local stock law and the separate highway duty have different coverage.

• Pool use and the applicable enclosure rules: An ordinary residential pool serving no more than two resident families and their guests, under owner or tenant control, is distinct from a shared apartment, association or other public-use pool. County swimming-pool development approval remains applicable to covered pool work. A fence enclosing a shared rental or association pool is subject to Health and Safety Code Chapter 757, and other covered public pools have their class-specific enclosure and gate requirements under the Department of State Health Services rules; those specifications do not establish the enclosure requirements for an ordinary private home pool.

• Fence and pool hazards involving trespassers or children: Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 75.007 defines a trespasser as someone entering without any express or implied legal right. Its general no-duty/no-liability rule preserves a duty not to injure a trespasser wilfully, wantonly or through gross negligence. The child artificial-condition exception requires all five elements: the owner, lessee or occupant knew or reasonably should have known children were likely to trespass there; knew or reasonably should have known of the condition and its unreasonable death/serious-injury risk; the child, because of youth, did not discover or appreciate the danger; the utility of maintaining the condition and burden of eliminating it were slight compared with the risk; and reasonable care to eliminate the danger or protect the child was not exercised. The section preserves its specific Penal Code Chapter 9, Subchapters C/D justification and the effect of Sections 75.001–.004, and does not create or increase liability.

• Livestock incidents after fence or gate damage: Civil Practice and Remedies Code Section 75.006(b) limits a livestock owner’s or lessee’s liability for livestock incidents on or off the property due to the specified acts or omissions of firefighters or peace officers entering with or without permission, trespassers, unpermitted third parties damaging a fence or gate, wildlife or acts of God.

• Agricultural-land and unpermitted-entry liability branches: Section 75.006(c) separately addresses an agricultural-land owner’s, lessee’s or occupant’s liability for damage or injury on or off the land arising from peace/federal-law-enforcement officers entering or causing entry, trespassers, unpermitted third-party fence/gate damage, wildlife or acts of God. Subsection (d) concerns damage or injury arising from an individual entering or causing entry without permission because of those specified officer, trespasser, third-party, wildlife or act-of-God events. Subsection (e) preserves agricultural-land liability for wilful or wanton acts or gross negligence. Following an event listed in (b), (c) or (d), the owner or lessee must cure any resulting defect on the land within a reasonable time. These conditions remain separate from animal-containment and construction duties.

PRIVATE RESTRICTIONS

Deed restrictions, homeowners association covenants, architectural review, private easements, conservation easements and fence ownership, maintenance or cost agreements can impose independent obligations within Texas law. Government approval does not settle a private boundary, ownership or cost dispute.

• Security fences and qualifying associations: Property Code Section 202.023 limits qualifying property owners associations’ power to prohibit security measures, including perimeter fencing. The section excludes Chapter 81/82 condominiums and the defined Chapter 215 master mixed-use association. An association may regulate fence type and prohibit fencing obstructing a licensed area, public/community sidewalk, drainage easement or drainage area.

• Driveway gates and front-building-line covenants: The association may require a driveway gate at least 10 feet back from the right-of-way where the driveway intersects a laned roadway. A restrictive covenant may prohibit fencing in front of the dwelling’s front-most building line, subject to the statute’s exceptions. An owner may maintain perimeter or front-building-line fencing installed or constructed before September 1, 2025. The front-building-line prohibition cannot be enforced against an owner whose residential address is exempt from public disclosure under state or federal law, or who supplies law-enforcement documentation of a need for enhanced security measures. The other statutory type and obstruction conditions remain separate.

• Qualifying private pool enclosures: Section 202.022 protects the defined transparent-mesh or clear-panel enclosure in metal frames, no more than six feet high, nonclimbable and compliant with applicable safety law. An association may regulate permitted appearance and color but cannot prohibit an enclosure that is black and consists of transparent mesh set in metal frames. Public pool-safety obligations and any applicable local approvals remain separate from this covenant restriction.

REVIEW AND ENFORCEMENT CONTEXT

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

• County development and flood review: Required approvals, flood-exempt construction conditions, nonexempt floodplain fences, stream crossings, floodways and actual drainage impacts.

• Roads and public facilities: County-property encroachments, right-of-way landscaping and crossing visibility, emergency-access gates, hydrant access and the responsible road owner’s requirements.

• Property-specific conditions: Drainage and utility easements, plat or approved development conditions, conservation restrictions, mapped airport authority and applicable municipal extraterritorial functions.

• Pools and animals: The actual pool-use class and enclosure requirements, animal containment, dangerous-dog enclosures, loose livestock and the applicable stock-law context.

• Excavation and pipelines: Required notice, valid tickets, responses, preserved marks, careful excavation, pipeline-easement construction conditions and damage reporting.

• Public duties and private disputes: Statutory dividing/attached-fence removal duties and agricultural protections have their stated scope. Association review, private easement consent and boundary or cost disputes remain separate from governmental enforcement.

USING THIS INFORMATION

This page provides general orientation on how residential fence rules are structured and applied within unincorporated Hays County, 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 Hays County Development Services 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.