FENCE RULES – JOHNSON (COUNTY), TEXAS

OVERVIEW

This page covers residential fence questions in unincorporated Johnson County where the County administers the relevant function. Incorporated municipalities have their own requirements. Within a city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, responsibility for subdivision approval and other development functions depends on the applicable agreement and the particular approval involved.

For a Johnson County homeowner, the recorded plat, drainage easements and road frontage can be as important as the fence design. The County’s subdivision rules address drainage obstructions, access and specialized security fencing without supplying an ordinary front-, side- and rear-yard fence-height schedule. Before planning a wood, vinyl/PVC or chain-link fence, establish the legal boundary and ask Development Services which approvals apply to the proposed work. Roadside walls and gates need particular attention because building setback lines, rights-of-way and driveway access involve different questions. Private subdivision restrictions may also affect the design. Updated November 2026.

Quick question	Johnson County answer
Permit or approval	A County development permit is required before building a fence or fence-type wall within the floodplain. Development Services expressly includes those fences in its definition of development. A general permit rule or express exemption for a standalone ordinary fence outside the floodplain was not established by the reviewed official sources; road, drainage and other independently triggered approvals are separate.
Typical fence height	The County’s subdivision rules do not establish an ordinary front-, side- and rear-yard fence-height schedule. Recorded restrictions and specialized site requirements can affect height.
Placement & property lines	Use a survey and recorded documents to identify boundaries, road rights-of-way and easements. Keep required drainage and maintenance access clear; confirm roadside placement with Development Services.
Common fence materials	Wood: Not specifically addressed for ordinary yard fences in the County’s subdivision rules. Vinyl/PVC: Not specifically addressed. Chain-link: Not specifically addressed. Private or site-specific requirements may apply.
Important local conditions	Fence rules may be further affected by recorded subdivision requirements, drainage and utility easements, public-road frontage, gated subdivision access, pool-barrier use and private association restrictions.
Official local resource	Johnson County Development Services

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 Johnson County Development Services or the responsible office identified for the issue.

GOVERNANCE

The Johnson County Commissioners Court adopts County subdivision regulations and orders within the authority granted by Texas law. The County’s land-development and platting regulations, amended through March 24, 2025 by Order 2025-19, govern subdivision approval and manufactured-home rental-community infrastructure. Their plat, drainage and access conditions can affect residential lots. They are distinct from ordinary municipal zoning regulations.

Johnson County Development Services is the starting office for development-permit and land-development questions. The subdivision rules also assign engineering, drainage and road functions to Public Works and identify responsibilities of the applicable County commissioner. TxDOT administers access to state-maintained highways. Recorded public easements may give a separate public entity or utility rights over part of a lot.

City extraterritorial jurisdiction does not by itself extend every municipal fence rule to a property. County-city agreements allocate particular functions, and special development agreements can change that allocation. Fort Worth’s posted agreement, for example, assigns subdivision plat review to the City while reserving County septic, culvert and floodplain permit functions. Confirm the office responsible for the specific property and project; one office’s plat approval does not settle every separate approval.

PERMIT AND APPROVAL REQUIREMENTS

Fences in the floodplain: Obtain a County development permit before construction. Development Services expressly includes fences and fence-type walls within the floodplain in its definition of development. The permit concerns floodplain/development review, not a general county zoning permit. The reviewed official sources do not establish a general permit requirement or express exemption for a standalone ordinary fence outside the floodplain. Give Development Services the address and scope when resolving that remaining issue or associated road, drainage and excavation work.

For a project processed under the County’s residential development application, the published application calls for a deed and survey or plat, owner authorization when applicable, and completion of required platting before the development permit. For property in a city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, it calls for the applicable city plat or no-plat letter. These are development-application requirements; Development Services should confirm their applicability to the particular fence project.

When a project is subject to that residential development application, an applicant must re-submit the application if the permit is not obtained within 30 days after notification of approval. The permit is valid for one year from issuance. The yellow development-permit sign must be posted at the site before construction begins and remain visible from the road whenever improvements are made.

Separate site conditions require their own attention:

• Road frontage and driveways: Ask which road authority controls work near the public right-of-way, ditch or culvert. The County’s development application requires a TxDOT driveway permit for a new driveway accessing a state-maintained road. A fence or gate plan does not authorize a new highway access point.

• Drainage and earthwork: County subdivision requirements prohibit drainage obstruction and protect maintenance access. A plan involving grading, fill, a drainage easement or mapped flood conditions should be taken to the office responsible for that function before work begins.

• Subdivision entrance gates: Restricting public access to subdivision roads through a gate, wall, fence or other device invokes the County’s private-road and gated-subdivision requirements. This is a subdivision approval issue, distinct from a gate serving only one residence.

• Pool-barrier use: Identify a fence intended to serve as a pool or spa barrier when discussing the project with Development Services. Confirm the barrier and gate requirements applicable to that pool and property before selecting the enclosure. Association and multiunit facilities can fall under different requirements from a private single-family pool.

FENCE PLACEMENT RULES

• Boundaries and recorded lines: Identify the legal property boundary through the survey, deed and recorded plat. An existing fence, mowing line, ditch, curb or pavement edge is not a substitute for the legal boundary. Check the recorded instruments for building lines, utility and drainage easements, access rights and subdivision conditions before laying out posts or footings.

• Public-road frontage: Order 2022-65 establishes building and setback lines along public roads outside municipal corporate limits and uses the terms building and structure. Have Development Services determine how that order applies to the proposed roadside fence, wall or gate. The road right-of-way line is a separate legal line and may lie beyond the edge of pavement.

• Drainage easements: Under the County subdivision requirements, lot owners may not block water flow or construct improvements in drainage easements. Creeks and drainage channels are to remain open, and the owners of lots traversed by or adjacent to them have maintenance responsibilities. Drainage easements must remain unobstructed for equipment access and maintenance.

• Public drainage facilities: Before acceptance of public drainage facilities, Appendix A requires drainage easements to be cleared of fences, structures and other obstacles that interfere with water flow or maintenance access. The County retains a right, but not a duty, to enter covered drainage areas and remove obstructions. Dedication of an easement does not make the County responsible for its routine maintenance or erosion control.

• Actual easement boundaries: Use the recorded easement and approved drainage plans to determine the area that must stay accessible. Pipe size, channel dimensions, outfalls and maintenance arrangements can affect the required drainage corridor. A utility easement’s location and the utility’s access rights must also be checked before installing a fence.

• Subdivision drainage easement design: Appendix A, section E, sets design and access criteria for public drainage improvements, channels and facilities required for a subdivision. Public drainage facilities outside an existing or proposed street right-of-way must be within easements dedicated to the County with adequate access to a public street. Section E.1 specifies a minimum drainage-facility easement width of 15 feet. These are subdivision drainage-corridor criteria; use the recorded easement and approved plans to locate the actual corridor on a residential lot.

• Closed drainage systems: Under Appendix A E.3, minimum easement widths are 15 feet for pipes 36 inches and smaller, 20 feet for pipes 42–54 inches, 25 feet for pipes 60–66 inches, and 30 feet for pipes 72 inches and larger. The Public Works Director may determine that special circumstances warrant additional or reduced easements.

• Channel and outfall access: Appendix A E.4 requires sufficient easement width for maintenance access along improved channels. For channel top widths less than 15 feet, provide 15-foot maintenance access along one side. For top widths greater than 15 feet, provide 15-foot-wide access roads along both sides unless otherwise approved by Public Works. Confirm the access arrangement for a channel exactly 15 feet wide with Public Works. Section E.7 requires a drainage easement extending at least 25 feet beyond an outfall headwall for maintenance. These access dimensions are distinct from an ordinary fence setback.

• Drainage beyond an easement: Texas Water Code section 11.086 generally prohibits diverting or impounding the natural flow of surface water, or permitting that activity to continue, in a manner that damages another’s property by overflow. Consider the effect of solid walls, footings, fill and changes to drainage paths as part of the fence layout.

• Shared or attached fences: Agriculture Code chapter 143, sections 143.121–143.123, addresses removal of jointly owned dividing fences and fences attached to another person’s fence. Unless the parties mutually consent or the statutory process applies, a person may not remove a dividing fence in which that person is a joint owner or a fence attached to a fence owned or controlled by another person. A person owning an interest in an attached fence may withdraw their fence from the other fence after six 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 own land may require an attached fence to be disconnected and withdrawn after six months’ written notice to the attached fence’s owner or that person’s agent, attorney or lessee.

• Pipeline easement construction: Health and Safety Code sections 756.121–756.123 address construction on, across, over or under a pipeline easement or right-of-way, including work that physically affects or creates a risk to a covered gas or oil pipeline. Unless a contrary written agreement applies between the affected pipeline owner or operator and the person placing the construction, the subchapter covers construction and its repair, replacement and maintenance. Section 756.123 requires notice to the operator and one of these conditions: the operator determines that the work will not increase public risk or the risk of pipeline damage; if the operator determines that risk will increase, the constructor pays the reasonable, necessary and documented cost of protective fortifications, barriers, conduits or other necessary changes before proceeding; the work is conducted under an existing written agreement; or a regulated utility must perform the work promptly because of a natural disaster. Section 756.122 excludes municipal construction on municipally owned property unless for private commercial use, and construction or its repair, replacement or maintenance on property owned by a qualifying navigation district or port authority.

• Utilities and post digging: Request a Texas811 locate before digging post holes. Utilities Code chapter 251 defines covered excavation to include use of explosives or powered tools or other mechanized equipment, including augering, to disturb soil at least 16 inches deep, subject to statutory exemptions. Ordinary notice is at least 48 hours before excavation, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays, and no earlier than 14 days before excavation. A Saturday notice given before 11:59 a.m. permits a start the following Tuesday at 11:59 a.m.; if the intervening Monday is a holiday, the start is Wednesday at 11:59 a.m. Follow the ticket’s lawful start instructions, check responses and markings, resolve missing or conflicting information, protect marks and dig carefully. Private service lines may require separate locating. Covered pipeline excavation also has Railroad Commission requirements. A locate does not supply a permit, easement permission, pipeline-construction notice or clearance to build over a line.

FENCE HEIGHT AND VISIBILITY RULES

The County’s subdivision rules do not establish an ordinary front-, side- and rear-yard fence-height schedule. Check recorded restrictions and any applicable site or project approval before selecting a height. For a corner lot or a fence beside a driveway, ask Development Services and the responsible road authority about the proposed location and visibility.

A specialized County drainage requirement does specify height: Appendix A requires a security fence at least 6 feet high around a detention-storage area, with maintenance access and without restricting stormwater flow. That requirement applies to the detention facility; it does not establish the height for ordinary yard fencing.

TallGrass development agreement only: Exhibit D contains fence guidelines for property subject to that development agreement. These agreement-specific provisions do not establish County-wide fence standards or determine which office currently administers an extraterritorial development function. For a covered property, confirm the applicable agreement and approval conditions with the responsible office.

The TallGrass guidelines call for a maximum fence height of 6 feet, with the top 2 feet having 50% transparency when abutting adjacent residential property, a street right-of-way, park, open space, paseo, plaza or alley. Fencing must return to the house at least 5 feet before the front facade. Where an alley is present, a fence must sit at least 10 feet from the rear lot line.

Front-yard fencing on lots fronting or siding onto a street is discouraged. Front-yard fencing along a park or open space may not exceed 42 inches. Along arterials and collectors, the guidelines recommend at least 3 feet of horizontal landscaped area between fencing and the curb. Fences and walls must not interfere with sight-visibility triangle cones.

Visible service areas for trash, recycling or deliveries must be enclosed and screened around their perimeter by a durable wall or fence at least 6 feet high or 6 inches above the dumpster, whichever is greater, when visible from a street, pathway, pedestrian-oriented space or public parking area. Screening around trash and recycling in public areas must be fully enclosed.

The pool-enclosure and security-fence provisions discussed under Private Restrictions have separate purposes and conditions. Their dimensions concern statutory limits on association restrictions and do not establish a County yard-fence maximum.

MATERIAL AND CONSTRUCTION LIMITS

Wood, vinyl/PVC and chain-link: The County’s subdivision rules do not specifically address these materials for ordinary residential yard fences. Review the property’s covenants and any applicable development agreement for design, screening or construction conditions.

TallGrass development agreement materials: For property subject to Exhibit D, fence materials are wood, masonry or metal and should be generally consistent with adjacent property fencing. Posts for all fencing must be metal or concrete/masonry. Apply these material provisions within that development agreement’s scope.

Drainage function remains relevant to construction. The required detention-area security fence must permit maintenance access and must not restrict stormwater flow. A solid wall, continuous footing or closely spaced fencing can also affect the placement and drainage questions described above.

During subdivision construction, the County’s required plat and covenant notes call for silt fencing or other erosion controls until adequate ground cover is established. They also call for preservation of natural ground cover and trees behind existing fence lines. Temporary sediment-control fencing serves a different purpose from a permanent residential boundary fence.

For a gated subdivision, the owner or developer must arrange unrestricted emergency-personnel access 24 hours a day. Roads behind the access restriction are subject to private maintenance, and the County does not maintain them while gated under these provisions. The governing documents may delegate maintenance responsibilities to an association. These subdivision conditions must be considered before changing an entrance gate or enclosing subdivision roads.

PRIVATE RESTRICTIONS

Recorded deed restrictions, subdivision covenants, association rules, architectural approvals, private easements and boundary or maintenance agreements can affect a fence independently of County approval. County subdivision section VI.S states that the County does not enforce subdivision deed restrictions; enforcement rests with the private parties entitled to enforce them. Public approval does not determine fence ownership, shared costs or private access rights.

Texas law limits some association restrictions. Property Code chapter 202 includes the following provisions:

• Perimeter security fencing: Section 202.023 generally prevents a property owners’ association from enforcing a restrictive covenant that prevents security measures, including a perimeter fence, subject to its express exceptions. It excludes condominiums under chapters 81 and 82 and master mixed-use property owners’ associations under chapter 215. An association may regulate fence type and prohibit fencing that obstructs a license area defined by a written agreement or plat, a sidewalk in the public right-of-way or otherwise installed for public or community use, or a drainage easement or drainage area.

• Driveway gates and front fencing: An association may require a driveway gate to be set back at least 10 feet from the right-of-way when the driveway intersects a laned roadway as defined by Transportation Code section 541.302. A restrictive covenant may prohibit fencing in front of the dwelling’s front-most building line. These are retained association powers under section 202.023.

• Existing fencing and enhanced security: Notwithstanding those retained controls, an owner may maintain perimeter fencing or fencing in front of the front-most building line installed or constructed before September 1, 2025. The front-building-line prohibition cannot be applied to 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. That exception addresses the front-building-line prohibition; the statute retains its other stated controls.

• Defined pool enclosures: Section 202.022 protects a conforming pool or spa enclosure consisting of transparent mesh or clear panels in metal frames, no more than 6 feet high and designed not to be climbable. The enclosure must conform to applicable state or local safety requirements. An association may regulate appearance and permissible colors, but may not prohibit an enclosure that is black transparent mesh in metal frames. The 6-foot definition is part of this association protection, not a universal pool-barrier minimum.

Before replacing a shared fence, review ownership and maintenance agreements and obtain a written understanding about access, cost and the work to be performed. Follow the separate statutory removal and attachment rules described under Fence Placement Rules where they 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:

• Development and road review: Determining the approval needed for a fence, wall, gate, associated grading or new state-road driveway, and confirming the responsible office in an extraterritorial or agreement area.

• Drainage and easement conditions: Obstructed channels, improvements in drainage easements, interference with maintenance access or fencing associated with a detention facility.

• Subdivision access: Entrance gates or other devices restricting subdivision-road access, emergency access and private-road maintenance responsibilities.

• Separate rights and duties: Utility and pipeline excavation obligations and statutory joint or attached-fence removal requirements. Association design review and private ownership, covenant and cost disputes follow their own processes.

USING THIS INFORMATION

This page provides general orientation on how residential fence rules are structured and applied within unincorporated Johnson County where the County administers the relevant function. 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 Johnson 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.