FENCE RULES – KAUFMAN (COUNTY), TEXAS

OVERVIEW

This page covers county-administered requirements affecting residential fences in unincorporated Kaufman County. Incorporated municipalities administer their own applicable requirements. Within a municipality’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, or ETJ, responsibility for subdivision platting and related approvals follows the applicable city–county agreement; county floodplain, road and other functions can continue in the same area.

Kaufman County’s fence requirements are distributed among development regulations, recorded plats and easements, floodplain rules and Texas law. The county subdivision regulations do not set ordinary front-, side- or rear-yard fence maximums or a material list for a standard home fence. They do establish measurable visibility easements, utility-access protections and rules for gated subdivisions. A fence project involving county property or covered floodplain development has separate approval requirements. Wood, vinyl/PVC and chain-link have no ordinary material-specific standard in the county subdivision regulations. Boundaries, drainage, pool use and private restrictions remain important. Updated November 2026.

Quick question	Kaufman County answer
Permit or approval	The county’s published regulations do not specify a separate permit requirement or exemption for a standard residential fence. Covered floodplain development, work on county property and subdivision entrance gates have separate approval paths.
Typical fence height	The county subdivision regulations do not prescribe an ordinary front-, side- or rear-yard maximum. Recorded sight-visibility easements and applicable pool-enclosure rules can limit a particular fence.
Placement & property lines	The county subdivision regulations do not specify an ordinary fence-to-property-line setback. Confirm the legal boundary and recorded plat; keep required road access, utility access, drainage and sight areas clear.
Common fence materials	Wood: no ordinary material-specific standard in the county subdivision regulations. Vinyl/PVC: not specifically addressed for ordinary residential fences. Chain-link: no ordinary material-specific standard in those regulations. Pool and private restrictions require separate attention.
Important local conditions	Fence rules may be further affected by recorded visibility and utility easements, drainage channels and floodplain easements, county rights-of-way, gated-subdivision entrances, pool use, the applicable ETJ agreement and private HOA or deed restrictions.
Official local resource	Kaufman 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 Kaufman County Development Services, the County Engineer, or the responsible office identified for the issue.

GOVERNANCE

The Kaufman County Commissioners Court adopts county regulations under specific Texas statutory powers. The Kaufman County Subdivision and Land Development Regulations address subdivision administration, easements, private streets, drainage, county property and defined development approvals. County subdivision authority and the residential-construction program have their own statutory limits and territorial rules.

Development Services administers county development processes and applications. The County Engineer is designated Floodplain Administrator under the county Flood Damage Prevention Order. Development Services and Engineering administer floodplain applications. County road and property approvals involve Development Services and the responsible county road officials. The Texas Department of Transportation is responsible for state highway rights-of-way.

The Fire Marshal’s Office administers the county fire code for its covered public buildings, commercial establishments and multifamily dwellings with four or more units in unincorporated territory. The subdivision regulations separately give the Fire Marshal a role in gated-subdivision entrance approval.

ETJ administration: The county subdivision regulations recognize municipal plat administration where an agreement assigns that authority to a municipality. The applicable agreement determines the division of functions. A property can have municipal subdivision review and county floodplain or county-road review. Confirm the current boundary and the administrator for the particular approval.

PERMIT AND APPROVAL REQUIREMENTS

• Standard residential fences: Kaufman County’s published regulations do not specify a separate local fence permit requirement or exemption for a standard residential fence. Approval requirements for floodplain development, county property, recorded easements and subdivision entrance gates are addressed separately below.

• New residential construction: The county’s adopted residential notice and inspection program covers a new single-family house or duplex on a vacant lot, and an addition that increases an existing house or duplex’s square footage or value by more than 50 percent, subject to statutory exclusions. The adopted order references the International Residential Code currently used by the City of Kaufman. The builder provides advance construction notice and arranges the required inspections. State law does not require prior county approval under this program and bars a fee to defray enforcement of its standards.

• Flood-hazard property: Development within the county’s designated special flood-hazard areas requires a Floodplain Development Permit. Development includes excavation, grading, filling and other man-made changes to real estate. The Kaufman County Flood Damage Prevention Order and the project’s location and work determine the applicable requirements. A fence project involving covered site work must follow that process.

• Floodplain application documents: The county application calls for a warranty deed showing ownership, a site plan, plans and a survey showing the flood-zone delineation. The order calls for scaled location, dimension and elevation information, a description of changes to a watercourse or natural drainage, and an engineer-designed site plan showing proposed development, grading, drainage and effects on adjacent development. Additional project-specific documentation may be required. Fees depend on project scope.

• County property and rights-of-way: Development activity, construction, land disturbance or encroachment on designated county property, rights-of-way or easements requires a Development or Use of County Property or Facility Permit, commonly identified as DUCPF. Submit it through Development Services under the county site-development procedures before the covered work. Development affecting county roads has construction-plan review fees based on the engineering representative’s review time at current hourly rates; revisions can require another review fee. County-owned property wholly under the operational control of the federal government, the state, another political subdivision or a legislatively established district is subject to the exclusions in Section 11.02.

• Gated-subdivision entrances: Each gate installation requires county approval before installation. Installation must be completed and tested before county acceptance of the subdivision. The entrance must satisfy the private-street, access and gate requirements described below.

• Larger construction projects: For subdivision development disturbing at least five acres, Section 7.04 requires a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan and submission of a copy to Development Services at the preconstruction meeting. Separately, state construction-stormwater coverage applies to covered discharges from work disturbing one or more acres, including qualifying work within a larger common plan of development. The county also publishes a SWPPP review process. Apply the requirements for the actual project and discharge.

FENCE PLACEMENT RULES

• Property boundaries and recorded documents: The county subdivision regulations do not specify an ordinary residential fence-to-property-line setback. Establish the legal boundary from the deed, plat and appropriate survey information. An existing fence, mowing line, ditch, pavement edge or tax-map line may differ from the legal boundary. Review recorded easements and plat notes before placing posts or foundations.

• Subdivision utility easements: Section 5.08 requires subdivision utility easements at least 15 feet wide, with greater widths possible for engineering or site conditions. The actual recorded easement controls the corridor on a particular lot. Required dedication language gives public utilities, including the county, access and the right to remove fences or improvements that endanger or interfere with their systems. Property owners maintain the easements, and the county does not undertake to replace removed improvements.

• Drainage easements and channels: Required final-plat notes prohibit blocking water flow, constructing improvements in drainage easements, and filling or obstructing floodways. Existing drainage channels must remain open, and owners must keep them free of debris, silt and other obstructing material. Maintenance access must remain available. Read the recorded plat and easement affecting the lot.

• Subdivision drainage-easement dimensions: Section 7.07 provides at least 20 feet for enclosed drainage systems, ordinarily centered on the facility. An engineered open channel with a top width of 50 feet or less requires the channel width plus at least 25 feet total for maintenance access; a wider channel requires at least 25 feet on each side. The relevant maintenance area outside the channel has a maximum 6:1 horizontal-to-vertical slope. A subdivision-boundary watercourse requires a corridor accommodating anticipated upstream drainage plus at least 10 feet on each side. These provisions establish subdivision easement corridors; the recorded instrument identifies the area affecting an existing lot.

• Recorded floodplain easements: The subdivision regulations require the 100-year floodplain to be included within a floodplain easement, together with necessary maintenance access. Construction within that easement requires county approval, detailed engineering plans and studies showing no resulting flooding or obstruction of natural water flow, and participation in the request by affected property owners.

• Floodway encroachments: The Flood Damage Prevention Order prohibits covered encroachments in the adopted regulatory floodway unless hydrologic and hydraulic analyses demonstrate no increase in flood levels during the base-flood discharge. Its separate federal procedure allows consideration of an increase only after the applicable requirements of 44 CFR Section 65.12 have been completed. Other applicable flood-hazard requirements continue to apply.

• Roads and access: Public roads must remain clear of obstructions. A public right-of-way may extend beyond the visible pavement or ditch. Work on county property follows the county approval process; work affecting state highway rights-of-way falls under the responsible state highway authority. Keep gates, fence foundations and associated grading within the area the owner has the right to use.

• Visitor entrances to gated subdivisions: At least one private-street subdivision entrance must provide visitor access. Its call or code box must be at least 50 feet inside the subdivision boundary. Between the box and access-control device, provide a turnaround with an outside radius of at least 30 feet, allowing a vehicle denied entry to leave head first. A sign must prohibit parking in that space. A combined resident/visitor entrance follows these requirements.

• Resident-only subdivision entrances: A key-, card- or code-operated access device generally must be at least 50 feet inside the subdivision boundary. The setback exception covers electronic openers allowing residents to enter without stopping. An entrance lacking both the specified setback and turnaround must be signed for residents only. Approach and departure areas must have sufficient setback and alignment for free emergency-vehicle passage.

• Existing joint or attached fences: Agriculture Code Section 143.121 prohibits removing a dividing fence in which the person is a joint owner, or a fence attached to one owned or controlled by another person, except by mutual consent or the applicable statutory process. Under Section 143.122, a person who owns an interest in a fence attached to a fence owned in whole or in part by another person may physically separate and withdraw their fence after giving six months’ written notice of the intended separation to the owner of the attached fence or that person’s agent, attorney or lessee. Separately, Section 143.123 allows an owner whose fence is wholly on that owner’s land to require the owner of an attached fence to disconnect and withdraw it by giving six months’ written notice of the required disconnection to that attached-fence owner or that person’s agent, attorney or lessee.

• Surface-water drainage: Texas Water Code Section 11.086 prohibits diverting or impounding the natural flow of surface water in a way that damages another property by overflow, subject to statutory qualifications. Solid fence bases, walls and grading must account for the site’s drainage and recorded drainage rights.

• Pipeline easements: Health and Safety Code Sections 756.121–756.126 apply to covered construction on, across, over or under a pipeline easement or right-of-way, or construction physically affecting pipeline risk. The statute requires operator notice and satisfaction of the applicable no-increased-risk, protective-work, existing-agreement or qualifying emergency-work conditions. A contrary written agreement and the statute’s specified governmental-property exceptions can change applicability. Review the actual pipeline easement and construction conditions before setting posts or building a wall there.

• Pipeline excavation: Railroad Commission rules separately cover qualifying earth movement near specified underground pipelines, including manual post-hole digging deeper than 16 inches. Their default locate-ticket life is 14 working days, subject to a qualifying written agreement. Unfinished work requires a timely refresh for the remaining area. Required locate-ticket and response records generally must be retained for at least four years. Check site markings and responses and resolve missing or inconsistent pipeline information through the required notice process before proceeding.

• Texas811 before post digging: Request a locate through Texas811 before digging, follow the ticket’s lawful-start instructions, check responses and site markings, resolve missing or conflicting information, protect the marks and excavate carefully. Utilities Code Chapter 251 covers powered or mechanized excavation, including augering, to 16 or more inches, subject to its exceptions. Ordinary notice is at least 48 hours, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays, and no earlier than the 14th day before the planned start. A qualifying Saturday notification has the statute’s Tuesday 11:59 a.m. start, or Wednesday 11:59 a.m. if the intervening Monday is a holiday. Customer-owned lines may require separate locating. Utility notice, permits, easement rights and pipeline construction conditions are separate requirements.

FENCE HEIGHT AND VISIBILITY RULES

• Ordinary yard fences: The county subdivision regulations do not prescribe a standard front-, side- or rear-yard fence maximum or an ordinary fence-height measurement method. Recorded visibility easements, applicable pool rules and private restrictions require separate attention.

• Subdivision sight-visibility easements: Section 5.08.C establishes triangular easements based on the intersecting street types. A local street meeting an alley requires 5 by 15 feet; a local street meeting another local street or a collector requires 15 by 15 feet; and an arterial or collector meeting an arterial or collector requires 30 by 30 feet. The diagrams locate the triangle legs from the property lines. Confirm the actual easement shown on the recorded plat.

• Clear-vision height band: Within a required sight-visibility easement, no structure, object or plant may obstruct vision between 24 inches and 10 feet above the top of the curb or edge of pavement. The restriction expressly includes fences, signs, trees and shrubs, as well as other obstructions.

• Abandoned-property pools: The special neighborhood-pool nuisance provision described below requires a fence at least four feet high, together with the specified gate and pool cover. Its abandoned-and-unoccupied-property conditions determine applicability.

MATERIAL AND CONSTRUCTION LIMITS

• Wood, vinyl/PVC and chain-link: The county subdivision regulations do not publish an ordinary residential material-specific standard for wood or chain-link, and do not specifically address vinyl/PVC for ordinary residential fences. They also do not prescribe an ordinary residential fence’s opacity, picket spacing or finished-side orientation. Recorded restrictions, visibility requirements and the fence’s particular use remain relevant.

• Gated-subdivision openings: A subdivision entrance gate may use one or two sections to provide a minimum gate width of 24 feet. A divided entrance involving a median, guard booth or similar feature may receive Fire Marshal approval for a reduction, but no gate or road-pavement clear opening may be less than 18 feet. An overhead obstruction must be at least 14 feet above the finished road surface. Gates must be constructed in agreement with the Kaufman County Fire Marshal, and automatic gate installations must conform to the county’s design and performance guidelines.

• Gated-subdivision operation and maintenance: Gate components must remain in approved operating condition, receive regular servicing as needed and have a maintained power supply. Roads, gates and other fire-protection features found inadequate for access or in disrepair require immediate repair. The county reserves the right to enter private streets and disable, open or remove an access obstruction at the developer’s or association’s expense. The party controlling the property remains responsible for compliance.

• Pools on abandoned, unoccupied neighborhood property: Health and Safety Code Section 343.011 identifies a nuisance when such a pool is not protected by both a fence at least four feet high with a latched and locked gate and a cover over the entire pool that a child cannot remove. For this provision, a neighborhood includes a platted subdivision or property contiguous to and within 300 feet of one. Chapter 343’s exceptions apply, including land qualifying for agricultural tax appraisal under Subchapter C or D of Tax Code Chapter 23 and the specified state-permitted facilities.

• Pool-use classification: Requirements for a pool barrier depend on the applicable jurisdiction and the pool’s use. Health and Safety Code Chapter 757 governs its specified property-owners-association and multiunit-rental pools. Public-pool regulations have separate classifications and enclosure provisions. A private home pool, a common-area association pool and a pool serving rental or other public uses need the requirements for their actual classification.

PRIVATE RESTRICTIONS

HOA documents, architectural-review requirements, deed restrictions, private easements and boundary or maintenance agreements can impose independent fence conditions within Texas statutory limits. Review the documents affecting the actual property and any required application. Public approval does not resolve ownership, a neighbor’s access rights, cost sharing or private consent.

• Security and perimeter fencing: Texas Property Code security-fence protections limit HOA restrictive covenants that prevent security measures, including perimeter fences. Section 202.023 excludes the specified condominiums and Chapter 215 master mixed-use associations.

• Retained HOA controls: An association may regulate fence type and prohibit fencing that obstructs a defined license area, a public or community sidewalk, or a drainage easement or drainage area. It may require a driveway gate to be set back at least 10 feet from the right-of-way where the driveway intersects a statutorily defined laned roadway. A restrictive covenant may prohibit fencing in front of the dwelling’s front-most building line.

• Existing fencing and enhanced-security cases: Owners may maintain qualifying perimeter or front-building-line fencing installed or constructed before September 1, 2025, notwithstanding the retained controls in Section 202.023(c). The front-building-line prohibition also has an exception for owners whose residential addresses are exempt from public disclosure or who provide law-enforcement documentation of a need for enhanced security.

• HOA pool-enclosure protection: Section 202.022 protects a conforming nonclimbable water-feature enclosure made of transparent mesh or clear panels in metal frames and no more than six feet high. Associations may regulate appearance and colors within the statute, but may not prohibit the specified black transparent-mesh enclosure in metal frames. The enclosure must meet applicable state or local safety requirements.

• Private-street subdivisions: County subdivision regulations require the association to own and maintain private streets and appurtenances, with recorded responsibilities and a maintenance reserve. Owners should review the documents governing entrance gates and access. Private boundary-fence agreements should separately address location, ownership, construction costs, maintenance and permission to enter another property.

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 property and road access: Review of work or encroachments affecting county rights-of-way, easements, drainage facilities and access.

• Subdivision visibility and utility access: Compliance with recorded sight easements, obstruction restrictions and utility dedication language.

• Drainage and floodplain development: Review of covered site work, floodway encroachments, engineering submissions and drainage-easement conditions.

• Gated-subdivision entrances: Approval, testing, emergency clearance, queuing and continuing gate maintenance.

• Pool conditions: The special abandoned-property nuisance provision and other requirements applicable to the pool’s actual classification.

• Utility and pipeline work: Applicable excavation notices, responses, locating, careful work and pipeline-easement construction conditions.

• Shared fences and private restrictions: Statutory joint/attached-fence removal requirements remain separate from private disputes over ownership, costs, HOA approval and recorded agreements.

USING THIS INFORMATION

This page provides general orientation on how residential fence rules are structured and applied within unincorporated Kaufman County. 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 Kaufman 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.