Lincoln, NE Fence Permits: Height Limits and Rules

Do you need a fence permit in Lincoln?

Usually not. Lincoln exempts fences not over 7 feet high from a building permit, which covers nearly every residential fence anyone builds. The city says it plainly on its own fence page: for a fence under 7 feet in the side or rear yard, no permit is required.

Over 7 feet, you need a building permit from Building and Safety. There is no separate zoning permit or fence permit in Lincoln, and no zoning application fee for a fence. For statewide context see our Nebraska fence permit guide, and for the national baseline the complete fence permit guide.

So far this sounds permissive. The complication is that a second rule, in a different code, sets a lower limit than the permit trigger.

The 76 inch trap

Two numbers govern a Lincoln fence, and they do not match:

• 84 inches (7 feet) is the permit trigger, from the building code.
• 76 inches (6 feet 4 inches) is the height limit on most of a lot, from the zoning ordinance.

That leaves an eight inch band, from 76 to 84 inches, where a fence needs no permit and is still a zoning violation. Nobody stops you, because you never go to the counter. There is no application, no plan check and no inspector, so the first time the rule surfaces is usually a neighbor complaint or a problem at resale.

If you take one thing from this page, take that. Build to 76 inches unless you have confirmed your yard qualifies for the taller allowance below.

Lincoln fence height limits

The zoning ordinance sets a base limit and then a list of exceptions. The base rule is that fences may be erected to a height not to exceed 76 inches on any part of a lot or premises, front yard included.

The ordinance then allows 102 inches (8 feet 6 inches) in specific situations:

• In the required front yard of a residentially zoned lot that has more than one required front yard, which in practice means a corner lot
• In the side or rear yard of a residentially zoned district
• Within a commercial or industrial district
• On a common lot line between a residential district and a commercial or industrial district

One condition rides along with the taller allowance in residential yards: no fence over 76 inches may be located within four feet of any main structure on an abutting lot. If your neighbor's house sits close to the line, that caps you back down.

These figures come from Lincoln Municipal Code 27.72.140. The ordinance is the controlling source, so confirm your own yard against it or with the Planning counter before building tall.

Corner lots get the tallest front yard fence

This is the genuinely unusual part of Lincoln's rules. In most cities a corner lot is the most restricted place to build, because two street frontages mean two front yards and two sets of front yard limits. Lincoln inverts that. Because the taller 102 inch allowance is written specifically for a lot with more than one required front yard, the corner lot is the one place a Lincoln homeowner can put an 8 foot 6 inch fence along a street.

There is also no open construction, see through, or percentage open requirement anywhere in the section. A solid 76 inch privacy fence across a front yard is permitted by the ordinance text. If you have read elsewhere that Lincoln caps front yard fences around 3 or 4 feet and requires them to be half open, that is a common error repeated across non official sites, and the ordinance says the opposite.

Sight triangles: a mandatory review with no permit

The zoning code prohibits a fence inside the triangular area required for sight distance of vehicles entering or exiting a property or approaching an intersection, except where it conforms to city design standards and the Access Management Policy.

Here is the part homeowners miss. Even for a fence under 7 feet, which needs no permit at all, the city says that if your fence is on a corner lot or at or near a driveway or alley, you are required to have Public Works review it for compliance with the Sight Distance Standards. The number for that is 402-441-7711.

So the process is a phone call rather than an application: no permit, no fee, no paper trail, and no counter visit that would prompt you to make it. It is easy to skip and easy to get wrong, and it is the most likely reason a Lincoln fence gets ordered moved.

Property lines, right of way, and easements

A fence has to sit completely on your own property. Lincoln offers one specific piece of local guidance that saves people from a common mistake: in most cases your property line is four feet behind the sidewalk. The strip between the sidewalk and your lot line is usually public right of way, not yours, and fences and other obstructions may not be installed in the right of way without the city's consent.

If you are not certain where your lines run, the city's advice is to hire a registered land surveyor. Lincoln does not locate property lines for homeowners.

The LES clearances written into the zoning code

Most cities leave utility access to an easement agreement between you and the utility. Lincoln put the numbers in the zoning ordinance, which means breaking them is a code violation and not just a contract problem. The prohibited locations rule bars a fence within:

• 10 feet of the opening side of padmounted equipment, the side with the decals on the lid
• 3 feet of the opening side of power pedestals, the side with the padlock
• 12 inches of the other, non opening sides

This matters more in Lincoln than it sounds, because in most Lincoln subdivisions the utility easement runs along the back lot line, which is exactly where people build privacy fences. Lincoln Electric System puts the equipment that serves your block in that corridor. If your fence blocks access, restoring power after an outage takes longer, and the cost of correcting the obstruction can land on you.

Before you dig post holes, call 811 at least 48 hours ahead to have buried cables located. It is free.

Pool barrier fences

If the fence encloses a pool, a separate chapter applies to every pool 18 inches deep or more. The barrier must be a fence or wall at least four feet high, with no openings, holes or gaps larger than four inches in any dimension apart from doors and gates. A house or accessory building may form part of the enclosure.

All gates and doors through the barrier need self closing and self latching hardware and must be kept closed when the pool is not in use, except a dwelling door that forms part of the enclosure. For an above ground pool where the pool wall forms the barrier, the entrance needs either a conforming gate or a limited access ladder that can be made unusable when the pool is not in use, and leaving that ladder usable is itself unlawful.

Lincoln also allows a safety cover meeting ASTM F1346 as an alternative, but with a condition: whenever the cover is not fully closed, someone at least 16 years old with an unobstructed view of the whole pool has to be supervising.

How to apply, and what it costs

For the common case, there is nothing to apply for and nothing to pay. A fence at or under 7 feet needs no permit and carries no fee, and fences are not among the zoning applications that carry a fee.

For a fence over 7 feet, you apply through Lincoln's Accela Citizen Access portal or at Building and Safety, 555 South 10th Street, Suite 203. The city asks for two copies of a site plan, plus building plans showing construction type and elevation. Lincoln's code separately requires the site plan to show distances from lot lines and any easements, which for a fence project is most of the work.

The fee is valuation based rather than a flat fence charge, and the city states that the minimum fee starts at $65 and increases from there. A plan review fee of 30 percent of the permit fee, or $30, whichever is greater, applies on top. Lincoln does not publish a review timeline for residential permits, so call 402-441-7521 if your schedule matters.

Building a fence without a permit in Lincoln

Because most fences need no permit, the enforcement risk in Lincoln is not really about permits. It is about the three rules that bind whether or not you ever file anything: the 76 inch zoning limit, the sight distance triangle, and the utility clearances.

All three are violations you can commit without ever encountering a city employee, and all three are expensive to fix after the posts are set. A fence that has to come down eight inches, move out of a sight triangle, or open up a 10 foot working space around a transformer is a rebuild, not an adjustment. Confirming your zone, your corner status and your easement before you buy materials is the cheap version of this project.