Do You Need a Fence Permit in Wichita, KS?

MABCD handles fence permits for Wichita and unincorporated Sedgwick County. A wood, vinyl, chain link or iron fence up to 8 feet tall needs no building permit. A concrete or masonry fence over 4 feet, measured from the bottom of the footing, does. Zoning allows 8 feet in any setback, front yard included. Along a side lot line near the street, and near a driveway, a solid fence drops to 3 feet. An in-ground pool and its barrier is a permit job. Every Wichita rule is laid out in detail below.

MABCD is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Wednesday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. In-person visits are by appointment. Plenty of Wichita neighborhoods sit inside an HOA, and its approval is a separate step from anything MABCD does.

Permit office: 271 W. 3rd St. N., Suite 101, Wichita, KS 67202. Phone: (316) 660-1840. City source: MABCD, Do I Need a Permit?. Building here? Fence installation in Wichita.

Derby issues its own fence permits. You need one for a new or replacement fence. Fixing less than an 8-foot section or a gate needs none. The fee is $25 and it isn’t refundable. The application needs a drawing of your property lines, easements, existing structures and the fence line, and the city won’t take it without one. Schedule the inspection at least 24 hours ahead through the permit line.

Back and side fences can be 6 feet, but they can’t run past the front corner of the house on the address side. Front-yard fences stop at 36 inches and must be open: pickets no wider than 3.5 inches, at least 4 inches apart, no points on top. On a corner lot, a triangle with 30-foot legs stays clear of anything from 33 inches to 8 feet. Section 303.E.3.b lets a corner lot run a fence up to 6 feet to the side-street lot line in some cases. It has to stay out of the triangle and can’t pass the corner of the house on the address side. Ask the city how it applies to your lot. Where a wood fence is visible from public property, the finished side faces out. A fence in a drainage or utility easement needs removable panels and the City Engineer’s sign-off. Most Derby additions carry HOA covenants, and that approval is separate from the $25 permit.

Permit office: 611 Mulberry Rd., Suite 300, Derby, KS 67037. Phone: (316) 788-6632, Option 2. City source: City of Derby, fence permit FAQ. Building here? Fence installation in Derby.

Andover is in Butler County and runs its own permits, so nothing here goes through MABCD. A fence permit is a zoning permit under the Zoning Administrator. You need one for any fence in a front-yard setback, and the development manual lists the fee at $20. Every new fence permit gets plan review, with a site plan showing distances to at least two property lines. Building in the backyard only? Call the city to confirm.

Back and side fences can be 6 feet. Front yards cap at 4 feet. On a corner lot that covers both front yards within 35 feet of the front corner. Corner lots also keep a vision triangle: 30 feet back along each lot line, clear from 33 inches to 8 feet above the street. Many Andover developments have covenants, and HOA approval is separate from the city permit.

Permit office: Andover City Hall, 1609 E. Central Ave., Andover, KS 67002. Phone: (316) 733-1303. City source: Andover Unified Development Manual, Sec. 4-103. Building here? Fence installation in Andover.

Maize permits start at City Hall, not MABCD. The city lists fences among work that generally needs a permit and asks you to call before you start. No fence fee is published. Maize’s zoning code allows fences up to 8 feet in any required setback, front yard included. Height is measured on the side with the least vertical exposure, so on a slope you measure from the high side.

Maize sets no fixed sight triangle for a house lot, but a plat can carry a vision triangle easement on a corner. Check your plat first. A Maize school address isn’t always a Maize city address: plenty of USD 266 neighborhoods sit outside the city limits, where MABCD rules apply. HOA approval comes on top of the city.

Permit office: 10100 W Grady Ave., P.O. Box 245, Maize, KS 67101. Phone: (316) 722-7561. City source: City of Maize, Permits. Building here? Fence installation in Maize.

Goddard issues its own fence permits online, with a $15 fee listed. The code requires one for any fence in the front-yard setback. For a backyard-only fence, call City Hall to confirm.

Back and side fences can be 6 feet. Front-yard fences stop at 4 feet, at least 75% open, and chain link there needs conditional-use approval. On a corner lot, both street sides count as front yards, and a vision triangle with 30-foot sides stays clear from 33 inches to 8 feet. A fence in an easement must be movable, and if it has to come out, replacing it is on you. Metal roofing, pallets and chicken wire aren’t allowed. Newer subdivisions usually have an HOA, and its approval is a separate step.

Permit office: 118 N. Main St., Goddard, KS 67052. Phone: (316) 794-2441. City source: City of Goddard, Permits. Building here? Fence installation in Goddard.

Bel Aire issues its own permits under its Fence Code, through the Planning & Community Development Department at City Hall. You need one for a new fence or for replacing 25% or more of an old one. The fee comes from the city’s fee schedule, and you’ll need a site plan.

Back and side fences can be 6 feet. Past the front plane of the house, the fence steps down to 4 feet within 8 feet, at least 50% open, with no chain link or other metal or wire. Inside a corner vision triangle the cap is 3 feet. The finished side faces out, and a fence in an easement needs removable panels. Many newer subdivisions carry HOA covenants on top of city code.

Permit office: 7651 E. Central Park Ave., Bel Aire, KS 67226. Phone: (316) 744-2451 ext. 121. City source: Bel Aire Fence Code, Ch. 17 Art. 8. Building here? Fence installation in Bel Aire.

In the small cities MABCD works with, the permit always starts at city hall (MABCD, Contracted Small Cities). Haysville runs its own Public Works permit desk (Haysville Permits) and caps fences at 6 feet (Sec. 4-1103(a)). Valley Center issues through the city (Valley Center), and Park City says standard backyard fencing needs no permit and can’t exceed 6 feet without a variance (Park City FAQ).

An ordinary residential fence up to 8 feet tall does not require a MABCD building permit. That covers the great majority of Wichita fence projects.

The exact language, from the residential code Wichita and Sedgwick County adopted (Ord. 50-833, the 2018 IRC with local amendments), Section 2.4.030 (“Work Exempt from Permit”): “Concrete or masonry fences not over 4 feet (1219 mm) in height measured from the bottom of the footing to the top of the wall and other fences not over 8 feet (2438 mm) high” (Ord. 50-833, UBTC Sec. 2.4.030). Cedar, vinyl, chain link, and most ornamental iron all fall comfortably under that line. A permit gets triggered when a fence tops 8 feet, when a concrete or masonry fence tops 4 feet from the bottom of its footing (MABCD Directive #14-B4), or when the fence forms part of a required pool barrier. This is a building-permit exemption only. It doesn’t override the zoning code’s placement rules, your property line, or a suburb that sets its own threshold (see suburb fence rules).

Up to 8 feet, in any required setback, front, side or rear, with one cut-down near the street and near driveways.

Wichita-Sedgwick County Unified Zoning Code Sec. III-E.1.e(1)(b) lists “Fences or Screening Walls that do not exceed eight feet in height” among the features allowed within required setbacks (UZC Art. III, Sec. III-E.1.e). Height is measured “on the side with the least vertical exposure above finished grade” (Sec. III-E.1.f), so a fence on a sloped lot is measured from the high side (how the fence itself follows that slope, stepped or racked, is covered in our sloped-yard guide). Every height rule, corner cap included, is worked through in our guide to how tall a fence can be in Wichita. The widely repeated “4 ft front, 6 ft side/rear” rule is not in Wichita’s code. It is a common HOA covenant and a rule in some suburbs, such as Haysville’s 6-foot cap (Sec. 4-1103(a)). Separately, Wichita’s frost line is 24 inches (UBTC, Table R301.2(1) & Sec. 2.4.430), which is why Ovora sets every post, steel, not wood, well below that depth as standard. Check your recorded covenants before you build to the code maximum. An HOA can be stricter than the city.

To your property line, and no closer. Wichita does not add a setback for fences beyond the line itself.

Because fences up to 8 feet are allowed inside any required setback (UZC Sec. III-E.1.e above), the real limit is the line between your lot and the public right-of-way. On most Wichita streets the sidewalk sits inside that right-of-way, so your line is typically a few feet on the house side of the sidewalk, not at its edge. Building on the right-of-way puts the fence on city land. We pull the plat and flag the actual line before we set a post. For finding your pins and the right-of-way, read how far from the sidewalk a fence needs to be. Two other city rules apply everywhere: electrically charged and barbed-wire fences are banned in every residential zoning district, along with spikes or broken glass on any fence (Wichita Code Sec. 5.35.010).

Corner lots and driveway approaches carry two rules stacked on top of each other: a 3-foot cap on solid fence near the street and driveways, and a larger vision triangle the traffic engineer enforces.

First, the zoning rule. Within the City, and in the parts of the County along curb-and-gutter roads, a fence or screening wall with more than 80 percent opacity may not exceed three feet along the side lot line within 20 feet of the street right-of-way, nor along any lot line within 20 feet of where the right-of-way meets a driveway (UZC Sec. III-E.1.e(1)(b); quoted in the city’s fences white paper). Open fencing under 80 percent opacity, such as chain link, ornamental iron, or spaced picket, is not cut down by this rule.

Second, the traffic rule. Wichita City Code Chapter 11.22 bans any fence, hedge, or sign that obstructs view inside the vision triangle at a corner. At an uncontrolled intersection the triangle’s sides run 90 feet along each street centerline from the point they cross. At a stop-controlled corner the short side is half the major street’s width plus 15 feet, and the long side comes from a speed-and-width table that starts at 165 feet (Wichita Code Sec. 11.22.010). Ornamental fence up to 4 feet tall with no more than one part solid to four parts open is exempt (Sec. 11.22.020). After a final determination, each day the obstruction stays is a separate $10 offense, and the city can remove it and bill the lot. We lay out corner posts to both rules before we dig.

A permit exemption doesn’t exempt anyone from calling 811. Kansas law requires contractors to call two full working days before they dig. A homeowner digging at their own primary residence is exempt from that statute, but should call anyway.

Kansas811 tells homeowners directly: “You MUST contact Kansas 811 two (2) full working days…in advance” (Kansas811, For Homeowners). The statute puts the notice duty on “excavators” (K.S.A. 66-1804), and its definition of excavator leaves out an occupant digging at their own primary residence (K.S.A. 66-1802). Call 811 or request a locate at kansas811.com. A utility easement along your line can often be fenced, but if the city or a utility needs in, the fence comes out and “any re-installation will be at the expense of the homeowner” (Park City FAQ). That is the general shape across the metro.

An in-ground pool almost always needs a permit, and the barrier around it is code, not optional.

Wichita/Sedgwick County’s adopted code exempts only very small, shallow, prefabricated pools from a permit: under 24 inches deep, no more than 5,000 gallons, with the pool walls entirely above ground (Ord. 50-833, UBTC Sec. 2.4.030). So an in-ground pool and its barrier is a MABCD permit matter. We couldn’t pull the local amendment text for the pool-barrier appendix, so treat this as the model-code baseline, confirmed with MABCD before you build:

• Barrier at least 48 inches high, measured on the side facing away from the pool
• No opening a 4-inch sphere can pass through; under the fence, 2 inches over grass or 4 inches over a solid surface
• Gates self-closing and self-latching, opening away from the pool
• Latch release 54 inches or more above grade, or on the pool side at least 3 inches below the top of the gate with no opening over half an inch within 18 inches of it

The full barrier checklist, with the code sections, is in Wichita pool fence requirements. In Derby, Andover, Maize, Goddard and Bel Aire we haven’t verified a city-specific pool-barrier rule. Call the city when you apply.

Source: International Residential Code Appendix G, Section AG105, as republished verbatim in a township pool-barrier handout (East Hempfield Township, PA, Pool Barrier Requirements). This is the model code Wichita/Sedgwick County’s building code is built on, not a Wichita-specific citation. MABCD confirms the local application.

For anything inside Wichita or unincorporated Sedgwick County that needs a permit, MABCD runs the process.

Office: 271 W. 3rd St. N., Suite 101, Wichita, KS 67202. Phone: (316) 660-1840. Email: MABCD@sedgwick.gov. MABCD encourages applying online. The portal at mabcdportal.sedgwickcounty.org issues permits, schedules inspections and takes fees. In-person visits are by appointment through mabcd.timetap.com (MABCD). A new-home permit asks for the legal description and tax key number (MABCD, Permits). Confirm the exact list for a fence when you apply. In a suburb, the city’s own desk runs it; offices and phones are in the table above.

Because most Wichita fences don’t need a permit under the 8-foot exemption, most Wichita fence customers pay no MABCD fee at all.

When one is required, MABCD prices it off a published valuation-based schedule (Table B). The lowest bracket, for a project valued $1 to $1,000, is $40 (MABCD Fee Table B, Rev. 5/8/2019). No fence-specific line item is published, so treat $40 as a floor. Suburb fees run from $15 listed in Goddard to $25 in Derby. Maize publishes none, and Bel Aire charges from its city fee schedule. For the fence itself, see our Wichita fence cost guide.

The real risk isn’t MABCD showing up. It’s what surfaces at resale, at a utility locate, or when a survey disagrees with your line.

MABCD publishes no fine schedule for unpermitted work; call Neighborhood Inspections at 316-660-9220 with a compliance question (MABCD, Neighborhood Issues). Hit a line without an 811 call and the repair bill is the digger’s. Build in an easement and the utility can order it moved at your cost. A fence over the line is a neighbor dispute, which is why we flag the real line first. Who pays for a fence on the line, and who owns it, is covered in Kansas fence laws between neighbors.

The permit rules change at each city limit. Four things don’t.

• 811, two full business days. Kansas law puts the locate call on excavators, contractors included (K.S.A. 66-1802 and 66-1804). Kansas 811 asks for at least two full business days’ notice (Kansas 811). A post hole moves earth, so it counts as excavation under the statute’s definition. A homeowner digging at their own home is exempt. Call anyway.
• HOA approval on top of the city. An HOA approval isn’t a permit, and a permit isn’t HOA approval. Newer additions across the metro usually carry covenants. Read yours before you pick a height or a style.
• Property lines flagged, not guessed. An old fence line isn’t a survey. We pull the plat, find the pins and check for easements before we set a post.
• Ovora pulls the permit. On every job that needs one, MABCD or a suburb’s own desk, we pull it. Insured & Permitted.