Fence Company in Dallas, Oregon

Every new fence needs a land use review first. Dallas Development Code 3.2.050.A says that if your fence wasn't already approved through a land division, conditional use permit or site design review, it requires Land Use Review (Type I) approval. That applies to a plain 6 ft cedar fence on an interior line. The city doesn't publish a fence-specific form, so call the Planning Division at 503-831-3571 before the posts go in.

The front yard is deeper than most people guess. The 4 ft limit runs the full depth of the required front yard, and Table 2.2.030 puts that at 15 ft in the RL district and 12 ft in RM and RH off a local street with standard right-of-way — 20 ft in any residential district fronting a collector or arterial. One catch: on a street without standard right-of-way, row G.3 measures the setback from the designated street centerline instead, which pushes the 4 ft zone further onto your lot than measuring from your property line would suggest.

If your back line runs along a street, it's treated as a front yard. Development Code 2.2.040 covers reverse-frontage lots: the front yard setback standard applies to all yards abutting a street, and those lots are subject to the fence height and setback requirements in Section 2.2.030. So on a through lot, the 4 ft front-yard cap in 3.2.050.B.1 reaches your back street frontage — not the 7 ft you'd get on an interior rear line. This is the expensive one, because the fence usually goes up before anyone checks.

Corners and driveways are where the height rule bites. 3.1.020.N prohibits any visual obstruction — sign, structure, solid fence or shrub vegetation — between three and eight feet in height inside a vision clearance area on streets, driveways, alleys or mid-block lanes where no stop sign or signal is provided. Figure 3.1.020N dimensions that triangle at 15 ft along both legs; the 15 ft figure comes from the figure itself, not from the text. The City Engineer can modify the area for sight distance, so a corner lot is worth confirming before you pick a height.

Materials Dallas will not accept. 3.2.050.D.2 prohibits straw bales, electrified fences, razor wire, scrap lumber, untreated wood, metal other than the approved types, scrap materials, tarps, and dead, diseased or dying plants. Under 3.2.050.D.4 barbed wire is allowed in the industrial zone only, and only above a fence at least six feet six inches tall — the code then says plainly that barbed wire is prohibited in all other zones. Separately, Dallas City Code 5.560 bans a barbed-wire fence along any sidewalk or public way except above other fencing not less than six feet six inches high, and bans an electric fence along a sidewalk, a public way, or the adjoining property line of another person.

Brick and block are treated as construction. 3.2.050.D.3 makes fences and walls built of brick or masonry subject to current building codes, and that rule isn't tied to height — so a 5 ft block wall is a building-code question even where a 5 ft wood fence isn't. Under 3.2.050.B.2, a retaining wall over four feet inside a front yard setback that's necessary for site grading and development may be approved through a land division or site development review. Plan either of those earlier than a wood fence.

Call 811 first. Contact the Oregon Utility Notification Center two business days before digging. That's every post hole.