Fence Company in Silverton, Oregon

Six feet is a zoning ceiling, not a permit threshold. SDC 3.2.500(A) says a building permit is required for fences greater than six feet, which reads like a permit lets you go taller. It doesn't. That same section also requires you to meet the height limits of your zoning district, and Table 2.2.120.A — one chapter over, in SDC Chapter 2.2 — independently caps side and rear fences at six feet in R-1, R-5, RM-10 and RM-20. So no building permit raises that number. The one written path around it is the line printed just above the table: those standards may be modified with approval of a planned development, which is a land-use application, not a permit you pick up at the counter. Two footnotes worth knowing: one arbor, gate or similar garden structure per yard may reach eight feet tall and six feet wide under SDC 3.2.500(B)(3) if it's clear of the vision clearance area, and anything over six feet has to be landscape-screened under SDC 3.2.500(D)(3).

If you're on Acreage Residential (AR) land, ask before you build — and corners are where this gets strict. The six-foot figure comes from Table 2.2.120.A, and that table has columns for R-1, R-5, RM-10 and RM-20 only. AR sits in the same chapter under a different table — Table 2.2.120.B — and that one contains no fence height rows at all. SDC 3.2.500(A) sends you to Tables 2.2.120.A and 2.3.120 and never to 2.2.120.B. We're not going to tell you what your limit is when the code doesn't say: call Silverton Planning before you order material for an AR lot. Silverton doesn't just lower the height near an intersection. SDC 3.2.500(A) says every fence must be located outside any vision clearance area, at any height — and SDC 3.1.200(N) defines a visual obstruction as anything between two and eight feet tall, so even a 42-inch fence counts. That standard applies where no stop sign or signal is provided, and it doesn't reach light standards, utility poles or tree trunks. The clearance triangles are drawn in Figure 3.1.200.N and the corner-lot fence geometry in Figure 3.2.500. Both are diagrams rather than code text, so pull them up — or walk it with Planning — before you set a post on a corner lot.

Retaining walls change the math. A fence on top of a retaining wall is the one place the code lets the assembly pass six feet. Under SDC 3.2.500(B)(2), if the wall is under 30 inches and not next to a public right-of-way, you get six feet of fence on top in a residential zone, eight in commercial or industrial. If the wall is over 30 inches, wall and fence together can't exceed eight and a half feet residential, ten commercial or industrial. Set the fence back at least two feet from the wall and the combined height can reach 15 feet, with the fence itself still capped at six. Separately, the footnote to Table 2.2.120.A requires a building permit for retaining walls taller than four feet, and SDC 3.2.500(D)(3) sends masonry walls over four feet to the building official for review.

Barbed wire, razor wire and electric fences are out. SDC 3.2.500(D)(2) prohibits unfinished concrete blocks, straw bales, barbed or razor wire, scrap lumber or other scrap materials, sheet metal, hedges taller than eight feet, and similar materials — and it says plainly that electric fences are also prohibited, with no location qualifier. The nuisance code is narrower and has exceptions: SMC 8.04.050(A)(24) bans a barbed-wire or razor fence along a sidewalk or public way except where the wire goes around an industrial or commercial use, or sits above other fencing at least six feet six inches high, and (A)(25) bans an electric fence along a sidewalk or public way or along the adjoining property line of another person. Table 2.2.120.B exempts AR properties from that nuisance section because of the district's rural character, but it does not exempt them from the development code's materials list. If you're fencing livestock inside city limits, get that reconciled with Planning first.

Check your material against the permitted list. The list in SDC 3.2.500(D)(1) reads as a closed one: wood, chain-link steel, iron, bricks, stone, rusticated concrete masonry block, stucco or similar masonry, and nonprohibited evergreen plants. Vinyl and composite are named on neither that list nor the prohibited list, so we won't tell you they're allowed or that they aren't — confirm with Planning before you commit to vinyl panels. Poured concrete walls must be striated, battered, scored or otherwise finished. On any project other than a single-family or duplex dwelling on its own lot, the material goes through design review.

Historic review is narrower than most people assume. Silverton's historic design review attaches to properties on the Designated Landmarks Register. Under SDC 3.5.500(A), National Register listing puts you there automatically — including every property inside a National Register district boundary, which covers the downtown Silverton Commercial Historic District. Being on the city's Historic Resources Inventory, or inside a local historic district, doesn't trigger it on its own: SDC 3.5.300(E) and SDC 3.5.400(F) both say so. Where a fence lands is less settled. SDC 3.5.600(B)(2) exempts changes that need no city permit and don't alter historic exterior material, and a fence six feet or under needs no building permit — but reading those two together is our inference, not a sentence in the code. And for accessory work tied to an alteration or new construction, SDC 3.5.600(J)(10) has the reviewing body weigh whether fences and walls are visually compatible with the landmark. If your property is National Register listed, call Planning before you order material.

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