FENCE RULES – SMITHFIELD (TOWN), NORTH CAROLINA

OVERVIEW

Residential fences are permitted on private property within Town of Smithfield, subject to local regulations.

The Town of Smithfield Unified Development Ordinance is effective throughout the Town of Smithfield corporate limits and the Town's extraterritorial jurisdiction; for properties outside that planning jurisdiction, fence rules depend on Johnston County or another governing authority for the property location.

Local fence rules appear primarily in the Town of Smithfield Unified Development Ordinance, including Section 7.3.10, Fences; Section 2.21, Street Intersection Sight Visibility Triangle; historic-district certificate of appropriateness provisions; stormwater, riparian-buffer, watershed, and flood-damage-prevention provisions; and related right-of-way, fire-hydrant, and private-restriction provisions in the Smithfield Code of Ordinances. Johnston County Building Inspections administers local building inspections and publishes the building-permit guidance used for fence permit context.

This page focuses on typical single-family residential fencing. If the jurisdiction's adopted materials do not state a specific limit or requirement, this page notes that the code does not specify one.

Compiled From Town of Smithfield Unified Development Ordinance, Smithfield Code of Ordinances, Town of Smithfield Zoning Permit Application and New Business Worksheet, and Johnston County Building Inspections – When and Why is a Permit Required? as of June 2026.

GOVERNANCE

The Town of Smithfield is the local governing entity for zoning and land-use regulation within its planning jurisdiction. The Town of Smithfield Unified Development Ordinance states that it applies throughout the Town's corporate limits and extraterritorial jurisdiction.

The UDO Administrator, designated by the Town Manager, enforces the Unified Development Ordinance, provides administrative interpretations, reviews zoning permit applications, site plans, minor subdivisions, engineering drawings, and final plats, and refers matters to the Planning Board, Town Council, or Board of Adjustment when those bodies must review an application.

The Historic Preservation Commission administers certificate of appropriateness review for designated historic districts and landmarks. The Stormwater Administrator and Floodplain Administrator administer the separate stormwater-management and flood-damage-prevention provisions when those site conditions apply.

Building inspections and building-permit administration are handled through Johnston County Building Inspections for the Town's local building-inspection context.

PERMIT AND APPROVAL REQUIREMENTS

• Building Permit: Johnston County Building Inspections lists fences under projects for which permits are not required. This building-permit statement is separate from the Town's zoning, height, placement, historic, floodplain, stormwater, watershed, riparian-buffer, right-of-way, easement, and private-restriction requirements.

• Zoning Permit: Under UDO Section 7.3.10.9, fences and walls seven (7) feet or less in height that meet the requirements of the ordinance do not require a zoning permit.

• Height Exceptions and Special Use Review: The UDO states that fences and walls may exceed the height requirements of Section 7.3.10 only if required or specifically authorized in another section of the ordinance or with a special use permit. That is not an ordinary fence-permit process for standard residential fences.

• Historic District Approval: In a designated historic district or for a designated landmark, fence and wall work may require a certificate of appropriateness. The UDO treats minor repairs to fences and walls that match existing materials in scale, style, design, and materials as normal maintenance that does not require a certificate of appropriateness, while new or modified fences or walls in the street yard are reviewed as major work and fences or walls in the rear or side yard are reviewed as minor work.

• Floodplain Review: A floodplain development permit is required before development activities within Special Flood Hazard Areas. If a fence or wall project involves development activity, grading, fill, drainage work, or other disturbance in a mapped Special Flood Hazard Area, the floodplain provisions are a separate site-condition review layer.

• Stormwater, Watershed, and Riparian-Buffer Review: A stormwater permit is required for development and expansion of development unless exempt. The UDO also requires fifty-foot riparian buffers along streams, rivers, or other water bodies under the Neuse River Basin buffer framework, and includes water-supply watershed overlay provisions. These rules are separate from ordinary fence height and zoning-permit rules.

• Pool Barrier Context: Johnston County Building Inspections lists pools, portable storable seasonal pools, and spas that hold more than 24 inches of water as permit-required projects. A fence used as part of a regulated pool, spa, or hot-tub barrier is reviewed in that pool-related context, not as an ordinary yard fence only.

FENCE PLACEMENT RULES

• Setbacks: The UDO states that fences and walls are exempt from the setback requirements of the ordinance.

• Property Lines and Rights-of-Way: The setback exemption does not authorize encroachment into a public right-of-way, easement, drainage area, utility area, or another property. The Smithfield Code of Ordinances states that no walls or other permanent structures may be located within the street right-of-way in the area between curbs and the property line.

• Fence Orientation: Fences must be installed so that exposed framing faces the interior yard and does not face adjacent properties or public rights-of-way.

• Sight Visibility: No fence or wall may impede vision as regulated by UDO Section 2.21. Land adjoining town-maintained street intersections or egress to a town-maintained street from off-street parking areas must be kept clear of obstructions under the Smithfield Standard Detail and Specifications Manual and NCDOT sight-distance-triangle requirements.

• Fire Hydrants: Posts, fences, vehicles, growth, trash, storage, buildings, and other materials or objects must not be placed or kept near fire hydrants, fire department inlet connections, or fire-protection control valves in a manner that prevents immediate access. The code requires a three-foot clearance around the circumference of fire hydrants unless otherwise approved or required by the fire code official.

• Riparian and Watershed Areas: Where a fence project is located near a stream, river, water body, or water-supply watershed overlay area, the UDO's riparian-buffer and watershed provisions may affect placement or disturbance. The code requires fifty-foot riparian buffers along both sides of a stream, river, or other water body where the Neuse River Basin buffer framework applies.

• Utility Safety: North Carolina law requires notice to the North Carolina Notification Center / NC 811 before excavation where the Underground Utility Safety and Damage Prevention Act applies. For fence projects that involve digging, including fence post holes, notice for non-subaqueous excavation must be given not less than three full working days before the proposed start date, and the notice expires 28 calendar days after the work start date. North Carolina law also includes specific exemptions, including certain work by the owner of a single-family residential property on the owner's own land and certain agricultural or gardening excavations. This statewide utility-notice framework is separate from local fence permitting, zoning, development approval, easement limits, right-of-way approvals, coastal/CAMA approvals, watershed or riparian-buffer rules, floodplain review, stormwater review, HOA restrictions, and other applicable requirements.

FENCE HEIGHT AND VISIBILITY RULES

• Residential Height: The UDO states that fences and walls may not exceed seven (7) feet in height, except where required or specifically authorized in another section of the ordinance or with a special use permit.

• Front of Principal Structure: No fence or wall more than forty-eight (48) inches high and more than seventy-five (75) percent solid may be placed in front of a principal structure.

• Fences Over Seven Feet: Where a fence greater than seven (7) feet is authorized, the UDO requires it to be of an open type similar to woven wire or wrought iron.

• Intersection Visibility: The Smithfield Code of Ordinances prohibits anything from being erected, placed, planted, or allowed to grow between two and one-half (2.5) feet and ten (10) feet above the level of the center of the adjacent intersection within the applicable sight-visibility triangle if it obstructs motorists' views or creates a traffic hazard.

• Sight-Visibility Matrix: For unsignalized intersections, the code uses stop-sign triangles of 15' x 60', 15' x 70', 15' x 80', or 15' x 90' depending on through-street speed; yield-sign triangles of 25' x 60', 25' x 70', 30' x 80', or 35' x 90'; and a 10' x 60' triangle for four-way stop intersections on all approaches. The lesser length is measured along the controlled approach and the greater length along the through street or noncontrolled approach.

MATERIAL AND CONSTRUCTION LIMITS

• Fence and Wall Definitions: The UDO defines a fence as a barrier composed of wire, wood, metal, plastic, or similar material, and a wall as a barrier composed of brick, stone, rock, concrete block, or similar masonry material.

• Prohibited Materials: Electric fences and fences constructed with razor wire or barbed wire are prohibited except when used to enclose livestock on a bona fide farm, for public or quasi-public institutions for public safety or security purposes, or for industrial security in the Light Industrial or Heavy Industrial zoning districts.

• Finished Side / Framing: Exposed framing must face the interior yard and not adjacent properties or public rights-of-way.

• Opacity Limit: The code does not prohibit solid residential fences in all locations, but a fence or wall more than forty-eight (48) inches high and more than seventy-five (75) percent solid may not be placed in front of a principal structure.

• Historic District Materials: For historic properties, minor repairs to fences and walls are treated as normal maintenance only when replacements match existing materials in scale, style, design, and materials. Other fence or wall work in the historic district is reviewed through the certificate of appropriateness process according to the applicable work category.

• Other Materials: The code does not specify a required standard residential fence material beyond the UDO's fence and wall definitions, prohibited electric/razor/barbed-wire limits, orientation rule, opacity limit, height rule, and any applicable historic-district, visibility, right-of-way, fire-hydrant, floodplain, stormwater, watershed, riparian-buffer, pool-barrier, easement, or private-restriction requirement.

PRIVATE RESTRICTIONS

Private restrictions operate independently from Town fence rules. The UDO states that it is not intended to interfere with or annul easements, covenants, or other agreements between parties, except where those agreements require a use or location prohibited by the ordinance; where the ordinance imposes the greater restriction, the ordinance governs.

HOA covenants, subdivision restrictions, deed restrictions, architectural-review covenants, private easements, conservation easements, private boundary agreements, and similar private documents may be more restrictive than the Town of Smithfield rules summarized here. The referenced published materials do not state that the Town enforces private covenants as part of ordinary fence review.

REVIEW AND ENFORCEMENT CONTEXT

Fence issues are typically reviewed during permit or approval review when required, and through complaint-based code enforcement. Examples include:

• Fence or wall height exceeding seven (7) feet without required or specific authorization or a special use permit.

• A fence or wall seven (7) feet or less that does not meet UDO Section 7.3.10 requirements, even though it does not require a zoning permit.

• A fence or wall more than forty-eight (48) inches high and more than seventy-five (75) percent solid in front of a principal structure.

• A fence, wall, planting, sign, or obstruction in a sight-visibility area regulated by UDO Section 2.21 or the Smithfield traffic-code visibility matrix.

• Fence or wall work in a historic district that requires certificate of appropriateness review.

• Fence-related work that also involves development activity or disturbance in a Special Flood Hazard Area, stormwater-permit situation, water-supply watershed overlay, Neuse riparian buffer, drainage area, right-of-way, easement, or utility area.

• Fences, posts, or other materials that interfere with immediate access to a fire hydrant, inlet connection, or fire-protection control valve, including the required three-foot fire-hydrant clearance.

• Excavation for posts or related work where the North Carolina Notification Center / NC 811 notice framework applies.

USING THIS INFORMATION

This page provides general orientation on how residential fence rules are structured and applied within Town of Smithfield, based on the referenced published materials as of June 2026.

In addition to local fence rules, certain North Carolina laws apply statewide. See Statewide fence laws in North Carolina.

It is not legal advice and does not replace official ordinances, permits, zoning approvals, development approvals, surveys, or professional guidance. Rules and interpretations may change, and application may vary based on zoning district, site conditions, easements, rights-of-way, floodplain status, stormwater requirements, watershed status, riparian-buffer status, coastal or CAMA jurisdiction, historic district status, design-review status, rural or agricultural context, livestock or stock-law context, pool-barrier use, utility safety requirements, and private restrictions such as HOA covenants, deed restrictions, private agreements, or conservation easements. Before purchasing materials or beginning construction, confirm current requirements and any site-specific limitations with Town of Smithfield Planning Department and any applicable private agreements. If this page conflicts with official ordinances, published guidance, or direction from Town of Smithfield staff, the official sources control. For legal advice or legal interpretation, consult a licensed attorney.