Fence installation and repair in Arvada.

Arvada permits every fence — and wants a wind rating over six feet

The city's own language is unambiguous: permits are required for all fencing in the City of Arvada, regardless of height. There is no small-fence carve-out. A three-foot picket in the front yard needs a permit the same as a six-foot privacy run in the back.

The more interesting rule is the one above six feet. Arvada routes those fences to the Building Inspection Division for a plan review, and the application has to include a site plan and specifications for the wind rating. The city notes that most fences over six feet in height will require an engineer letter.

Think about what that tells you. Arvada is a city that has decided a tall fence is a structure, and a structure here has to be designed for wind. Every fence company that has ever handed a homeowner a leaning fence after a windstorm is the reason that rule exists. We build to that standard whether the city asks for it or not.

Height limits, and the front-yard rule that's different from everybody else's

Arvada's front-setback limit is three feet — lower than the four feet you get in Denver, Lakewood, and Wheat Ridge. It can be increased to four feet if the fence is at least fifty percent transparent when viewed at a perpendicular angle. So: a solid three-foot fence, or a four-foot fence you can see through.

In the rear and interior side yards you get six feet, and certain districts allow divisional walls up to eight feet facing arterial streets. Any fence above four feet has to sit at or behind the front façade of the building.

That perpendicular-angle test is the detail that gets people. A picket fence with wide spacing passes. A shadowbox fence, which reads as open from straight on but closes up as you move down the line, does not — the code measures it perpendicular. If you want four feet across the front in Arvada, it has to be genuinely open.

• ▸Permit required for all fencing, any height — no exemption
• ▸Front setback — 3 ft solid, or 4 ft if 50% transparent perpendicular
• ▸Rear / interior side — 6 ft
• ▸Over 6 ft — Building plan review, site plan, wind rating, usually an engineer letter
• ▸Anything above 4 ft must be at or behind the front façade

Two counties, one fence, and the ground underneath

Arvada straddles a county line — the great majority of it sits in Jefferson County, with a smaller portion in Adams. That doesn't change your fence permit, which comes from the city either way, but it can matter for other approvals and it's worth knowing which side of the line you're on.

The ground is Front Range piedmont: the same expansive smectitic clay that runs under most of the metro, swelling when it's wet and shrinking when it dries, working at a post year after year. As you move west and north toward the foothills the soils get rockier and shallower to bedrock. We read it at the walk — the ground is what actually determines how the hole goes in.

Arvada is also exposed. The foothills are close, and the downslope windstorms that come off them are the reason the city asks for wind ratings. On a west-side Arvada lot with an open exposure, we're not building a six-foot privacy fence the way we'd build one in a sheltered interior subdivision — deeper posts, wider footers, three rails, and a serious conversation about whether a shadowbox layout is the smarter fence.

The four fences, in Arvada

Permits, height, and the HOA

Arvada requires a permit for all fencing, regardless of height. There is no minor-fence exemption. The city is explicit about it, and it's the strictest permit rule of any jurisdiction on our map.

Fences over six feet get a plan review from the Building Inspection Division. The application must include a site plan and specifications for the wind rating, and the city notes that most fences over six feet will require an engineer letter. Budget time for that — it isn't a same-day approval.

Front setback fences are limited to three feet, or four feet if the fence is at least fifty percent transparent viewed perpendicular. Rear and interior side yards allow six feet. The city also notes that HOAs may impose their own rules on top of the city's — and the HOA is usually the stricter of the two.

Codes change. Verify current requirements with the City of Arvada— and with your HOA if you have one — before you build. We'll walk it with you and flag anything on your lot that's going to matter.