Fencing · Permits
Do you need a permit for a fence in the Illinois Valley?
Xcel Outdoor Living installs fences across the Illinois Valley out of Spring Valley, Illinois, serving Bureau, LaSalle, Putnam, Marshall, and Lee counties. Whether your fence needs a permit is decided by whichever government your address sits inside, and across these five counties that question has genuinely different answers.
We build. We do not pull permits and we will not tell you we did, so the approval stays in your name from start to finish. What follows is how to find your own answer, and what the answer tends to look like once you have it.
If you are here for one particular town, go straight to that town's own page instead. Each of the twenty-one towns we serve has its published rule written up from the town's own source and dated, with an honest note wherever the source could not be found.
About 13 minutes to read
Which government decides, and why that is the first question
Fence rules are almost entirely local zoning. There is no state fence code sitting above them the way a model building code sits above a deck, which is exactly why the answer changes at a town line and why it is worth checking rather than assuming.
So the first question is not what the rule is. It is whose rule it is.
Your parcel sits inside a municipality, or it does not. If it does, that municipality's ordinance is the one that governs, and the county's rules stop at the corporate limit. LaSalle County says so on the face of its own permit brochure, which lists any structure inside a corporate city or village boundary among the things that do not need a county permit. Bureau County publishes the same boundary from the other side, naming the municipalities inside the county that keep their own zoning ordinance (opens in a new tab) rather than using the county's.
That cuts both ways, and the exception is worth knowing. Marshall County's zoning ordinance at section 2.1-5(A) applies to the unincorporated area of the county and to any municipality inside it that has no zoning ordinance of its own. A homeowner in a very small village can be under county rules without ever having been told so.
There is one more way to get this wrong, and it is the mundane one. A county office and a city office can share a name, a town and a street. In Dixon, the City of Dixon Building and Zoning Department is at 121 West Second Street and the Lee County Building and Zoning Department is at 112 East Second Street. Two governments, two sets of fence rules, house numbers that are near mirror images of each other, and a directional prefix doing all the work. Confirm which one has your parcel before you drive anywhere.
The three shapes a permit answer comes in
Once you know whose rule applies, the answer arrives in one of three shapes. Recognising the shape tells you how much confidence to put in what you find.
One: the code has a fence section and it says so in a sentence. This is the easiest case to read and the most common in the towns with a real fence ordinance. Dixon's is one sentence and admits of nothing: "No person shall construct or erect any fence or other similar structure without first securing a permit in writing from the building official of the city" (Title 7, Chapter 9, section 7-9-1). Toluca's is equally flat at 9-4-6(A): "No fence shall be constructed without first obtaining a building permit." Neither carries a height, a length or a material below which you are exempt. When a code is written this way, there is nothing to interpret.
Two: the permit reaches a fence through the word "structure". Here nothing is headed fences at all, and the answer has to be assembled out of two sections in different chapters. Lacon works this way. Section 150.01 makes it unlawful to erect a new structure, or to re-build, structurally alter, add to or re-locate one, without a permit from the Zoning Enforcing Officer, and the definition of STRUCTURE at 153.002 gives fences as one of its own examples. Put the two together and a fence is permitted work. Read either one on its own and you would not know.
A warning that comes with this shape: the assembly can go wrong. Lacon's zoning code carries a second, older version of that same permit sentence at 153.009, and the published text of it is missing two letters. It reads "It shall be lawful" where every provision that follows it, an application procedure, a fee schedule and a power to revoke, only makes sense if it says unlawful. The correct citation for the permit requirement in Lacon is 150.01, and the reason to know that is so a homeowner reading 153.009 does not conclude they are in the clear.
Three: the code exempts a residential fence outright. Bureau County's zoning ordinance at 11.17-7 exempts from the building permit requirement the "Construction or alteration of a fence in a residential district, unless the fence is located in the site triangle." Putnam County's ordinance lists four exemptions at section 20.08 and item C is "Residential fences." Marshall County goes further still: its definition of "Structure" at section 1.2 ends with the words "excluding a fence," so the permit trigger at 6.1(A) does not obviously reach one, and no fence line appears anywhere on the county's building permit application.
Notice what both counties do with their exemptions, because the shape repeats. Bureau County's exemption stops at the site triangle. Putnam County's is undone by section 20.05(C), which requires a permit for any fence inside the sight triangle at a road intersection and directs the Zoning Enforcement Officer to deny it where vision would be obstructed. Two different counties, same instinct: a fence may be free everywhere except where it can hide a car from a driver.
One case fits none of the three, and it is worth naming rather than smoothing over. Oglesby's codified permit list at 14-11-19(A)(1) enumerates what needs a building permit, and fences are not on it, while the city's own Building Code page (opens in a new tab) lists "Fences" among the improvements that require one, and 14-6-12(F) assumes a fence permit exists by letting the building inspector alter the conditions of it before it is issued. The city's own published page is the authority a homeowner should act on. We could not reconcile the two documents against each other, and we are not going to pretend we did.
Replacing a fence is a separate question from building one
This is the question most permit advice skips, and it is the one that catches homeowners with an old fence.
Codes fall into three groups on it, and the difference is not cosmetic.
- Replacement is named as a trigger. North Utica has the broadest list found anywhere in these five counties. Section 10-16-3(A) reaches a fence that is "constructed, erected, originally painted, converted, altered, rebuilt, enlarged, remodeled, relocated, or expanded." Rebuilt and relocated are both on it, and so is painting one for the first time. Peru's ordinance at 6.03(a)(1) makes it unlawful to construct, erect or replace a fence without first obtaining a building permit, and the city's own permit page (opens in a new tab) says the same in plain words. Hennepin puts the word replaced into the operative sentence at 3.5(A).
- Replacement is exempt, because the exemption was written wide. Bureau County's 11.17-7 exempts the "construction or alteration" of a residential fence, so a rebuild on the same line is covered by the same words that cover the original. Putnam County reaches the same place by a different route: routine maintenance and repair is its own exemption, sitting alongside the residential fence exemption rather than inside it.
- The code simply does not say. This is the largest group. Dixon's 7-9-1 says "construct or erect" and nothing anywhere in that chapter addresses taking a fence down and putting a new one up on the same line. Toluca, Ladd, Granville and Lee County are all silent in the same way. Silence is not permission. Ask.
North Utica is also the only code in this set that draws the boundary explicitly from the other end: a permit is not required for minimal alterations to an existing fence, or for regular maintenance. The code does not define where minimal alteration stops and remodeling starts, which is a fair thing to put to the village before you start pulling boards.
One version of this question is worth more than all the others, and it is the one to ask if your fence predates the current rules. The City of LaSalle at 150.40(F) lets a fence that was lawful when it was built keep standing even though it would not be allowed today, with one condition: if any portion of it is destroyed or removed, that portion may not be repaired or replaced unless the replacement complies with the section as it now reads. Fixing a stretch of an old fence there is not a like for like job. The stretch you fix has to meet today's rules even though the rest of the run does not.
When a village publishes nothing at all
Three villages in this research published nothing about fences that could be found from any official source. Not a thin answer, not an outdated one. Nothing.
Two of them administer their own permits and simply do not publish the substance. Bureau County states in writing that both are among the municipalities inside the county operating under their own zoning ordinance, which means the county's clean and quotable answer stops at each village line and cannot be borrowed to fill the space. The third has no website of any kind, no code on any of the major municipal code hosts, and a same-named village in another state that surfaces ahead of it in search results.
The temptation with a gap like that is to reason from the neighbors, and the neighbors are exactly what proves you cannot. Inside Bureau County alone: one village requires a building permit for every fence at any height and allows no fence at all across a residential front yard, and requires a fence to sit back from the line unless a recorded agreement puts it on the boundary. The county requires no permit for a residential fence at all and allows a low, mostly open one right on the line. Those are two adjacent jurisdictions giving opposite answers to every question a homeowner has.
So an unpublished ordinance is a real finding rather than a research failure, and the honest response to it is a phone call rather than an inference. It is also the reason a page like this one names the shape of the answer and sends you to the office, instead of printing a number for your town and hoping.
If you are wondering whether your own village is one of the three, that town's page is where to look. Every town we serve has one, written from the town's own published source and dated, and it says plainly where the source could not be found rather than filling the gap in with a neighbor's rule.
A permit has a shelf life, and a fence permit is often shorter
A permit is not open ended, and this is where a homeowner who is doing everything right still gets caught. The gap between the day you decide and the day the material is on the ground is not always short.
Two things are worth knowing before you file anything. The first is that a fence is often on a shorter clock than the rest of the building. Amboy sets its general building permit at no more than six months, and then in the same subsection carves out a shorter life for a narrow list of work: a permit "for the purpose of the construction, alteration, removal or demolition of a porch, roof, siding or fence shall be valid for no more than three months from the date of its issuance unless the building inspector shall for good cause extend the date of validity of the permit" (section 18-1(j)). A homeowner reading the city's general six months and building a fence would be working on an expired permit from month four.
The second is that the clock does not always start where you think. Some ordinances run from the date of issue, some void the permit if work has not started within a period, and some do both. Amboy's own section 18-1(i) voids a permit that has not been started within six months, independently of the three month life above. Hennepin makes a fence permit null and void ninety days after issuance if the fence is not complete, under section 3.5(B), and its schedule gives a fence ninety days against two years for a new main structure. Granville sets a fence permit at ninety days at 285-12(A)(10). Lee County's permit is void one year from the date it was approved. Henry's fence approval becomes null and void without any further action by the city if the fence has not been established within six months.
Hennepin adds one more that is worth stating plainly because it is the most expensive mistake available in this whole subject: under section 3.5(A), if construction starts before the application goes in and the permit issues, the fee is tripled. Starting early is not a shortcut anywhere, and in at least one village it is priced.
Getting your own answer in one phone call
Everything above is orientation. The answer for your address comes from the office that has your address, and it takes one call. Ask these, and write down what you get back along with the name of the person who gave it to you.
- Which government has this parcel, the village or the county? Ask it first, and ask it even if you think you know. It decides every other answer on this list.
- Does a fence need a permit here, at any height? Ask about height explicitly. Some codes have a threshold and most do not, and the ones that do not will tell you plainly.
- If I am replacing an existing fence on the same line, does that need one too? The single most useful question on this page, because most codes do not answer it in writing.
- Is there a fence form, or does it go on the general building permit application? Some towns publish a fence application of their own. Others have one form for everything and a fence line on it.
- What do you want to see with the application? A diagram, a site plan, a plat of survey, staked property lines. This is the answer most likely to add time to your schedule, so get it early.
- How long is the permit good for, and does the clock start at issue or when work starts?
- Is there anything about my lot that changes the answer? A corner, an alley behind the property, a mapped floodplain, or a zoning district you did not know you were in.
Then get the answers before you order material, not after. A fence that has to move is not a phone call, it is a rebuild.
One more call belongs in the same week, and it is not to a zoning office. JULIE, the Illinois 811 one-call service (opens in a new tab), asks for a locate request at least three days before you want to dig, and installing a fence is one of the projects it names.
The height and placement rules you will be quoted, and why two towns' identical looking numbers are often not measuring the same thing, are a separate subject with a guide of their own. What each of the twenty-one towns we serve asks for is on that town's own page, written from the town's own published source and dated, with an honest note wherever the source could not be found.
The estimate is free and Jake comes to the property, so you can walk the fence line with him before you make any of these calls. What we are not going to do is make them for you, or tell you afterwards that we did.
Related questions
Do you need a permit to build a fence in the Illinois Valley?
It depends entirely on which government your address sits inside, and across these five counties the answers genuinely differ. Several towns require a permit for any fence at any height, with no size below which you are clear. Two counties exempt a residential fence outright on the land they zone, and then take that exemption back inside a sight triangle at a corner. Three villages publish nothing on the subject at all. Establish whose rule applies to your parcel, then ask that office directly before you order material.
Does the county's fence rule apply inside a village?
No. A county zoning ordinance governs the unincorporated land the county zones. LaSalle County's own permit brochure lists any structure inside a corporate city or village boundary among the things that do not require a county permit, and Bureau County names the municipalities inside it that run their own ordinance instead. There is one trap running the other way: Marshall County's ordinance at section 2.1-5(A) reaches unincorporated land and also any municipality in the county that has no zoning ordinance of its own.
Does replacing an existing fence need a new permit?
Sometimes, and most codes do not address it. A few name it outright: North Utica's trigger list at 10-16-3(A) includes rebuilt and relocated, Peru's ordinance at 6.03(a)(1) reads construct, erect or replace, and the Village of Hennepin puts the word replaced in the operative sentence at section 3.5(A). Others exempt it: Bureau County's exemption at 11.17-7 covers alteration as well as construction. Where the code says nothing, ask rather than assume, because an old fence's standing does not automatically transfer to the new one.
How long is a fence permit good for once it is issued?
Not as long as people expect, and a fence is often on a shorter clock than the rest of the building. Amboy sets a general building permit at no more than six months and then carves out three months for a porch, roof, siding or fence at section 18-1(j). The Village of Hennepin voids a fence permit ninety days after issuance under section 3.5(B). Granville gives a fence permit ninety days at 285-12(A)(10). Lee County's permit is void one year from approval. Ask what the term is, and whether the clock starts at issue or at the start of work.
My village publishes nothing about fences. What do I do?
Call it, and treat the silence as the finding rather than as a gap in your own research. Do not borrow the county's rule or the next village's. Two adjacent Bureau County jurisdictions answer this question in opposite directions: one requires a permit for every fence with no threshold and allows none at all across a residential front yard, while the county requires no permit for a residential fence and allows a low open one right on the line. The nearest published rule is not evidence of anything.
Does Xcel pull the permit for me?
No. We build, and the approval stays in your name. What we can do is walk the line with you first, so that when you get somebody on the phone at the village or the county you know exactly what you are describing: where the fence runs, which yard it sits in, how tall it is and what it is made of. The estimate is free, so that walk costs you nothing.
Xcel Outdoor Living builds fences and decks across Bureau, LaSalle, Putnam, Marshall, and Lee counties, Illinois. Call 815-579-2323 to walk your fence line.
