Romeoville Fence Permits, Heights and Code Rules

When a permit is required

Section 157.042(A) and (B) require a permit to install, replace, alter, or move any fence, wall, retaining wall, or hedge. The Zoning Administrator and the Building Commissioner approve the application. The fee is paid before the permit is issued. The ordinance section states that a fee is paid. It does not state the amount.

The village charges a permit fee set by its fee schedule. Confirm the current amount with Romeoville Community Development before you apply. The village building-permits page is the place to confirm it. Do not use a number from a national cost article, and do not use a number remembered from an older handout. If the village page changes, the village page wins.

The material pages point here for “where this fence type is allowed”: vinyl, wood, aluminum, chain link, and pool fences. Repair and replacement points here because replace, alter, and move are in the permit sentence.

What the application includes

The application needs a plat of survey or a scaled drawing. The drawing shows the fence location, structures, property lines, easements, street lines, sidewalks, and walkways. On a corner lot it shows how the neighboring lot is oriented. It also needs a description of the fence: type, height, and materials. And it needs a signed village drainage certificate.

The applicant submits those items. This page does not name a different person as the one who prepares the drainage certificate beyond what the ordinance says: the application includes a signed village drainage certificate. The Zoning Administrator and the Building Commissioner are the approvals named in the section.

A free estimate is not the permit. It is the scope conversation: which yard, which type, which height, and what the drawing has to show. Use the contact form and say that you want the drawing details included.

How a Romeoville fence permit application moves

These steps follow §157.042 as re-opened on October 10, 2026, plus the inspections question the ordinance section does not answer. The sentences in the list are the steps. They do not include a fee amount, a post depth, or a notice period.

• Submit a plat of survey or a scaled drawing that shows the fence location, structures, property lines, easements, street lines, sidewalks, and walkways, and, on a corner lot, how the neighboring lot is oriented.
• Include a description of the fence (type, height, and materials) and a signed village drainage certificate.
• The Zoning Administrator and the Building Commissioner approve the application. The village charges a permit fee set by its fee schedule. Confirm the current amount with Romeoville Community Development before you apply.
• Ask Romeoville Community Development which inspections the permit requires, and schedule them before the posts go in and again when the fence is complete. Ask about a post-hole inspection and a final inspection. This page does not print a post depth or a notice period, because §157.042, as re-opened, states neither one.

Residential fence types

The residential type table is the authority for which fence can stand in which yard. Chain link must be 11-gauge or heavier. The wrought-iron definition includes other metal, PVC, or anodized aluminum with similar aesthetic characteristics. Privacy, walls, and shadow box are the solid styles. The code marks some permitted cells for privacy and walls. This table says permitted or not permitted and does not invent a meaning for that mark.

Hedge setback is measured from the trunk to the line, and the hedge may not overhang a public walk. That is a hedge rule, not a fence-post rule.

Residential heights

Height follows the yard, not the product. A corner lot has more than one yard. Calling a side “the backyard” does not make it a 6-foot yard if it is a reverse corner yard. The drawing has to show which yard is which, including the neighboring lot’s orientation on a corner.

Residential setbacks

The residential setback table lists 1 foot in the front yard, 1 foot in the reverse corner yard, 1 foot in the back-to-back corner yard, and none in the rear yard. A fence in the front yard may not run parallel to the front lot line. Fences are allowed along the side lot line.

Two more location rules sit with the setbacks. A fence may not be closer than 8 feet to the back of the curb on a major street. A fence may not be parallel to and within 6 feet of an existing fence. Measure those on the survey rather than from a photo.

Drainage, sight lines, and the boards

No fence may inhibit drainage. The village may remove, relocate, or alter a fence that stands in an easement, and the village is not responsible for replacing it. Spoils must be removed. Grades must be restored. Spoils cannot be spread under the fence or in a drainage easement. A drainage easement is not a spare strip for posts.

No fence may stand in the sight triangle at intersections of streets, roadways, driveways, or access drives, as described in §157.021. This guide does not copy the triangle dimensions from that other section. The fence section does say there shall be no significant obstruction between 3 feet and 10 feet.

Structural elements face in, not toward a public street or a neighboring property. Boards are at least 2 inches above grade, and a 4-inch sphere cannot pass under them. That pair of rules is §157.042(E). It applies to wood boards and to any fence the section is covering. It is not a post-depth rule. No post depth is printed here.

What the ordinance prohibits

Section 157.042(P) prohibits barbed wire, razor wire, and an electrical charge except as subsection (Q) allows under the Illinois Municipal Code. This guide does not restate (Q). It also prohibits slats, mesh screening, and chicken wire. The mesh-screening ban has an exception for approved sites under development or redevelopment. That exception is not a general permission for privacy mesh.

Slats are the chain-link issue. They are prohibited. See the chain link page. Pool mesh is a separate deletion: §150.12 strikes ISPSC Section 305.2.4. See the pool page.

Replacing a fence that does not meet today's code

Section 157.042(R) requires a replacement of a nonconforming fence, wall, or hedge to comply with the current ordinance. The new work also needs a permit, because replace is one of the four verbs in the permit sentence: install, replace, alter, move.

Bring the repair page into that conversation when you are deciding whether the work is a repair or a replacement. If it is a replacement, the type table and the height table on this page are the rules, not the fence that is coming down.

Development fences

Section 157.042(N) says a development fence must be maintained and may be replaced only with a match in color, height, location, setback, and design. A lot between two neighbors on a common area or a major street must match those neighbors in color, type, material, height, and setback.

The HOA and subdivision page keeps that rule next to a warning: subdivision names are places, and an association’s private rules are not printed here. The village matching rule and an association approval can both apply. Neither one deletes the other.

Where to confirm the permit fee

The village charges a permit fee set by its fee schedule. Confirm the current amount with Romeoville Community Development before you apply. Use the Romeoville building-permits page. This guide does not print a dollar figure for that fee, and it does not print a national permit range in its place.

The cost guide is for published fence prices from Fixr and Angi, each with a date. It is not a fee schedule. Prices vary. A free estimate gives the real number.

A short note on nonresidential yards

Residential rules are the focus of this guide. Nonresidential heights in the same ordinance are 3 feet in the front, 3 feet on a reverse frontage corner, 8 feet on a back-to-back corner, and 8 feet in the rear yard of an interior lot. Confirm the district before you use those numbers.

In the P-B district, fences are limited to a wrought-iron appearance, full vinyl, or chain link fully covered with a black vinyl coating. That limit is §157.042(J)(1). It does not rewrite the residential type table.