Do You Need a Fence Permit in Glynn County?

Most homeowners find out about fence permits at the worst possible moment: after the posts are in. The rules are not complicated, but they are local, and they are the kind of thing that costs real money if you guess wrong.

Here is how the process generally works around here, and exactly what you should confirm before anyone digs.

Short answer: assume yes, then verify

In unincorporated Glynn County and inside the City of Brunswick, a new fence is usually something the local authority wants to know about. Whether that means a full permit, a simple zoning review, or nothing at all depends on where your property sits, what you are building, and how tall it is.

The only reliable answer comes from the people who issue the permits. For unincorporated Glynn County that is Glynn County Community Development, which handles planning, zoning and building permits. If your address is inside Brunswick city limits, the city handles it instead. Jekyll Island is administered by the Jekyll Island Authority and has its own review process on top of anything else.

Call or visit before you buy materials. Ask three questions:

1. Does a residential fence at my address need a permit, and is there a zoning or setback review as well?
2. What are the height limits for a front-yard fence and a rear-yard fence in my zoning district?
3. What do I need to submit — a site plan, a plat, a survey?

We deliberately do not publish fee amounts or form names here, because they change and we would rather you had the current ones from the source than a stale number from a blog.

What the rules usually turn on

Height, front versus back

Almost every jurisdiction treats the front yard differently from the back. Rear and side yard privacy fences are commonly allowed at six feet. Anything in the front yard is typically held much lower — often around four feet, and sometimes required to be open-style rather than solid, so sightlines at driveways and corners stay clear.

If your lot is a corner lot, expect extra scrutiny. Visibility triangles at intersections are a safety rule, not a preference, and they catch a lot of people out.

Where your property line actually is

A fence that encroaches on a neighbor's land is your problem to remove, and "the old fence was there" is not a defense. If you do not have a current survey, getting one is the cheapest insurance in this whole process. Recorded plats are a starting point, but pins in the ground and a surveyor's opinion are what settle a dispute.

Setbacks matter too. Some districts require the fence to sit a specific distance back from the property line or the right-of-way rather than directly on it.

Easements

This is the one that bites hardest. Drainage easements, utility easements and access easements run through a great many lots in Glynn County, and a fence built across one can be legally removed — by the utility, at your expense, without much sympathy. Your plat should show them. If it does not, ask.

Your HOA

Subdivisions around Brunswick and on St. Simons Island frequently have covenants that are stricter than county rules: permitted materials, permitted colors, which way the finished side must face, maximum height, sometimes a required architectural review before anything starts. An HOA approval is separate from a county permit. You may well need both. Read your covenants, and get the approval in writing.

Call 811 before you dig — this one is not optional

Georgia 811 is the free utility locate service, and using it is a legal requirement, not a courtesy. Call 811 or file online a few working days before digging and the utilities will come out and mark their buried lines.

Fence posts go two feet or more into the ground, along property lines, which is exactly where gas, water, power and communications tend to run. Hitting a line is dangerous first and expensive second. Any fence contractor worth hiring will handle the locate as a matter of course — ask yours whether they do.

Note that 811 marks utility-owned lines. Anything the previous owner buried themselves — irrigation, a septic line, landscape lighting, the power run to a shed — is not on their map. If you know where those are, say so before work starts.

Marsh-front and low-lying lots

If your property backs onto tidal marsh, there is another layer. Georgia protects its coastal marshlands, and work near the marsh can require review and a permit from the state in addition to anything local. The jurisdictional line is not the same as the edge of the visible grass, and it is not something to eyeball.

The same applies to lots in mapped flood zones, where the local floodplain administrator may have something to say about structures. If your back boundary is anywhere near marsh or water, raise it with Community Development early. It is a short conversation if it does not apply, and a very important one if it does.

A sensible order of operations

1. Find your plat or get a survey, and locate your pins.
2. Read your HOA covenants, if you have an HOA, and start any architectural approval — it is often the slowest step.
3. Call Glynn County Community Development, or your city, and confirm what your address needs.
4. Apply for whatever they tell you to apply for, and get it in hand.
5. Call Georgia 811 and wait for the marks.
6. Build.

Doing it in that order turns permitting into an administrative errand. Doing it backwards turns it into a rebuild.

Where we fit in

We build fences across Brunswick, St. Simons Island, Jekyll Island and the surrounding counties, and we deal with these requirements constantly. We will walk the line with you, flag anything that looks like an easement or a setback problem, handle the utility locate, and tell you plainly if we think something needs a conversation with the county before it needs a post hole.

We also handle the groundwork some fence lines need first, whether that is land clearing along an overgrown boundary or grading where the ground will not take a straight run. If an existing fence is coming out, fence repairs and replacement are part of the same job.

There is more about how we work in Glynn County on our service area page.

Ready to start? Request a free quote or call (912) 674-0619, and we will help you get the sequence right the first time.