Do You Need a Fence Permit in Cobb, Fulton, or DeKalb County?
It's one of the most common questions we get at estimates, and the answer Metro Atlanta homeowners hate: it depends on your exact address. Here's how to think about it, and how to avoid the two expensive mistakes.
Why there’s no single answer
Metro Atlanta is a patchwork. Your fence rules can come from up to three layers at once:
- The county (Cobb, Fulton, DeKalb), each runs its own development/permitting office for unincorporated addresses.
- The city, Marietta, Roswell, Alpharetta, Sandy Springs, Smyrna, Decatur, Kennesaw, and Dunwoody each have their own codes. A Marietta-mailing-address home in unincorporated Cobb answers to a different office than one inside city limits.
- Your HOA, not a government, but in much of the northern suburbs it’s the strictest layer of the three, governing material, height, color, and style.
What typically triggers requirements
Rules vary, but across Metro Atlanta jurisdictions the recurring themes are: height limits (front yards are commonly restricted lower than back yards), corner-lot sight triangles at intersections, pool barrier requirements (Georgia code mandates specific heights, gap limits, and self-closing/self-latching gates around pools), easements and setbacks (building over a utility easement can mean tearing your own fence out later), and in some cities, permit applications for fences over a certain height or in certain zones.
The two expensive mistakes
Mistake 1: Building first, asking never. A fence over an easement, past a setback, or above a height limit can be ordered removed, at your cost, after you paid to build it.
Mistake 2: Skipping the HOA. The county may not care about your fence, but an unapproved fence in an HOA community can trigger fines and a forced redo. The approval letter comes first.
Or just hand it to us
Confirming permit requirements is part of every Alpha fence project. We identify which office your address answers to, county or city, handle required paperwork, build to code, and sequence HOA approval first when you have one. You get a fence, not a homework assignment. See fence installation →