Fence or deck costs in Albuquerque

If your back wall faces one of Albuquerque's major arroyos, you get less height than the rest of your lot allows. The city's Integrated Development Ordinance caps a residential wall in a rear or interior side yard next to a major arroyo at six feet, where the general limit away from the street is eight. Walls along major arroyos and Major Public Open Space also follow extra design standards.

The front yard is tighter. In residential zones, a wall in the front yard or street side yard stops at three feet. Except in two small areas the IDO names, you can apply to go taller by adding view fencing that's no more than half opaque above the three-foot mark, up to five or six feet depending on how far it sits from the street. That takes the city's major wall-or-fence permit.

Walls can sit right on the property line, unless a corner sight triangle or an easement says otherwise.

Nothing here is permit-free. The IDO says a wall goes up only after a permit, and its wall rules cover replacing or repairing an existing wall, not just new ones. The Building Safety Division splits the work by height: walls and fences over six feet need a building permit, and shorter ones get their permit from the Zoning Counter.