Fence or deck costs in San Antonio

Here's the San Antonio rule that catches people out: build or repair more than 25 percent of a fence and you need a permit from Development Services. Patch a couple of sections and you don't. Replace most of a run after a storm and you do.

How tall it can be depends on where it stands. On a single-family lot, the front yard allows 3 feet of solid fence or 5 feet of a predominantly open one, which the City defines as at least 70 percent open to air and view. Side and rear yards top out at 6 feet. That rises to 8 feet along an alley, a railroad right-of-way or a street busier than a local one, or where your lot backs onto commercial, multifamily or park land. On a corner lot, no fence can go inside the clear-vision area measured 25 feet each way from the curb.

The permit puts the property line on you. The City says the applicant must make sure the fence is built on their own property, and points you to a plat from Bexar County or a licensed surveyor.

If your house is in one of San Antonio's historic districts, there's one more step. Any outside change to a historic-overlay property needs a Certificate of Appropriateness from the city's Office of Historic Preservation, side and rear yards included, even where nobody sees them from the street.