Fence rules in Colwood

How tall a fence may be in Colwood

Colwood does not limit the height of a residential fence. That is a finding, not a gap: the bylaw was read in full and every occurrence of the word "fence" was checked. It does not mean nothing applies — a covenant on your title, a strata bylaw, the sight line at a corner and the setbacks near water can all still stop a fence, and those are set out below.

The rules live in the Land Use Bylaw, which sets no general residential fence height. The governing document is the Land Use Bylaw No. 151, 1989 (consolidated).

How the height is measured — and why that matters more than the number

Colwood measures from not applicable — the bylaw sets no residential fence height.

Four municipalities in this region measure the same fence four different ways. A fence built to the limit under one method can be over the limit under another, which is why a contractor who works across Greater Victoria cannot carry one number in their head.

If the fence sits on a retaining wall

In Colwood: not addressed for fences; the building bylaw treats a retaining wall over 1.2 m as a structure needing a permit.

This is the single clause that most often decides a terraced lot, and the region splits on it. The City of Victoria measures from the high side of the wall, so the wall costs the owner nothing. Sidney, Saanich, Central Saanich and View Royal count the wall against the fence. Same drawing, opposite answers.

Corner lots and sight lines

Colwood answers the corner question with geometry rather than a number. A line-of-sight test: nothing wider than 0.6 m may block the view between a point 0.9 m above one road surface and an object 0.9 m above the other. The permitted height moves with the grades of the two roads. On a sloping corner there is no height to quote — only a method, which means it has to be worked out on site. What to do with that: stand at the corner and ask whoever quotes you to show you where the sight line falls on your lot and how tall the fence can be inside it, and confirm the result with Colwood in writing before the posts go in. A contractor who will not do that on a corner lot is guessing with your money.

Do you need a permit?

None for an ordinary fence. A pool fence is the exception: it needs a building permit and a $100 fee.

In ten of the thirteen Greater Victoria municipalities an ordinary residential fence needs nothing at all. The exceptions are Langford, where a fence inside a wildfire-interface or riparian development permit area needs a Development Permit; North Saanich, where a fence of 2 m or more is a "structure"; and Colwood, where a pool fence needs a building permit.

Pool enclosures

Permit required. Close-boarded lumber, chain link, solid masonry or 9 mm plywood; no foot holds or grips on the outside; no opening greater than 5 cm; gates on a self-latching spring hinge mounted inside at the top; not less than 1.5 m high with ground clearance not more than 10 cm.

A pool enclosure is the one fence rule that is a minimum rather than a maximum: no enclosure, no water.

What beats these figures in Colwood

Everything above is the general case for an ordinary lot. Each layer below can override it, and for a large minority of properties at least one does. They are not exotic — a strata bylaw, an easement and agricultural land.

A strata bylaw, or a restrictive covenant on your title: Either can forbid a fence Colwood would allow, dictate its style, height and colour, or require written approval first. Where the ground is common or limited common property you do not control it alone. If you rent, you cannot authorise a fence at all — the owner has to ask.

An easement or right of way crossing your land: A fence is generally not permitted across an easement unless that easement allows it, and it is on your title rather than in any bylaw. Search the title before you set the line.

Land in the Agricultural Land Reserve: Usually the layer people worry about and usually not the binding one: a fence is normally an ordinary farm use and the Agricultural Land Commission's own guidance does not treat one as needing an application. What does change on agricultural land is the municipal rule — several municipalities here allow a taller fence on or beside agricultural land than anywhere else. Confirm with the ALC if you are doing more than fencing.

Your zone is named on your property tax notice. Easements and covenants are on your title. The municipality will confirm both.

The trees on your fence line

Almost every fence line wants a tree or two out of the way, and in twelve of the thirteen Greater Victoria municipalities that is regulated — often more tightly than the fence itself. Colwood: Urban Forest Bylaw No. 1735, 2018 (amended to 23 June 2025).

The smallest tree that is protected here: An Arbutus, Garry Oak, Pacific Dogwood or Pacific Yew at 4 cm thick or 2 m tall. Douglas-fir, Grand Fir, Big Leaf Maple and Western Red Cedar at 30 cm DBH, and any tree at 60 cm.

What it costs to get wrong: A fine of not less than $1,000 and not more than $10,000, with each protected tree a separate offence, plus replacement trees at your own cost.

Across the region the smallest protected tree ranges from three centimetres thick in Sidney to eighty in Highlands, and Sooke is the only one of the thirteen with no tree bylaw on private property at all. Walk the line and identify what is in the way before you accept a quote, not after the posts are ordered.

What actually stops a fence in Colwood: a sapling

Colwood does not limit the height of your fence. It does protect individual trees, and the threshold is far lower than anyone expects — low enough that a tree you would not think twice about pulling out of a fence line is protected by name.

Arbutus, Garry Oak, Pacific Dogwood or Pacific Yew at just 2.0 m tall or 4.0 cm thick; Douglas-fir, Grand Fir, Big Leaf Maple or Western Red Cedar at 30 cm DBH; and ANY tree at 60 cm DBH

Read the first group again. An Arbutus or a Garry Oak is protected at four centimetres thick and two metres tall. That is a sapling, and both species are ordinary across Colwood. The Urban Forest Bylaw is also current in a way the fence rules are not: the land use bylaw dates from 1989, the tree bylaw from 2018 with amendments to June 2025.

The cost of getting it wrong is the other way round from the fence rules too. Breach the land use bylaw and the maximum is five hundred dollars. Take out a protected tree and A fine of not less than $1,000 and not more than $10,000 — and each protected tree is a separate offence, with replacement trees supplied and planted at your own cost on top.

So in Colwood the fence is the free part and the trees are not. Walk the line, identify anything that has to come out, and ask the City before a saw is started — not after the posts are ordered.

The same fence, across a municipal boundary

Greater Victoria is thirteen separate local governments and the boundary between two of them often runs down the middle of an ordinary residential street. Here is what the same fence runs into a short distance from Colwood.

If the lot touched water, Oak Bay would prohibit the fence outright where Colwood's fence rules say nothing about water.

Victoria caps a side or rear fence at 1.83 m (6.0 ft). Colwood sets no limit at all.

On a corner lot Colwood uses a line-of-sight test instead of a height; Esquimalt has no corner rule for fences at all.

Across a boundary this can stop being free: in Langford, a Development Permit is required for a fence in a required setback inside a designated Interface Fire Hazard or Riparian Development Permit Area.

None of this is a claim about which municipality borders Colwood — that is a geographic question we have not verified. It is a claim about how far apart the rules are inside one region.

Is a fence a "structure" in Colwood?

Both the land use bylaw and the building bylaw expressly exclude fences from "structure", so no structure rule reaches a fence.

It sounds like a technicality and it is not. A rule written for "structures" — a water setback, a permit trigger, a setback from a lot line — reaches a fence only where that municipality counts a fence as one. The region is split roughly down the middle.