Fence rules in Highlands

How tall a fence may be in Highlands

In the street-facing part of a lot a fence may not exceed 2.5 m (8.2 ft). Highlands measures that zone within 10 m of ANY lot line — Highlands does not use front, side or rear at all. Elsewhere on the lot the maximum is 5 m (16.4 ft).

The rules live in Zoning Bylaw s. 3.2(2), with s. 3.3 overriding it. The governing document is the Zoning Bylaw No. 100, 1998 (consolidated June 15, 2026).

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

Highlands measures from the natural ground level of the land BEFORE the fence was built or the land was altered — so berming up and building on top buys nothing.

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 Highlands: not addressed.

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

Highlands's bylaw contains no corner-visibility rule for fences. Searched the full text for "sight triangle" and "sight line": no occurrence. Highlands is the only municipality read with no corner-visibility rule for fences.

Do you need a permit?

None for a residential fence.

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.

If your lot touches water

Prohibited within 30 m of the sea, of nine named lakes, of any other lake, pond or wetland, and of five named creeks or any other watercourse. The clause overrides everything else in the bylaw.

This is where the thirteen disagree most sharply. Highlands and View Royal prohibit a fence outright within 30 m of fresh water; Central Saanich expressly exempts fences from its marine setback. Knowing which side of a municipal boundary you are on changes the answer completely.

How do you know whether you are inside it? The distance is measured from the natural boundary, and that is not the edge of the water on the day you look — it is the line the water has marked on the ground over time, and on a creek it can sit well back from today's flow. You cannot pace it out and be safe. The people who establish it are a BC land surveyor, or a Qualified Environmental Professional where the Riparian Areas Regulation applies, and several of these bylaws name a QEP themselves. If your lot touches a creek, a ditch that runs most of the year, a pond or the sea, get that line located before you price a fence — it is cheaper than moving one, and in Highlands it may decide whether there is a fence at all.

Pool enclosures

A true minimum: the enclosure must be no less than 1.5 m above grade, with a self-closing gate whose self-latching device locks at least 1.0 m above grade, and the base of the fence not more than 100 mm above the ground.

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 Highlands

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 particular zone, a creek or the shoreline, a strata bylaw, an easement and agricultural land.

Commercial and industrial zones: 2.4 m maximum, and trees, shrubs or vines must cover at least half the street side of the fence.

Any part of the lot near the sea, a lake, a pond, a wetland or a watercourse: Highlands does not permit a fence there at all. A ditch that runs most of the year can be a watercourse, and the distance is measured from the natural boundary, which is not the edge of the water today.

A strata bylaw, or a restrictive covenant on your title: Either can forbid a fence Highlands 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. Highlands: Tree Management Bylaw No. 10, 1994 (consolidated).

The smallest tree that is protected here: A Garry Oak, Arbutus, Pacific Dogwood, Pacific Yew, Cascara or Manzanita of any size at all. A Douglas Fir over 60 cm in diameter, and any other tree over 80 cm.

What it costs to get wrong: A fine not exceeding $10,000 on summary conviction.

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.

The waterbodies Highlands names by name

The thirty-metre prohibition is not a general gesture at water. The bylaw lists nine lakes and five creeks, and then catches everything else with "any other lake, pond or wetland" and "any other watercourse". If your address is near one of these, that rule decides your fence line before any height rule does:

Fizzle Lake · Fork Lake · Mary Lake · Matson Lake · Mitchell Lake · Pease Lake · Second Lake · Teanook Lake · Third Lake · Millstream Creek · Craigflower Creek · Earsman Creek · Hazlitt Creek · Pease Creek

Being absent from this list is not a safe answer: the bylaw also covers any other lake, pond, wetland or watercourse, and the sea. The named ones are simply the ones you can check without a site visit.

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 Highlands.

Near water the two are opposites: Highlands prohibits a fence outright, Central Saanich expressly exempts fences from its marine setback.

Highlands does not use front, side or rear at all: 2.5 m within 10 m of any lot line and 5 m beyond that. Victoria works by yard instead, and caps a side or rear fence at 1.83 m.

On a corner lot Highlands has no corner rule for fences at all; Sooke forbids a fence in the sight triangle entirely.

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 Highlands — 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 Highlands?

"Structure" excludes only surfacing and signs, so a fence is a structure — which is what makes the 30 m water prohibition reach it.

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.