There is no single Grayson County fence rule. Each city sets its own, and the differences are large enough to matter — a fence that is straightforward in one town needs a permit and a site plan in the next.
What follows is what we have been able to confirm from each city’s own published material. Rules change, and this page is not a substitute for asking your city. Where we could not verify something, we say so rather than guessing.
Sherman
Sherman requires a site plan for a fence or screening device, submitted to the Development Services department, before work begins.
- Side and rear property lines: screening fences are limited to eight feet.
- Front yards in non-residential districts: no fence or screening device may exceed four feet, and it must be decorative with openings across at least fifty percent of its area.
- Patio screens and walls serving a purpose other than line fencing may exceed six feet inside the allowable main building area, up to ten feet.
The front-yard rule as published turns on the zoning district. Because of that, it is genuinely worth confirming how your particular lot is zoned rather than assuming the four-foot figure applies to every front yard in the city.
Denison
Denison has the most clearly published requirements of the five, and one threshold that surprises people.
- Maximum height: eight feet.
- Past the front of the house: four feet maximum, and it must be fifty percent open.
- A permit is required for new fence construction, replacement of an existing fence, and repair of an existing fence involving twenty feet or more.
- Application: a site plan showing the fence location with dimensions from property lines and other structures.
- Handled by: the Building Inspection Division.
That twenty-foot repair threshold is the one to watch. Replacing a run of storm-damaged panels along one side of a yard passes twenty feet very easily, and a lot of people reasonably assume a repair does not need paperwork.
Denison’s fence ordinance carries further detail, including on materials. We have seen conflicting information online about material restrictions in Denison — including material that appears to describe Denison, Iowa rather than Denison, Texas — so we are not going to repeat specifics we could not verify from the city itself. Ask the Building Inspection Division.
Van Alstyne
Van Alstyne became a home rule city in May 2022, which gave it substantially more control over its own planning and development standards, and its fence provisions sit within the zoning chapter of the city code.
The practical reality here is different from the other four towns. Van Alstyne is overwhelmingly new-build, and on a new subdivision lot the city ordinance is frequently not the binding constraint. The subdivision’s recorded restrictions and the builder’s approved plat usually specify height, material, colour and placement more tightly than the city does — and both apply simultaneously.
Because the code has been revised repeatedly as the town has grown, do not rely on what a neighbour was told two phases ago. Confirm current requirements with the city for your address.
Howe and Whitesboro
Both are small cities where fence work goes through city hall directly rather than through a layered development services process. That usually means a faster and simpler path than Sherman or Denison — but it also means far less is published online, and requirements have to be established by asking rather than by looking up.
We have not been able to verify specific published height limits for either city, and we are not going to invent them. Call the city.
For both, there is a more important question first: is the property inside the city limits at all? A large share of fencing around Howe and Whitesboro is on land outside them, where no city ordinance applies and the governing constraints are county requirements and whatever deed restrictions are recorded against the tract. Establishing which side of the line you are on is the first step, not a detail.
Two approvals, not one
Whatever city you are in, remember that a city permit and an HOA approval are entirely separate things with different rules, different timelines and different people. In a covenant neighbourhood the HOA is frequently the stricter of the two, and it is the one more likely to make you take a fence down. We cover that in a separate guide.
And before the first hole
Call 811. Free, required across Texas, and it takes a couple of days to come back. Fence posts go deep enough to find utilities, and finding one the hard way is both expensive and dangerous.