Upper Dublin Township fence rules

From Upper Dublin Zoning § 255-24, the township Permit Price List (rev. 6/18/21), Permit Application Guidelines and above-ground pool permit guide.

Why front-yard fences need a gate in Upper Dublin

When a fence sits in the front setback, there’s a strip of your lawn between the fence and the street that you’re responsible for maintaining. The code makes sure you can reach it: every front-setback fence needs an operable gate at least 36 in wide giving access to that strip, at least one per street frontage, plus another for every 500 ft of fencing along a street. On a typical Dresher or Maple Glen lot that means one walk gate facing the road; on a corner lot, two.

The corner-lot exception

Because the front setback runs along every street, a corner lot’s side yard is held to 4 ft too. Upper Dublin offers a way to screen it: a solid fence up to 6 ft is allowed in the front setback along an arterial or primary street when all of these are true:

• The screened area really works as the home’s back yard.
• The fence looks like wood, brick or stone.
• It sits at least 1 ft back from the right-of-way.
• Backdrop landscaping softens it from the street.
• The street isn’t a designated scenic road corridor.

Busy roads such as Welsh Road (Route 63) and Limekiln Pike (Route 152) run through the township, but the code decides which streets count as arterial or primary and which are scenic corridors. We confirm your street’s class before designing a 6 ft corner fence.

Storms, Sandy Run and post depth

Upper Dublin grew from about 6,000 people to nearly 20,000 between the 1950s and 1970, so much of the housing is post-war development on former farmland, and nearly the whole township drains to Wissahickon Creek. Sandy Run rises in Dresher and Roslyn and runs through the township to Fort Washington State Park. On September 1, 2021, Ida’s remnants spun up an EF-2 tornado with peak winds near 130 mph that ran from Fort Washington toward Horsham; it took the roof off the township building on Loch Alsh Avenue. Fences on exposed lots here earn their keep with deep footings and stout posts. Our storm-ready fence guide goes into it.

Deer are the other local pressure. The township began a police-run deer management pilot in 2009, and officers answered more than 680 deer-related calls in its first 6.5 years. With the 6 ft cap in required setbacks, a taller deer fence takes careful planning; see our deer fencing guide.

Pool fences

The township’s pool guide asks for a barrier at least 4 ft high, either on the ground or on top of an above-ground pool, and a separate $50 fence zoning permit. If the fence sits on top of the pool, the ladder must be collapsible with a latch. If the house forms part of the barrier, doors into the pool area need alarms. Above-ground pools sit at least 10 ft from all property lines and structures.

Filing the permit

Upper Dublin no longer offers paper permit applications. Fence permits go through the township’s OpenGov portal at upperdublin.net/permits, with a plot plan showing where the fence will go. A contractor has to finish the township’s Contractor Registration before a permit can be submitted. The fee on the 2021 price list is $50 for new and replacement fences.

What we haven’t confirmed

• Upper Dublin’s clear-sight-triangle, pool zoning and barbed or electric fence provisions; we couldn’t locate them in the online code.
• Whether the $50 fee is still current; the price list is dated 2021.

Checked October 2026 against Upper Dublin’s § 255-24 and township permit documents. Codes change, so we confirm with the zoning office before every install. These rules cover Dresher, Fort Washington, Jarrettown, part of Maple Glen and parts of the Ambler ZIP outside the borough, plus small edges of the Abington, Glenside, Willow Grove and Flourtown/Oreland ZIPs. For neighbors’ rules, see PA fence permits. We’ll mark the gate location on your plot plan at the estimate.

Common questions