What a wood fence has to survive in the Portneuf Valley
A privacy fence is a solid wall, and a solid wall is the hardest shape to keep standing in a place that gets wind, drifting snow and a deep annual freeze. Everything that goes wrong with wood fence here traces back to one of those three, and almost all of it shows up at the post rather than in the panel.
The City of Pocatello publishes its design criteria openly, and three of the published figures matter directly to a fence:
| Published criterion | Value |
|---|---|
| Frost Level | 3 feet |
| Ground Snow Load | 45 pounds |
| Design Wind Speed | 115 MPH per 3 second gusts |
Those numbers are published for building construction. Whether the three-foot frost level is applied to fence post holes specifically, rather than to structural footings, is a question for the Building Department at 208-234-6158 — and it is the single question we would want answered before quoting a depth on your property. We would rather confirm it than repeat an assumption, and no website, including this one, should be your source for that answer.
The permit is not optional, and it is not just ours to worry about
Pocatello’s fence ordinance is unusually direct. Section 15.28.010 reads:
“No person shall erect or construct, or cause to be erected or constructed, any fence within the city without having been issued a permit by the building department prior to such erection or construction.”
There is no exemption for short runs, low fences or replacing what was already there. The same section allows the permit to be issued in the contractor’s name, then adds that nothing in the chapter relieves the person hiring the contractor of the obligation to ascertain that a permit was issued. In practice that means it is worth asking to see it.
The application is a site plan, and 15.28.020 specifies what has to be on it: names, addresses and phone numbers for both the property owner and the fence contractor; the project address; a statement of the materials; and a diagram showing property lines and site dimensions, the proposed fence location, the length of the fence lines, the height of each section, and where materials differ from section to section.
The permit fee is set annually by resolution of the city council, so it is a current figure to confirm rather than one to carry over from last year.
Height, setbacks and the sight triangles
Chapter 15.28 sets out the limits that decide what you can actually build where:
- Seven feet is the maximum height for any fence in the city (15.28.030(A)).
- Four feet within the area designated for a front setback by the zoning ordinance (15.28.030(E)).
- Four feet in the side setback of a corner lot where the corner lot’s rear lot line abuts the side property line of a lot facing the side street (15.28.030(F)).
- Three feet above the existing centreline street elevation within the sight triangle formed from the intersection of the edges of two intersecting streets, for forty feet in each direction (15.28.030(G)).
- Three feet within the sight triangle at an alley corner, ten feet in each direction (15.28.030(H)).
The sight triangle is where solid wood runs into a real constraint. At three feet, a privacy fence stops being a privacy fence. Subsection G gives the building official discretion to approve chainlink or similar open fences up to four feet there if the sight obstruction will not create a traffic hazard — which is a door open to open fence types, not to solid panel. On a corner lot this often means the wood fence stops short and something more transparent carries the corner.
Chapter 15.28 also includes diagrams for corner lots and lots bordering alleys. If your lot is either, those diagrams are worth looking at before you settle on a layout.
Wood is on the acceptable materials list
For fences in residential, residential/commercial/professional and commercial general zones, 15.28.030(J)(1) requires that materials be architecturally compatible with the neighbourhood, and lists what is generally acceptable: chainlink, split rail, wood fabricated primarily as fencing material, vegetation and hedges, masonry, brick or cinder block, and ornamental iron.
Wood being named there is worth more than it sounds. Materials that are not on that list run into 15.28.030(J)(2), which routes them through the minor exception procedure — and that procedure asks for written consent from every adjacent property owner. A wood fence skips that entirely.
Where wood is the wrong answer
We would rather say this here than after you have paid for it:
- A three-foot sight triangle corner. Solid panel at three feet gives you no privacy and interrupts the line. An open fence type belongs there.
- Long exposed runs on open ground. A solid six-foot panel in the wind, with nothing upwind of it, is asking a lot of the posts. Shadowbox, a lower height, or an open type will hold up better.
- Where snow gets plowed or drifted against the line. Solid panel collects and holds it. If the run is along a driveway edge or a street, that load is real.
- Livestock containment. Wood privacy fence is not stock fence. That is a different build entirely.
Sources
Every code citation and published figure on this page comes from a primary source:
- City of Pocatello — General Building Information (frost level, ground snow load, design wind speed, climate zone, adopted codes)
- Pocatello, ID Code of Ordinances — Chapter 15.28 Fence Construction (permit requirement, site plan contents, height limits, sight triangles, acceptable materials)
Pocatello Building Department: 208-234-6158.