Fence & Gate Installation in Cedar Lawn, Galveston, TX

What we install in Cedar Lawn

Cedar Lawn was Galveston’s first fully planned residential neighborhood: nine blocks replatted in the 1920s into a curving “butterfly” pattern around a round central garden, two blocks south of Broadway. Its houses face into the enclave, there are no sidewalks, and, as the City’s plan puts it, the lawns “flow unobstructed from the street to the foundation plantings.” That openness is exactly what the fence standard protects. We install:

• Metal picket fences and gates facing the street: ornamental iron, steel or aluminum with vertical pickets, including runs between brick piers.
• Wood fences in side and back yards behind the front face of the house, for privacy and pets.
• Gates: walk gates and driveway gates in metal, with openers if you want them.
• Pool barriers in back yards.

The Cedar Lawn fence standard

The Cedar Lawn Neighborhood Conservation Plan, adopted by City Council on September 14, 2017 (Ord. 17-057), adds design standards on top of the City’s Land Development Regulations. For fences it says:

• Facing Cedar Lawn streets: fences “shall be constructed of a building material that has the appearance of brick, masonry or shall be metal with vertical pickets consistent with the design of the existing communal gates/fence.”
• Wood fences “shall be allowed when located in front and side yards behind the front face of the house.”
• Non-compliant fences that existed when the standard was adopted can stay until they are removed or destroyed. A replacement in the same location may use the identical material if it goes up within three years of the removal and there has been no change of ownership since the standard was adopted.
• Repairs that are ordinary maintenance, using the same material and design, are exempt.

The plan also caps new detached accessory structures at the height of the main house, sets a 30-foot minimum front setback for buildings, and leaves side and rear setbacks to the base zoning (R-0). Other Galveston neighborhoods have different rules; see Silk Stocking, the East End and Lost Bayou, which have their own district rules.

Height: the City rules still apply

The conservation plan sets materials, not heights, so the City’s residential fence limits in LDR Sec. 2.501 apply:

• Front yard: 4 feet for a solid fence or wall, or 5 feet if it is at least 60% transparent. A masonry-look wall is solid; open vertical pickets usually reach 60%.
• Side and rear: up to 8 feet at a house.

Deed restrictions can be stricter, and the City’s fence permit asks you to certify that the fence doesn’t break them.

Permit and review

There’s no separate Cedar Lawn application. You apply for the regular City of Galveston fence permit, which asks whether the fence is in the Cedar Lawn Neighborhood Conservation District. Development Services’ Planning and Development Division reviews the request against the design standards and approves it when it conforms.

If you disagree with staff’s decision, you can appeal to the Landmark Commission with a written request to the Director of Development Services no later than the 10th day after the decision.

From estimate to finished fence: a free on-site estimate (fence line, front face of the house, gates, trees and roots, the existing fence), a design that fits the standard and the height rules, the City permit, then installation. What affects cost and timing: length and height, material, the number and width of gates, piers or masonry by others, removing an old fence, and how long the permit review takes. Financing is available through the providers on our financing page, subject to credit approval.

Questions we get about this