Bay Harbor Islands fence, wall & gate installs — built to the Town's own code, hedge and all.

Serving the Town of Bay Harbor Islands — an incorporated island municipality in Miami-Dade County, FL.

Bay Harbor Islands is a planned two-island town in Biscayne Bay, stitched together by Kane Concourse and tied to the mainland by the Broad Causeway. It holds one of the densest concentrations of Miami Modern (MiMo) architecture anywhere, and the Town guards that open, leafy look with a fence code most homeowners have never read: a six-foot cap, no chain link out front, a hedge required with every fence, and a Design Review Board that signs off on walls. A Bay Harbor Islands fence is won on design and paperwork before a post is set — and Allday Fence is a licensed specialty fence contractor — fences, concrete walls, and columns — with 18 years of experience filing in exactly these Miami-Dade offices.

Why a fence is different in Bay Harbor Islands

In most of Miami-Dade you set a six-foot fence and the front yard barely comes up. In Bay Harbor Islands the street elevation is the whole conversation. The Town wrote its fence rules — Sec. 23-12(22) of the zoning code — to keep the mid-century, garden-street character open to the sidewalk instead of walled off, and it enforces them through its own Design Review Board. Under Sec. 23-12(22)(a), no wall or fence goes up until the Town approves its height, type, design, and location — and walls specifically require Design Review Board approval.

That produces a design problem out-of-town crews rarely see coming. A front fence can’t be a solid six-foot wall: inside the front setback only three feet of solid, opaque surface is allowed, and the rest of the height has to be open, non-opaque material — wrought iron, aluminum, decorative open-weave block. Every fence and wall has to be planted with a hedge at the same time. And on the many waterfront and canal lots, the code flips the usual geometry — the “rear” setback is the side abutting the street, and the water side has to stay 75 percent see-through. Get the street elevation wrong and it doesn’t clear review.

So the answer here is almost never “how tall.” It’s how to get privacy and security while respecting a low solid line, an open decorative top, a mandatory hedge, and a design board that reads the whole street. We design to that from the first sketch instead of discovering it at plan review.

Where we work inside Bay Harbor Islands

The Town is small, walkable, and split across two islands connected by Kane Concourse (State Road 922 / 96th Street) — the landscaped spine that carries the Town’s business district of shops, restaurants, offices, and banks. One island is the quiet single-family residential grid of MiMo homes on bayfront and canal-front lots; the other carries the Town’s mid-rise condominiums and multi-family buildings, civic uses, and the Ruth K. Broad Bay Harbor K-8 Center. (Which of the two islands carries the single-family grid versus the multi-family side varies by source, so we confirm the exact designation for your parcel against the Town’s zoning map before we quote — the two islands and Kane Concourse between them are settled.) West of the Town, the Broad (Shepard Broad) Causeway runs to North Miami; to the east, Bay Harbor Islands sits just across the water from Bal Harbour, Surfside, and Indian Creek Village. Many single-family lots back onto seawalled canals and the open bay, and several corner-lot blocks (the code names Blocks 30, 31, 33 and 34) carry their own setback figures. Allday builds to the Town code first, and to the waterfront and corner conditions that sit on top of it.

Fence permit rules in Bay Harbor Islands

Everything below is the general framework for a residential fence, wall, or gate in the Town of Bay Harbor Islands, drawn from the Town’s own Code of Ordinances — zoning Sec. 23-12(22) and building-code Sec. 5-8 and Sec. 5-5(f) (codified through Resolution No. 2479, April 9, 2025). Heights, materials, hedging, and the design read vary by parcel, zoning, waterfront condition, and Design Review Board discretion — Allday Fence confirms the current Town code against your exact address before we quote, and we pull the permit. Where a figure comes straight off the Town code we cite the section it lives in; where it depends on department discretion or on wording the code doesn’t spell out, we confirm the current requirement with the Building & Zoning Department for your exact parcel before we quote.

A permit is required. A fence, wall, or gate in Bay Harbor Islands is a Town building permit — Sec. 23-12(22)(h) makes installation or maintenance of any wall or fence require a permit, applied through the Town’s Citizenserve online construction-permit portal or in person at the Building & Zoning Department. There is no no-permit tier.

Height — the Town’s cap:

• Setback areas, townwide: no wall or fence may exceed six feet above the average finished grade of the adjoining lots.

• Abutting Kane Concourse: privacy walls or fences abutting Kane Concourse may be seven feet.

• Decorative columns may be built up to one foot higher than the wall or fence.

• Front setback — the opacity rule that governs the look: inside the front setback (adjoining any street), no more than three feet of solid, opaque surface above grade; the balance up to the maximum height must be non-opaque (wrought iron, aluminum, decorative open-weave concrete or clay, glass block), and not more than 75 percent of that overall front surface may be opaque.

• Corner lots: for a corner lot, a fence in the side yard facing a street is treated by the code as a front (street) yard condition for the hedge rule — those sides must be planted with hedge material. We design the corner street-side elevation to the same front-condition standards (opacity, materials) and confirm the exact corner treatment for your parcel with Building & Zoning before we set a corner post.

• Corner-lot street setbacks (named blocks): the zoning schedule sets its own street-setback figures for corner lots in Blocks 30, 31, 33 and 34 (35 feet from any street).

• Uniformity: heights are measured base-to-top and must be uniform and follow the land’s contour; portions may vary by no more than four inches in any ten-foot section for changing slope.

The two-foot street setback (not a classic sight triangle). Bay Harbor Islands does not publish a numbered corner “safe-sight triangle” the way the county code does. Instead, a fence or wall in a front or side street setback may not sit in the public right-of-way nor closer than two feet to the property line, and that two-foot strip must be landscaped. Corner visibility is handled through that street setback, the street-side-yard treatment, the front-opacity rule, and Design Review Board judgment. We confirm the exact corner and driveway sightline expectations for your parcel with the Building & Zoning Department before we set a corner post. The two-foot setback is set by the Town code; the code carries no numeric fence sight-triangle, so corner visibility is a department and Design-Review judgment we confirm per parcel.

The mandatory hedge — a genuine Bay Harbor Islands signature. Every fence and wall must have hedge material installed at the same time — planted along the full length (except at gates), at a planting height of at least 50 percent of the fence/wall height, with plants no more than two feet apart center-to-center, in a species that will grow to equal or exceed the fence height and hide it. A front-yard fence built without side fencing still has to have its sides hedged. A landscaping plan is a required part of the submittal.

Material and design:

• Finished side faces out. The finished side of a wood fence must face the street or the adjoining property, with the exposed structural columns facing the interior of your lot.
• No chain link in the front yard. Chain-link or wire fence may not extend beyond the imaginary extension of the front building wall to the side property line — i.e., none in the front yard setback. Where chain link is permitted elsewhere, only green or black vinyl-clad material is allowed.
• Walls are architectural. Stuccoed walls must be finished with architectural features on both sides (banding, quoins), compatible with the main building; plain, large unbroken wall surfaces are prohibited. Brick, stone, coral, glass block, and metal accents are encouraged.
• Common property line: all footers and support structures stay on your property unless the neighbor consents in writing; written adjoining-owner permission is required to build on a shared line.

A concrete wall is a bigger animal than a fence — and it’s in our license. A CBS / concrete-block or poured wall in Bay Harbor Islands — and taller stuccoed garden walls in particular — generally carries more than a fabric fence does: engineer-sealed structural drawings, a footing/foundation detail, and wind-load / product-approval documentation, on top of the Design Review Board’s architectural sign-off and the front-opacity read. Decorative concrete columns and pillars (which the code lets you build up to one foot above the fence or wall) are engineered the same way. Allday is a licensed specialty fence contractor whose scope covers fences, concrete walls, and columns — so we produce the wall engineering and pull the permit under one contractor of record, instead of handing you off. The exact height at which a given wall triggers added structural detailing, and the precise product-approval wording, are things we confirm with the Building & Zoning Department and our structural engineer for your specific wall.

Waterfront lots — the flipped geometry. For waterfront properties, the Town’s fence provisions apply to the rear yard setback, which is the portion abutting the street (the home fronts the water). For any wall, fence, or hedge in the rear setback to the seawall — including one parallel to the seawall or on an adjoining dock — at least 75 percent must be see-through to the water.

Pool-barrier fences. All pools in Bay Harbor Islands must be enclosed by a safety barrier (Sec. 5-8): minimum height four feet, non-climbable and impenetrable, with a spring-lock, self-closing gate that latches automatically and is locked when the pool is not in use. Sec. 5-8 sends any pool fence that isn’t a screen enclosure back to the fence rules of Sec. 23-12(22) — and Sec. 23-12(22)(c) adds that any fence or wall at a property with a pool must have a self-closing gate with a child-safe latch at least four feet above grade. A pool permit and its barrier permit are pulled together, and the pool gets no final inspection and can’t be filled until the barrier is up. Doing pool-adjacent work, or work exceeding 30 percent of the property’s assessed value, triggers bringing an older barrier into current conformity. See our pool-code barrier fencing.

Hurricane-zone product approval (all of Miami-Dade). Bay Harbor Islands, like every municipality in the county, sits in the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, and the Town has adopted the Florida Building Code. A manufactured aluminum, PVC, or vinyl fence system proves it meets wind load through a current Florida Product Approval or a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance (NOA), and masonry walls, columns, and gate posts need engineer-sealed structural and wind-load detailing. The exact product-approval wording the Town wants on the fence submittal we confirm with Building & Zoning for your specific system.

Survey. Before a permit issues, Sec. 23-12(22)(i) requires the applicant to submit a property survey verifying the proposed fence or wall location.

Temporary construction fencing. A build or substantial renovation requires an eight-foot chain-link construction fence with Town-adopted decorative screening mesh (mesh waived on the West Island), on its own fence permit, inspected and closed out before the building permit issues; demolition sites require a six-foot screened chain-link fence.

Fees and timeline. The Town has not published a flat fence fee or a fence-specific processing time, and we don’t print numbers we can’t stand behind — permit fees in Bay Harbor Islands are valuation-based and confirmed with the department. A permit becomes invalid if work isn’t commenced within six months of issuance (Florida Building Code). We confirm current cost and turnaround with Building & Zoning at 305-993-1786 as part of your quote.

Framing line: Heights, the front-opacity read, the mandatory hedge, waterfront see-through, and pool-barrier details vary by parcel, zoning, and Design Review Board discretion — we confirm the current Bay Harbor Islands code for your exact address before we quote, and we pull the permit.

The permitting authority — and who it is NOT

Bay Harbor Islands permits through its own Building & Zoning Department at 1045 95th Street, Trailer 3 — not Miami-Dade County RER, which handles only unincorporated parcels. The Building Official is Alexander Garcia; the Department Manager is Ayanidys J. Martinez. A fence runs the standard Town reviews off one submittal — building/structural for the fence detail, zoning for height, the two-foot street setback, and the opacity read, plus the Design Review Board on any wall — and is inspected before close-out. We file it, work any corrections, walk the inspections, and close the permit against the property record.

The Design Review Board layer

Bay Harbor Islands doesn’t leave fence design to chance. Its Design Review Board (Town Code Ch. 5, Art. II) reviews plans for architectural and aesthetic harmony, and the fence code puts fences and walls squarely inside that judgment: the Town decides whether a wall or fence is “appropriate and harmonious to the other buildings, structures, walls, fences and overall design of the town,” and walls require the Board’s approval outright. This is a municipal design overlay — different from a private HOA, and stricter than most of Miami-Dade. Some of the Town’s condominium and multi-family buildings carry their own association architectural approval on top of the Town permit as well. Before we design a Bay Harbor Islands fence, we build the drawings to the tightest rule on your parcel — the Town’s design standard first, plus any association sign-off where it applies — so the package clears review the first time.

How an Allday Bay Harbor Islands project runs

1. Property record first. Before we quote, we run a MyHausFax™ property compliance report on your parcel to surface permit history, open permits, seawall/waterfront constraints, and any recorded restriction — so we’re designing against the real record, not a guess.
2. Design to the Town read. A low solid base within the three-foot opaque limit and an open decorative top; the six-foot line (or seven feet only where it abuts Kane Concourse) on the sides and rear; the hedge line drawn in from the start; and, on a waterfront lot, a see-through treatment on the water side.
3. Full package filed. Property survey, landscaping/hedge plan, color and material samples, wall architectural drawings or wood-fence style detail, product approvals / engineer detailing for HVHZ, and any adjoining-owner consent — assembled the way Building & Zoning and the Design Review Board expect.
4. Corrections and Design Review cleared. We answer building, structural, and zoning comments and carry any wall through the Design Review Board.
5. Install + inspections. Built to the approved plans and hedged simultaneously; inspections walked with the Town inspector, including the pool-barrier safety inspection where a pool is involved.
6. Permit closed. Closed against the property record in writing — nothing left open to surface at a sale, a refinance, or a four-point inspection. If a fence, wall, or pool barrier is already up without a permit, our sister company Permit Solutions Services runs the after-the-fact / legalization path.

What Allday installs in Bay Harbor Islands

Low solid-base-with-open-top front-yard fencing built to the three-foot opacity rule, six-foot wood and aluminum privacy on the sides and rear, architectural CBS / concrete-block and stuccoed privacy walls finished with features on both sides, decorative concrete columns and pillars engineered and permitted with the run, pool-code barrier fencing built non-climbable to the Town’s four-foot minimum and child-safe-latch standard, see-through seawall and dock-adjacent runs for waterfront lots, gated entries with compliant decorative columns, commercial and multi-family / association fencing along the Kane Concourse district, and fence repair and storm restoration across both islands. As a licensed specialty fence contractor — fences, concrete walls, and columns — Allday handles the wall engineering in-scope, not as a subcontract. Every job is a permit-tied install — designed to the Town code, hedged, product-approved where required, Design-Review-Board-cleared on walls, pulled, and finaled.

Also serving nearby in Miami-Dade County

Bay Harbor Islands sits in the north-Biscayne corridor beside several markets we work every week. Two Miami-Dade neighbors with their own permitting quirks:

• North Miami Beach fence contractor — across the Broad Causeway corridor to the northwest, with its own building department and process.
• Miami Shores fence contractor — the garden-suburb Village to the southwest, where a 3’6” front-yard cap and an alley trash-area rule govern the fence.

Allday Fence is a licensed specialty fence contractor — fences, concrete walls, and columns — serving Miami-Dade County only. With 18 years of experience in these exact county and municipal offices, we file, final, and close every permit against the property record — including Bay Harbor Islands’ hedged front elevations, its waterfront see-through runs, and its Design-Review-Board walls.

Reviewed by Victor L. Moreno, Chief Compliance Officer, before publish. This page is general guidance, not a code determination for any specific parcel — Allday Fence confirms the current Town of Bay Harbor Islands code for your exact address before quoting. Allday Fence is a licensed specialty fence contractor (fences, concrete walls, and columns) and the contractor of record (NOC / lien entity) on Town permits.