South Miami · Miami-Dade County · Service area

Fence, wall & gate installs in the City of South Miami — designed to clear the ERPB.

Serving the City of South Miami — an incorporated municipality in Miami-Dade County, FL.

The City of South Miami is a compact, walkable city of tree-lined blocks tucked between Coral Gables and the University of Miami, incorporated in 1927 and still marketed as “The City of Pleasant Living.” It runs its own Planning & Zoning counter and its own design-review board — the Environmental Review and Preservation Board (ERPB) — which signs off on fences before the Building Department will issue a permit. That two-step, design review then permit, is what makes a South Miami fence its own kind of project. Allday Fence is a licensed specialty fence contractor — fences, concrete walls, and columns — with 18 years of experience filing in exactly these offices.

Why a fence is different in the City of South Miami

In most of Miami-Dade you pull a permit and set a fence. In South Miami you clear a design review first, then a permit. The ERPB — the same board that reviews new construction, two-story additions, exterior renovations, paint colors, landscaping, and signage — has its own fence submittal, and its approval is expressly not authorization to begin work. A building permit still has to come out of the Building Department afterward, and if you don’t apply for that permit within six months the ERPB approval lapses (Land Development Code §20-5.11(L)).

The practical version: a plain fence that goes over the counter in unincorporated Kendall gets looked at in South Miami — for its material, its color, which side faces the street, and how it sits on a small lot next to its neighbors. South Miami’s zoning is also written to keep the street edge open rather than walled off, through a four-foot street-facing limit and a sixty-percent-open-area rule for anything taller. We design to that from the first sketch instead of discovering it at review.

Where we work inside South Miami

South Miami packs a lot of different fence problems into a few square miles. Around the Hometown District downtown — the walkable core along Sunset Drive (SW 72nd Street) near The Shops at Sunset Place and the South Miami Metrorail station — lots are tight and street-facing frontage is scrutinized. In the Cambridge Lawns Historic District, a 1920s enclave of Tudor-Revival and Mediterranean cottages near the University of Miami, a fence has to sit right against a genuinely historic streetscape. The blocks around South Miami Hospital and the Red Road (SW 57th Avenue) corridor mix homes with medical and office use, and the residential pockets near Dante Fascell Park, Fuchs Park, Brewer Park, and the Twin Lakes area off US-1 (South Dixie Highway) each carry their own setbacks and corner conditions. On any of them, the fence job usually breaks into three: a street-facing elevation the ERPB will judge, interior privacy runs, and — where there’s a pool — a safety barrier on its own line of the code.

We measure first. Then we build. Every South Miami install starts with a MyHausFax™ property compliance report so we know the parcel’s permit history, open permits, setbacks, and any recorded restrictions before a post hole is ever marked.

Fence permit rules in the City of South Miami

Everything below is the general framework for a residential fence, wall, gate, or hedge in South Miami, drawn from the City’s own Land Development Code, §20-3.6 (Supplemental Regulations) — subsections (G) Triangles of Visibility, (H) Physical Barriers, and (J) Swimming Pools — as codified on the official Municode library. Heights, materials, and setbacks vary by parcel, zoning district, and any historic or recorded restriction — Allday Fence confirms the current code against your exact address before we quote, and we pull the permit. A few details that aren’t fixed in the official code text — current fees, the ERPB meeting cadence, and the exact product-approval wording on the City’s fence checklist — we confirm directly with the Building Department for your parcel rather than state as settled, so nothing here reads as a promise we haven’t checked.

A permit is required — and design review comes first. A South Miami fence is a building permit out of the Building Department, and for most work the ERPB has to approve the design before that permit issues. There is no over-the-counter, no-permit tier. (City of South Miami Building Department and the official ERPB application.) Whether a small interior-only replacement can skip ERPB is worth confirming with Planning & Zoning for the specific job — we check that for your fence before we quote.

Height — the street edge is the headline difference (Land Development Code §20-3.6(H)(2)):

Interior side and rear yards: a fence, wall, or trellis (excluding arbors) may be up to 6 ft above grade. (§20-3.6(H)(2)(b).)
Along any street frontage — the setback areas adjacent to a right-of-way, which on a corner lot means both frontages — and along the part of a rear setback that abuts an adjoining property’s front yard: the limit drops to 4 ft above grade. (§20-3.6(H)(2)(c).)
Going above 4 ft along the street is allowed only if the portion between 4 and 6 ft is at least 60 percent open:
- A wood fence taller than 4 ft along a right-of-way in a front setback must keep a minimum 60% open area between 4 and 6 ft. (§(H)(2)(c)(i).)
- A masonry wall taller than 4 ft along a right-of-way must likewise keep 60% open between 4 and 6 ft, and no solid masonry section above 4 ft may exceed 16 inches in width — so it reads as vertical supports carrying open metal, lattice, or other non-masonry screening. (§(H)(2)(c)(ii).)
- Gates along the street may add 3 ft above grade if that upper 3 ft is a uniform pattern at least 60% open. (§(H)(2)(c)(iii).)
- Light fixtures may extend up to 16 inches above the maximum barrier height on single-family residential property. (§(H)(2)(c)(vi).)
Nonresidential property: fences, walls, trellises, or hedges may be up to 8 ft above grade (hedges up to 12 ft in the Religious District). (§20-3.6(H)(2)(d).)

Placement. All fences, walls, trellises, and hedges may be erected on or along the property line but may not extend into a public right-of-way or project over an adjoining property. (§20-3.6(H)(1).)

Chain link, barbed wire, and electric fences:

No chain link on required yards adjacent to a right-of-way — it is an interior side-and-rear material only, never a front or corner-frontage fence. (§20-3.6(H)(2)(a).)
Barbed wire is prohibited, except on a fence or wall over 6 ft with a maximum 16-inch top extension carrying no more than three strands; electrically charged fences are not permitted in any district. (§20-3.6(H)(3).)

Finished side faces out. South Miami is explicit about orientation: the ERPB fence drawings must indicate that the finished side of the fence faces the outside of the property on which it’s built. (official ERPB fence submittal, item 6.)

Corner and driveway visibility (the “triangle of visibility,” §20-3.6(G)):

On a corner lot in a residential district, nothing may be erected, planted, or parked that blocks the view between 3 ft and 6 ft in height within the triangle formed by the two intersecting street right-of-way lines and a diagonal drawn 20 ft back from their point of intersection. (§20-3.6(G)(1).)
At a driveway or alley meeting a street, the same 3-to-6-ft clear band applies within a triangle drawn 10 ft back from the intersection, measured along the interior pavement edge of the driveway. (§20-3.6(G)(2).)
In any required yard setback, nothing permanent over 3 ft high may materially impede vision between vehicular or pedestrian traffic. (§20-3.6(G)(4).)

Pool-barrier fences (§20-3.6(J)). Unless a pool is fully screened, it must be surrounded by a protective wall or fence at least 4 ft high. Chain-link pool fencing must be at least 11-gauge with openings no wider than 2 inches, and any non-standard enclosure has to be detailed on the building-permit plans. The gates must close automatically on spring hinges with a positive stop, swing away from the pool, carry an automatic latch positioned out of a small child’s reach, and be built to take a padlock that must be in place before the pool passes final inspection. (§20-3.6(J)(2)-(3); supplementary to Florida’s residential pool-safety statute and the Florida Building Code — we confirm the exact governing statute cite for your project.) See our pool-code barrier fencing.

Hurricane-zone product approval (all of Miami-Dade). South Miami, like every municipality in the county, sits in the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, so manufactured aluminum, PVC, and vinyl fence systems must carry a current Florida Product Approval or a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance (NOA), and the ERPB fence submittal already requires structural and construction details for the fence and its gates. The exact wording on the City’s fence checklist — which product approvals versus engineer-sealed calculations are required for which system — we confirm with the Building Department for your specific fence.

Survey and submittal. A current survey signed and sealed by a registered surveyor is a stated ERPB fence requirement, along with a site plan, the fence and gate drawings, structural details, color and material samples, and color photographs of your property and the adjacent properties. (official ERPB fence submittal.) The Building Department also requires original, notarized application forms and two copies of accompanying documents. (City permit information.)

Historic and recorded overlays. Parts of South Miami — notably the Cambridge Lawns Historic District — sit inside historically significant streetscapes, and individual lots can carry recorded covenants or deed restrictions. Whether your parcel triggers an added historic-preservation review on top of the standard ERPB design review is parcel-specific; we check it before we design.

Fees and timeline are valuation-based and not officially published for a residential fence — the ERPB carries its own application fee, and processing runs on the board’s meeting schedule (applications must be complete by noon the Wednesday before a meeting to make that agenda). We confirm current cost and timing with the Building Department at 305-663-6355 as part of your quote.

Framing line: Heights, setbacks, materials, and the ERPB review all turn on your exact parcel and zoning district — we confirm the current South Miami code for your address before we quote, and we pull the permit.

The permitting authority — and who it is NOT

South Miami permits through its own Building Department, in the Sylva Martin Building at 6130 Sunset Drive, working alongside Planning & Zoning and the ERPB — not through Miami-Dade County RER, which handles only unincorporated parcels. A South Miami fence therefore runs a two-track path off one design: ERPB for design (material, color, finished-side, the street elevation), then Building and Zoning for the permit (height, setback, the visibility triangle, and the hurricane-zone structural details), with Electrical only where there’s a lit or motorized gate. Forms are filed original and notarized; the City also runs an eTRAKiT online portal, and inspections are scheduled by calling 305-663-6355 before 3:45 PM for the next business day. We file it, work the corrections, and walk the inspections.

The design-review layer that makes South Miami South Miami

The ERPB is the piece homeowners don’t see coming. It exists to keep exterior changes compatible with the surrounding neighborhood, and it reviews a fence the way it reviews a repaint or a new porch — for material, color, proportion, and orientation. That’s why the fence submittal asks for color and material samples and photos of the adjacent properties, not just a height dimension. On a historic block like Cambridge Lawns, or on a tight downtown lot near Sunset Drive, that review is doing real work: it’s the reason a compliant South Miami fence tends toward aluminum picket, low masonry with open screening, and finished-side-out detailing rather than a flat run of chain link or bare panel. Before we design, we confirm whether your lot carries any historic designation or recorded covenant on top of the ERPB standard, so the drawings we file are already built to the tightest layer that applies.

How an Allday South Miami project runs

Property record first. Before we quote, we pull a property compliance report on your parcel to surface permit history, open files, setbacks, and any recorded conditions or historic designation — so we’re designing against the real record, not a guess.
Design to the South Miami standard. The 4-ft street / 6-ft interior split, the 60%-open-area rule for anything taller along the street, the corner and driveway visibility triangles, finished-side-out, and the pool barrier where one applies.
ERPB package filed. Signed-and-sealed survey, site plan, fence and gate drawings, structural details, color and material samples, and color photos of the site and its neighbors — assembled the way the ERPB expects.
ERPB approval, then the permit. We carry the design through ERPB review, then file the building permit and clear Zoning, Building, and structural comments — mindful that the ERPB approval has to convert to a permit within six months.
Install + inspections. Built to the approved plans, walked with the City inspector, corrections resolved on site — including the pool-barrier final where a pool is involved.
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 is already up without a permit, our sister company Permit Solutions Services runs the after-the-fact / legalization path.

What Allday installs in the City of South Miami

Open-picket aluminum fencing and low masonry bases with open screening above for street-facing front elevations, finished CBS / concrete block walls and concrete columns and pillars where a South Miami project calls for masonry instead of pickets, 6-ft privacy runs for interior side and rear lines, pool-code safety barriers built to §20-3.6(J), commercial and gated-entry systems for the Sunset Drive and Red Road corridors, and fence repair and storm restoration across the city. As a licensed specialty fence contractor, our scope runs past the fence line to the concrete wall and column work the code’s front-yard rule leans on — the very vertical supports that carry the open screening above four feet. Every job is a permit-tied install — designed to the ERPB standard, engineered for the hurricane zone, pulled, and finaled.

A wall is not just a tall fence. A masonry or concrete wall — especially a taller one — generally needs structural engineering, real footings, and its own wind-load / product approval that a standard fence does not, on top of the ERPB’s required structural and construction details. Because Allday is licensed for concrete walls and columns as well as any fence type, we handle both the engineering and the permit in-house rather than handing you off to a separate mason or engineer. Whether a given wall height triggers signed-and-sealed calculations is parcel- and code-specific — we confirm it for your exact address before we quote. (We build fences, privacy and boundary walls, and their columns — not retaining walls or structural building walls.)

Also serving nearby in Miami-Dade County

South Miami is nearly surrounded by markets we work every week. Two neighbors with their own permitting quirks:

Coral Gables fence contractor — the City of Coral Gables wraps around much of South Miami to the north and west, where a Board of Architects design review sits on top of the fence permit.
Pinecrest fence contractor — the Village of Pinecrest down US-1 to the south, a low-density estate market that permits fences under its own Village land-development regulations, with its own low front-yard height limit and added review.

Allday Fence serves Miami-Dade County only. As a licensed specialty fence contractor — fences, concrete walls, and columns — and with 18 years of experience in these exact offices, we file, final, and close every permit against the property record — from the Hometown District blocks near Sunset Drive to the pool barriers off Red Road. On any Florida lien or Notice of Commencement, the contractor of record is Allday Fence.

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 City of South Miami code for your exact address before quoting.

South Miami · fence questions

Common South Miami fence questions.

Do I really have to go before a design board just to put up a fence in South Miami?

In South Miami, yes — and it surprises most homeowners. The City reviews fences through its Environmental Review and Preservation Board (ERPB), the same body that signs off on new construction, exterior renovations, paint colors, landscaping, and signage. The ERPB has a dedicated fence submittal that calls for a signed-and-sealed survey, drawings of the fence and gates, color and material samples, and color photos of your property and the ones next to it. ERPB approval is not permission to start work — a building permit still has to be pulled from the Building Department afterward, and the ERPB approval lapses if you don't apply for that permit within six months (Land Development Code §20-5.11(L)). We build the ERPB package to the City's standard so it clears review, then carry it straight into the building permit. (official City of South Miami ERPB application; we confirm the current requirement for your exact parcel before we quote.)

Why can't I run a solid 6-foot fence across the front of my South Miami house?

Because South Miami splits the street edge from the interior. In all yards, a fence, wall, or trellis may reach six feet above grade — but in the setback areas adjacent to a right-of-way (your front, and both frontages on a corner lot) the limit drops to four feet. You can go taller than four feet along the street only if the portion between four and six feet is at least sixty percent open: a wood fence has to hit that 60%-open standard, and a masonry wall has to as well, with no solid masonry section above four feet wider than sixteen inches so it reads as columns carrying open screening rather than a solid wall. Gates along the street can pick up an extra three feet if that upper section is a uniform pattern at least 60% open. Because we’re a licensed specialty fence contractor whose scope also covers concrete walls and columns, we build that low CBS base and the concrete columns that carry the open screening — with the footings, engineering, and hurricane-zone product approval a masonry wall needs — and pull the permit, all in-house. We design the front elevation to that split so it clears zoning the first time. (Land Development Code §20-3.6(H)(2); we confirm the current text against your address.)

Can I put a chain-link fence in my front yard in South Miami, and which way does the finished side face?

No chain link along the street. The Land Development Code does not permit chain-link fences on required yards that are adjacent to a right-of-way, so chain link is an interior side-and-rear material only — not a front-yard or corner-frontage option. And South Miami is explicit about orientation: the ERPB fence drawings must show that the finished side of the fence faces the outside of the property, toward your neighbor and the street. Barbed wire and electrically charged fences are effectively off the table for residential lots. For a street-facing South Miami fence we steer you to aluminum picket or a low masonry base with open screening above — compliant, and what the neighborhood expects. (Land Development Code §20-3.6(H)(2)(a) and (H)(3), and the ERPB fence submittal.)

What does South Miami require for a pool barrier, and does the corner-visibility rule really matter on my lot?

Two rules that come up constantly. A swimming pool that isn't fully screened has to be surrounded by a protective wall or fence at least four feet high; if it's chain link it must be at least 11-gauge with openings no wider than two inches, and the gates have to be self-closing on spring hinges, swing away from the pool, and carry a child-resistant latch and a padlock in place before the final inspection (Land Development Code §20-3.6(J)). Separately, the triangle of visibility is real and it's stricter at a corner: on a corner lot nothing may block the view between three and six feet high inside the triangle formed by the two street lines and a diagonal drawn twenty feet back from the corner — and ten feet back at a driveway or alley. We identify both before we design, because a corner lot or a pool changes where the fence can go and how tall it can be. (Land Development Code §20-3.6(G) and (J).)