Serving the Town of Surfside — an incorporated municipality in Miami-Dade County, Florida.
Surfside is a one-square-mile beach town wedged between Bal Harbour and Miami Beach, and it fences by design review, not by the county rulebook. The Town writes its own Chapter 90 zoning code: a front-yard fence is capped on a sliding scale tied to how wide your lot is, held to 50 percent openness, and can’t go up without design-review sign-off — and chain-link, PVC, and vinyl are simply not allowed materials. On a Surfside fence the material and the design approval decide the job before a post is set. Allday Fence brings 18 years of experience filing in exactly these barrier-island offices — and as a licensed specialty fence contractor whose scope covers fences, concrete walls, and columns, we build the whole street-side barrier here, from a low aluminum picket to a CBS wall on engineered footings.
Why a fence is genuinely different in Surfside
Most of Miami-Dade runs on the county’s plain picture: six feet, keep the chain-link behind the front building line, stay out of the corner sight line. Surfside throws most of that out and writes its own Chapter 90 zoning code, with the fence rules living in Sec. 90-56 (Fences, walls and hedges). Three things make it its own animal.
First, the material list is short and it’s enforced. Surfside’s code prohibits chain-link and other wire fencing, prohibits plastic and PVC (which sweeps in most vinyl fence), and prohibits loosely stacked masonry that isn’t mortared together (Sec. 90-56.14). The Town’s own definition of a “fence” says it’s built of “wood, aluminum, or other materials except chainlink or wire.” That leaves aluminum ornamental picket, finished wood, and finished masonry as the working palette — and it means a lot of the cheap catalog fence you’d throw up in unincorporated Dade is a non-starter here.
Second, the front yard is a design decision, not a default. Instead of one flat height, Surfside sets the front-yard cap on a scale keyed to your lot’s frontage and holds the fence to 50 percent openness so the streetscape stays visually open (Sec. 90-56.3–.4). And any fence, wall or gate in the front yard or primary corner yard has to clear design review before the permit issues (Sec. 90-56.2).
Third, the island rewrites the math on new construction. When a new home raises its grade for flood resilience, the fence height gets measured from that adjusted grade, not the old ground (Sec. 90-56.1.A). Get the material wrong, oversize the front fence, or skip the design review and the project stalls before Building ever stamps it. That’s why we design to the Town’s code first and treat the height number as the last step, not the first.
Every Surfside install starts with a MyHausFax™ property compliance report so we know the parcel’s zoning district, its permit history, any open permits, and whether it’s a corner or bay-frontage lot before a post hole is marked. We measure first, then we build.
Where we work in Surfside
Surfside is small, walkable, and unusually legible once you know the grid. The single-family heart of Town sits west of Harding Avenue, on the alphabetized avenues named for British and American authors that run in order from the ocean toward the bay — Abbott, Byron, Carlyle, Dickens, Emerson and on down the alphabet. Those blocks, generally in the low-rise H30A/H30B districts, are where the front-yard height scale and design review land most often. Along Harding Avenue — the Town’s 95th Street business district anchored by Town Hall at 9293 Harding — and up the oceanfront Collins Avenue (A1A) corridor, you’re into the taller mixed-use and multifamily districts where a fence or wall runs the full Planning & Zoning Board review. Out west, the Biscayne Bay and Indian Creek waterfront lots add bay-frontage and corner conditions on top of the base code. And the Town’s civic and historic landmarks — the Surfside Community Center on Collins Avenue, the historic Surf Club, and the 88th Street public beach — sit inside the same one-square-mile code. Allday builds the fence to clear every layer sitting above the base code, not just the base code itself.
Fence permit rules in Surfside
Everything below is the general framework for a residential fence, wall, or gate in the Town of Surfside. Heights, materials, openness, and setbacks vary by parcel, lot width, zoning district, and corner condition — Allday Fence confirms the current Town code against your exact address before we quote, and we pull the permit. The figures below are drawn straight from the Town’s current zoning code (Chapter 90, Sec. 90-52 and Sec. 90-56, as published in the Town’s official Code of Ordinances); anything that turns on a parcel-specific reading or a figure the Town doesn’t publish is stated as a general framing we confirm for your lot rather than a fixed promise.
A permit is required. A fence, wall, or gate is a Town building permit, filed through Surfside’s online CSS (Customer Self-Service) portal with a current survey showing the fence height, setbacks, material, and location on the lot.
Height — the Surfside front-yard scale (the headline difference):
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Front yard, lot 50 ft wide or narrower: 4 feet maximum.
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Front yard, lot wider than 50 ft and under 100 ft: 4 feet plus ½ foot for every 10 feet of width over 50 feet, up to a 5-foot maximum.
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Front yard, lot 100 ft wide or wider: same formula, up to a 6-foot maximum.
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Openness: front and corner fences and walls are held to a maximum 50 percent opacity, except the lowest 2 feet may be solid if it’s a different material than the surface above; gate surfaces are also capped at 50 percent.
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Interior side and rear (the privacy line): this is where the tall, solid fence belongs. The Town’s explicit 6-foot, fully solid allowance is written for a fence that wraps a corner street-side yard under conditions (below), which is the practical privacy-fence height, and hedges are allowed up to 10 feet in the rear and interior side (Sec. 90-56.9). The current code doesn’t state one flat height for a standard interior-side/rear fence on an existing home, so we confirm the controlling height for your exact parcel before layout.
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Corner street-side yard — the explicit solid-fence path: a 6-foot, 100-percent-opaque fence or wall may enclose the street side yard of a corner lot only if it doesn’t sit forward of the front face of the house, is set back 3 feet from the property line, and has shrubs installed at the time of the fence — at least 36 inches tall, no more than 24 inches on center — that cover the outside of the fence within a year.
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New construction on raised grade: on a new single-family home that adjusts its grade, an interior side or rear fence or non-concrete wall is measured from the adjusted grade or 30 inches above grade, whichever is greater, and held to 4 feet through Planning & Zoning Board design review.
Hedges. Capped at 4 feet in the front yard and side corner yards and 10 feet in the rear and interior side yards, unless the design review board approves more case-by-case.
Corner visibility (safe-sight clearance). On a corner lot the Town requires unobstructed corner-clearance areas along both the front and side lot lines, keeping cross-visibility clear at a level between 30 inches and 8 feet so drivers and pedestrians can see — with the Town Manager making the final determination, and nothing allowed to conceal a fire hydrant (Sec. 90-52, referenced by Sec. 90-56.10). The current code sets that clear-sight performance standard rather than a fixed triangle dimension, so we confirm the clear-sight area for your specific intersection before we set a corner post.
Setbacks. A standard fence generally follows the property line; the Town’s one explicit fence setback — 3 feet — attaches to the corner 100%-opaque solid-fence option above (Sec. 90-56.5), and new-construction retaining walls are restricted to the interior side and rear lines (Sec. 90-56.1.B). The code doesn’t publish a separate general fence setback by zoning district, so we confirm the fence-line placement for your parcel before layout.
Material and design — finished side out. Fences and walls must be built so the finished side faces out toward the street or the neighbor, with support posts and the unfinished side on the inside of your lot. Masonry fences and walls have to be finished on all sides, and concrete-block walls must be plastered on all sides above ground (Sec. 90-56.12). Prohibited materials are chain-link and wire, plastic and PVC, and loosely attached (un-mortared) masonry (Sec. 90-56.14), with no grandfathering of chain-link in a front or corner side yard (Sec. 90-56.15).
Concrete, CBS and block walls, and concrete columns. Allday is a licensed specialty fence contractor whose scope also covers concrete walls and concrete columns — CBS and concrete-block privacy walls, decorative masonry walls, and the concrete columns and pillars that carry a gate or anchor a wall run. A concrete or masonry wall is a different build from a fence: because it’s heavy and solid, a wall — a taller one especially — generally needs structural engineering, a proper footing, and its own wind-load / product-approval path under the Florida Building Code that a light aluminum fence doesn’t, and the Town’s finish rules still apply (masonry finished on all sides and concrete block plastered above ground per Sec. 90-56.12, plus weep holes or drainage on an ornamental wall per Sec. 90-56.8). We handle both the structural engineering and the permit on the wall and its columns, so a fence, a wall, or a wall-and-picket combination clears as one package. (This licensed scope is fences, concrete walls, and columns — it does not extend to structural building walls or engineered soil-retaining walls, which are a separate discipline. Any specific wall-height trigger for engineering is confirmed for your parcel, not asserted here.)
Hurricane-zone product approval (all of Miami-Dade). Surfside, like every municipality in the county, sits in the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone. A manufactured fence system — the aluminum ornamental picket that Surfside’s material rules effectively push you toward — proves it meets wind load through a current Florida Product Approval or a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance (NOA), and the Town applies the Florida Building Code to fences and their footings. We carry the right product approval into the file. (HVHZ is regional / Florida Building Code; we confirm the Town’s exact product-approval submittal expectation for your fence or wall system with the Building Department.)
Pool-barrier fences. When a fence doubles as the safety barrier for a pool, Surfside enforces the Florida Building Code residential pool-safety standard: a non-climbable barrier with a self-closing, self-latching gate and the latch set high out of a child’s reach, with the accessory pool and its fence reviewed against the FBC. Because chain-link is prohibited here, a Surfside pool barrier is typically aluminum picket built to the code’s spacing and non-climbability rules rather than the cheap chain-link mesh used elsewhere. We design the barrier to pass FBC inspection on the first walk. (The pool-barrier standard is the statewide Florida Building Code / residential pool-safety act; we confirm any Surfside-specific pool review layer for your parcel.) See our pool-code barrier fencing.
Survey. The Town requires a current survey with the fence drawn on it — height, setbacks, material, and location (Sec. 90-56.1.C also requires a current survey for a construction fence). Design-review and new-home submittals run on a recent survey — commonly less than one year old, or an affidavit of no change — and we confirm the exact survey-currency rule for a standalone fence permit with the department.
Fees and timeline. Surfside publishes a Building Department Fee Guide, and fence permit fees are valuation-based rather than a flat figure — we confirm the exact fee and the review turnaround with the Building Department for your project. We do not quote a Town fee or a timeline we haven’t confirmed.
The permitting authority — and who it is NOT
Surfside permits through its own Building Department at 9293 Harding Avenue — not Miami-Dade County RER, which handles only unincorporated parcels. The Building Official is Manuel A. Salazar, CBO, CFM, and permits are filed through the Town’s online CSS portal. What makes Surfside’s process distinct is the design-review gate on street-facing fences: a front-yard or primary-corner fence, wall, or gate is reviewed for design integrity and consistency with your house — by the Town Planner first in the single-family H30A/H30B districts, escalating to the Planning & Zoning Board if the Planner denies it, and reviewed by the Planning & Zoning Board directly in all other districts (Sec. 90-56.2). Interior side and rear fences are exempt from that design-review step but still have to follow the Town’s design guidelines. We file the building permit, assemble the design-review package where the street-facing line requires it, clear corrections, and walk the inspections.
The design-character layer
Surfside doesn’t run a Coral-Gables-style architects’ board for every fence, but it is a deliberately design-conscious beach town, and the code shows it: the 50-percent-openness rule, the “not substantial in appearance” language for front fences, the required shrub screen on a solid corner fence, and the finished-both-sides masonry standard all exist to protect an open, landscaped streetscape on a very small island. Multifamily and oceanfront parcels along Collins Avenue can also carry their own condominium or association approvals on top of the Town code, so on those addresses the private board’s rules stack with Sec. 90-56. Before we design a Surfside fence, we confirm the current Town standard for your street and check whether an association layer applies — so the drawings we file are already built to the tightest rule on your parcel.
How an Allday Surfside project runs
- Property record first. Before we quote, we pull a MyHausFax™ property compliance report on your parcel to surface permit history, open permits, the zoning district, and any corner or bay-frontage condition — so we’re designing against the real record, not a guess.
- Design to the Surfside palette and scale. Aluminum ornamental, finished wood, or finished masonry — never chain-link, PVC, or vinyl; the front fence sized to your lot width at 50-percent openness; the tall, solid runs kept to the interior side and rear where full height is allowed.
- Design-review package where it’s required. For a street-facing fence, the package the Town Planner or Planning & Zoning Board expects — survey, elevations, material, and height against the Table 90-56.4 scale.
- Building permit filed through CSS. The full submittal — current survey, fence detail, product approval / NOA for the aluminum system, license and insurance — filed the way the Building Department expects.
- Corrections cleared, then install. We answer building and zoning comments, build to the approved plans, and walk the Town inspections.
- 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 Surfside
Low aluminum ornamental and picket front-yard fencing sized to the Town’s lot-width height scale and 50-percent-openness rule, 6-foot finished wood and aluminum privacy on the interior side and rear where full height is allowed, pool-code barrier fencing built to the FBC non-climbable standard in aluminum rather than prohibited chain-link, finished-masonry, CBS and concrete-block walls with concrete columns and pillars — engineered, footed, and permitted as their own build — and fence repair and storm restoration across the Town. Larger multifamily and oceanfront properties along Collins Avenue get commercial and gated systems engineered for the wind zone. Every job is a permit-tied install — designed to the Town code, product-approved for the hurricane zone, run through design review where required, pulled, and finaled.
Also serving nearby in Miami-Dade County
Surfside sits on the barrier-island corridor between markets we work every week — each with its own building department and its own fence code:
- Miami Beach fence contractor — directly south, with a 5-foot front-yard cap, Historic Preservation Board review, and its own coastal and waterway setbacks.
- Aventura fence contractor — up the north-Dade coast, where condo and HOA approvals drive much of the fence work.
Allday Fence serves Miami-Dade County only. A licensed specialty fence contractor — fences, concrete walls, and columns — with 18 years of experience filing and finaling permits through these exact barrier-island building departments, including the design-review track that street-facing Surfside fences run, we build to the Town code, product-approve for the hurricane zone, and close every permit against the property record.
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 Surfside code for your exact address before quoting. Allday Fence is a licensed specialty fence contractor (fences, concrete walls, and columns) and is the contractor of record (NOC / lien entity) on Town permits.