Do You Need HOA Approval for a Fence in Elkhorn, Gretna or Bennington?

If you bought a house in Elkhorn, Gretna or Bennington in the last ten years, the odds are very good that your neighborhood has covenants, and the odds are very good that those covenants say something about fences. Most of the first-fence projects we build out west start with the same question, so here is how it actually works.

Yes, you almost certainly need approval

An HOA does not usually ban fences. It controls what they look like. The typical covenant covers height, material, color, style, where on the lot the fence can start, and sometimes which direction the finished side has to face. Some neighborhoods allow cedar privacy in the back and nothing in the front. Some allow only ornamental steel so the sightlines stay open. A few require a specific stain color.

Building without approval is the expensive version of this project. The board can make you take it down, and the sale of the house can get held up years later over a fence that was never approved. So the paperwork is worth the week or two it takes.

What the board wants to see

Every HOA has its own form, but the submittal almost always includes the same things:

• A plot plan or survey with the fence line drawn on it, including gate locations.
• The style, height and material. A product photo or a drawing of the panel.
• The color or stain, if the covenants care.
• Sometimes a note that the finished side will face the neighbors.

We put this package together with you. Bring us your covenants and the HOA contact, and we handle the drawing and the spec sheet. It is a normal part of a fence project for us, not an extra.

How long it takes

It depends entirely on the board. Some architectural committees turn a submittal around in a few days by email. Some meet once a month. Plan on two to four weeks between submitting and building, and submit before you want the fence, not after the crew is scheduled. We schedule the build once the approval is in hand so nobody is standing in your yard waiting on a signature.

What gets rejected

In our experience, rejections come down to a short list:

• Height. Six feet in the back is standard. Anything in the front yard is often capped at four feet or banned.
• Material. Chain link is out almost everywhere in the newer subdivisions. Some allow vinyl, some do not.
• Starting point. Many covenants say the fence cannot start ahead of the back corner of the house.
• Finished side. Boards want the good side facing out. A shadowbox fence solves this because both sides are the good side.

Read the covenants before you fall in love with a style. We will tell you what fits.

City permits are a separate question

HOA approval and a city permit are two different things. Omaha, Gretna and Bennington each have their own rules about fence permits, height limits and setbacks, and Elkhorn falls under Omaha's rules. We know what applies where and will tell you before we quote. Utility locates get called in before we dig regardless.

The fences that get approved most

Six-foot cedar privacy is the most common fence we build in the west metro, and it is approved almost everywhere for backyards. Shadowbox is a close second in neighborhoods that care about the neighbor's view. Ornamental steel is the answer where the covenants want an open look, and vinyl privacy is allowed in some subdivisions and not others.

If you are staring at a covenant document trying to figure out what you can build, send it to us. We have read a lot of them.