Fence laws in Mesa, Arizona
What the Mesa municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Mesa sets no rule of its own, the Arizona rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Mesa, Arizona, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- Where a new multiple residence project goes up in a downtown residential district, or a single residence is converted to multiple residence use, Mesa requires a privacy wall along the property lines separating that use, its parking areas and its driveways from any existing single residence. The figure is 6 feet, for height of the required privacy wall.
- How tall
- Mesa runs a trade in the front yard, and the answer turns on the district, the yard, and whether the top of the fence can be seen through. The figure is 42 inches, for opaque fence in a required front yard.
- Permits
- Arizona has no statewide building code and gives the job to the counties.
- Pool barriers
- Arizona writes its pool fence rule straight into state law instead of leaving it to a code. The figure is 5 feet, for minimum height of the wall, fence or barrier enclosing a pool, measured on the outside face.
- Spite fences
- Mesa has no spite fence statute. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide this one.
- Measured from what
- Arizona names a starting point in the one place it gives fence sizes. The figure is 50 inches, for top wire of a lawful fence, measured above the ground. It reaches a lawful fence on open range land only.
- Corner lots
- Mesa draws the largest corner area on this site and measures it in an unusual way, and the answer turns on whether the corner is a street intersection or the meeting of a corner lot and a key lot. The figure is 80 feet, for triangle leg measured along the street center line.
- Retaining walls
- Mesa leaves retaining walls to county boards of supervisors and city and town councils, each of which adopts a national model building code of its own choosing.
- Materials
- In the agricultural and residential districts Mesa requires high quality, durable materials and names stucco finish, masonry or concrete block, brick, decorative cap block and wrought iron, and the answer turns on the district, and whether the fence can be seen from the street.
- Livestock
- Mesa gives the corral fence its own rules and confines it to three districts, Agricultural, RS-90 and RS-43, and to one purpose, keeping livestock and similar large animals. The figure is 66 percent, for transparency required on a corral fence.
Who owns the fence between two properties in Mesa?
Compare fences on the property line across all 50 states
Mesa answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Where a new multiple residence project goes up in a downtown residential district, or a single residence is converted to multiple residence use, Mesa requires a privacy wall along the property lines separating that use, its parking areas and its driveways from any existing single residence. The wall is specified rather than left open: masonry construction with stucco, mortar wash or another finish matching the main building, and six feet high. It runs along the interior side lot lines as far as the front yard setback of the main building or of the existing neighbor house, whichever sits closer to the street, and it may not carry on past that setback into the front yard without dropping to three and a half feet. One entry gateway, trellis or similar structure is separately allowed in a required front or street facing side yard at up to ten feet in height and width, provided nothing solid over two feet across sits between three and ten feet up.
Whenever a new multiple residence project is constructed or an existing Single Residence is converted to a multiple residence use, a privacy wall shall be constructed along the property lines separating the multiple residence use, its parking areas and driveways from any existing Single Residence.
6 ftheight of the required privacy wall
Also on fences on the property line in Mesa
- no rule, documents checkedArizona has no law splitting the cost of a fence on a boundary between neighbors. Arizona is an open range state, so the fence law in Title 3 is about keeping livestock out and about what is owed when animals break through. Title 33, the property title, has no fence chapter at all. Two neighbors settle the cost themselves, or a city rule covers it. A.R.S. Title 3Arizona · Statute
How tall can a fence be in Mesa?
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Mesa answers this, but the answer changes depending on the district, the yard, and whether the top of the fence can be seen through.
Mesa runs a trade in the front yard. An opaque fence or freestanding wall in or along a required front yard stops at three and a half feet, and one foot more is available only if the topmost eighteen inches is visually transparent, which brings the total to four and a half. That applies in the agricultural, single residence, small lot, multiple residence and downtown residential districts. In those districts a side or rear yard fence reaches six feet. Everywhere else in the city the front yard and required street side yard take the same three and a half feet, while a rear or interior side yard reaches eight. A fence standing inside the buildable area rather than in a required yard is not held to any of those figures and takes the maximum building height of the district instead.
No opaque or non-transparent fence or freestanding wall within or along the exterior boundary of the required Front Yard shall exceed a height of 3.5 feet. Fences or freestanding walls over 3.5 feet high are allowed in front yards, provided the fence or freestanding wall does not exceed a maximum height of 4.5 feet, and the topmost 1.5 feet is visually transparent and not opaque.
The answer turns on the district, the yard, and whether the top of the fence can be seen through.
- an opaque fence in a required front yard
- Three and a half feet. 42 in
- a front yard fence whose top eighteen inches is transparent
- Four and a half feet. 54 in
- a residential side or rear yard
- Six feet. 6 ft
- a rear or interior side yard outside the residential districts
- Eight feet. 8 ft
Also on fence height in Mesa
- no rule, documents checkedArizona sets no limit on how tall a fence at a house can be. City, town or county zoning sets it, and there is no statewide building code behind that. State law has two fence heights and neither is a cap: the five foot pool fence in Title 36, which is about pool safety, and the six foot line in A.R.S. 11-861(G)(2), which only marks when a fence counts as a side structure for a county fire code rule. A.R.S. Title 3Arizona · Statute
Do I need a permit for a fence in Mesa?
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Arizona answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Arizona has no statewide building code and gives the job to the counties. In a county that has zoning, the board of supervisors may adopt and enforce a building code for the zoned areas outside any city, and may leave out areas zoned rural or unclassified. The code has to be adopted by reference after notice and hearings before the county planning and zoning commission and the board. The choice is limited too: a building, electrical, plumbing or mechanical code from a national code group, or the one the largest city in the county already uses.
This one is Arizona law, not Mesa law. All Arizona findings
In any county that has adopted zoning pursuant to this chapter, the board of supervisors may adopt and enforce, for the unincorporated areas of the county so zoned, a building code and other related codes to regulate the quality, type of material and workmanship of all aspects of construction of buildings or structures
Also on permits in Mesa
- set in state lawCities and towns get the same power under a separate law. An Arizona city may adopt an existing code by reference without printing the code itself, as long as the ordinance doing it is published in full. At least three paper copies, or one paper and one electronic copy, stay on file with the city clerk for anyone to look at. So the fence permit rule in Arizona is whichever code the city or town picked. A.R.S. § 9-802Arizona · Statute
- set in state lawArizona law puts a number on an ordinary fence in exactly one place, and it is in the same county statute. A county fire code cannot make a small side building or structure put in fire sprinklers by way of a fire truck access road rule. The list of what counts as one of those side structures names a fence more than six feet high, next to barns, carports, sheds and walls that hold back earth. Six feet is not a cap on fence height. It is the line above which a fence counts as a structure for that one fire code rule. A.R.S. § 11-861(G)(2)Arizona · Statute
Pool fence requirements in Mesa
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Arizona answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Arizona writes its pool fence rule straight into state law instead of leaving it to a code. A pool or other held body of water at least eighteen inches deep and wider than eight feet gets a fence at least five feet high, measured on the outside face of the wall, fence or barrier. Gates close and latch by themselves, the latch sits at least fifty four inches above the ground, and the gate opens away from the pool.
This one is Arizona law, not Mesa law. All Arizona findings
Be entirely enclosed by at least a five foot wall, fence or other barrier as measured on the exterior side of the wall, fence or barrier.
5 ftminimum height of the wall, fence or barrier enclosing a pool, measured on the outside face
Spite fence laws in Mesa
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Mesa law has no rule about this. The chapters that were read are listed below. Cities and counties decide it instead.
Arizona has no spite fence law. The fence sections in Title 3 are about livestock and no fence districts, and Title 33 has no fence rules in it. Neither one sets a height that turns a fence into a nuisance, and neither one says anything about a fence put up to annoy a neighbor.
This one is Arizona law, not Mesa law. All Arizona findings
Documents read before writing that:
- A.R.S. Title 3Arizona State Legislature
- A.R.S. Title 33Arizona State Legislature
How fence height is measured in Mesa
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Arizona answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Arizona names a starting point in the one place it gives fence sizes. Section 3-1426 describes a lawful fence on open range and puts the top barbed wire fifty inches above the ground, with the other wires spaced down from it. The ground is the starting point and the law says so. That rule is there to turn livestock, not to size a fence at a house. Section 9-462.01 lets a city set the height of structures, so a fence at a house is a city matter and the city picks the surface to measure from.
This one is Arizona law, not Mesa law. All Arizona findings
A fence shall be deemed a lawful fence when it is constructed and maintained with good and substantial posts firmly placed in the ground at intervals of not more than thirty feet, upon which posts are strung and fastened at least four barbed wires of the usual type tightly stretched and secured to the posts and spaced so that the top wire is fifty inches above the ground
50 intop wire of a lawful fence, measured above the ground
Also on how height is measured in Mesa
- no rule, documents checkedThe fence section sets four heights, three and a half, four and a half, six and eight feet, and never says what any of them is read from. There is no grade, no finished ground, no averaging between two lots and nothing about what happens on a slope, and nothing saying whether a post cap or a decorative top counts. The one place in the fence and visibility rules that names a reference point is the intersection rule, which measures its protected band between three and eight feet above the center line grades of the intersecting streets, and that is about an obstruction at a corner rather than about how tall a fence is. What the section does measure carefully is the fence in plan rather than in section, capping an unbroken run at a hundred and fifty feet and requiring posts to protrude at least six inches and plane changes at least eighteen. 11-30-4Mesa · Zoning code
Fence rules for corner lots in Mesa
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Mesa answers this, but the answer changes depending on whether the corner is a street intersection or the meeting of a corner lot and a key lot.
Mesa draws the largest corner area on this site and measures it in an unusual way. The triangle is formed by the two intersecting street center lines and a line joining points on those center lines eighty feet from where they cross, so it is measured down the middle of the road rather than from the property lines or the curbs, and a large part of it falls in the roadway itself. Inside it nothing may be erected, placed, planted, allowed to grow or maintained between three and eight feet above the center line grades, and fences, walls, shrubbery and signs are all named. Where this conflicts with the Land Division Regulations the more restrictive one applies. A second and much smaller triangle handles a different case: where the rear line of a corner lot meets the side line of an adjoining key lot, a ten by ten foot visibility triangle is kept clear on the corner lot.
Notwithstanding any other provisions of this Section, no fence, wall, shrubbery, sign or other obstruction to vision between a height of three (3) feet and eight (8) feet above the centerline grades of the intersecting streets shall be erected, placed, planted, allowed to grow or maintained within the triangular yard space formed by the intersecting center lines and a line joining points on such center lines 80 feet from the point of intersection.
11-30-14, with the key lot rule at 11-30-4.D
The answer turns on whether the corner is a street intersection or the meeting of a corner lot and a key lot.
- a street intersection
- Eighty feet along each center line, clear between three and eight feet up. 80 ft
- a corner lot whose rear line meets a key lot side line
- A ten by ten foot triangle on the corner lot. 10 ft
Also on corner visibility in Mesa
- set in state lawArizona sets no clear view rule at a corner on a private lot. What Title 28, Chapter 20 does is make it a petty offense to place or keep anything blocking a public highway. Section 28-7053 covers a structure or object of any kind placed in, under or over part of the road, which is wide enough to catch a fence. Section 28-7054 sets the notice and removal steps. The rule stops at the edge of the public road. Height and setback on the lot behind it come from city and county zoning under sections 9-462.01 and 11-812. A.R.S. 28-7053Arizona · Traffic code
Retaining wall rules in Mesa
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Mesa does not set this. It leaves it to county boards of supervisors and city and town councils, each of which adopts a national model building code of its own choosing.
Arizona has no statewide building code, so it has no state rule for a wall that holds back earth. Section 11-861 lets a county board of supervisors adopt a building code for the parts of a zoned county outside any city. The choice is limited to a code from a national code writing group, or the code the largest city in that county already uses. The height at which a wall of that kind needs a permit comes from whichever code the county or city picked.
This one is Arizona law, not Mesa law. All Arizona findings
In any county that has adopted zoning pursuant to this chapter, the board of supervisors may adopt and enforce, for the unincorporated areas of the county so zoned, a building code and other related codes to regulate the quality, type of material and workmanship of all aspects of construction of buildings or structures
The code hands this to county boards of supervisors and city and town councils, each of which adopts a national model building code of its own choosing, which is not published in the code itself.
Fence materials allowed in Mesa
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Mesa answers this, but the answer changes depending on the district, and whether the fence can be seen from the street.
In the agricultural and residential districts Mesa requires high quality, durable materials and names stucco finish, masonry or concrete block, brick, decorative cap block and wrought iron. Chain link, barbed wire, razor wire, embedded glass shards, ultra barrier, electrified fencing and other hazardous fencing are all prohibited there, with one exception for barbed wire around a livestock enclosure. In the commercial and employment districts the list changes to tinted and textured block, brick, stone and ornamental metal, and the rules become conditional rather than absolute: chain link may be used only where it is not visible from public view, wood is not allowed except in a metal framed gate serving a required screening wall, and the hazardous materials are prohibited in street facing yards or next to a public right of way rather than everywhere.
The use of chain-link, barbed wire, razor wire, embedded glass shards, ultra barrier, electrified and other hazardous fencing is prohibited, except for the use of barbed wire fencing used for livestock enclosures.
The answer turns on the district, and whether the fence can be seen from the street.
- a residential or agricultural district
- Masonry, brick, block, stucco or wrought iron, and no chain link at all.
- chain link in a commercial or employment district
- Only where it is not visible from public view.
- wood in a commercial or employment district
- Not allowed, except in a metal framed gate for a screening wall.
- barbed wire, razor wire or electrified fencing on business land
- Prohibited in street facing yards or next to a right of way.
Also on materials in Mesa
- set in state lawArizona describes a lawful fence by its wire. It takes solid posts no more than thirty feet apart with at least four tight barbed wires on them. A fence built some other way still counts when it is as strong and turns livestock as well. A.R.S. 3-1426Arizona · Statute
Livestock and boundary fence law in Mesa
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Mesa answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Mesa gives the corral fence its own rules and confines it to three districts, Agricultural, RS-90 and RS-43, and to one purpose, keeping livestock and similar large animals. It has to be built of masonry, wrought iron, pipe rail or similar material, may not be of solid construction, and may not be made of metal wire such as chain link or barbed wire, which is narrower than the usual farm fence. On top of that it has to keep at least sixty six percent of its exterior surface transparent so that visibility into the property is kept and light and air pass through. Six feet is the ceiling. The general prohibition on barbed wire in the residential districts carries one exception that reaches the same subject from the other direction, allowing barbed wire fencing used for livestock enclosures.
Corral fences shall maintain a minimum transparency of 66 percent of the exterior surface of the fence to keep visibility into the property and allow the transfer of light and air; and
66%transparency required on a corral fence
Also on agricultural fencing in Mesa
- set in state lawArizona says exactly how to build a lawful fence. Posts go in the ground no more than thirty feet apart. At least four barbed wires are stretched tight and tied to those posts. The top wire sits fifty inches above the ground, and the other three sit twelve, twenty two and thirty two inches below it. Posts set more than one rod apart need stays no more than seven and a half feet from each other. Any other fence just as strong and just as good at turning livestock counts too. A.R.S. 3-1426Arizona · Statute
- set in state lawArizona is a fence out state. The landowner who wants animals kept off builds the fence, not the animal owner, and nothing is owed for a trespassing animal unless the land was already ringed by a lawful fence. A no fence district is the exception. Inside one, Section 3-1424 makes the person in charge of the livestock pay the damage and guilty of a class 2 misdemeanor for letting them run loose. A.R.S. 3-1427Arizona · Statute
Documents behind this page
9 documents, of which 1 was published by Mesa itself. Each was read on the date shown.
- Arizona State LegislatureArizona Revised Statutes, Title 3, Agriculture, full title listing
- Arizona State LegislatureArizona Revised Statutes, Title 33, Property, full title listing
- City of MesaCode of Ordinances, Title 11, Zoning Ordinance, Chapter 30, Section 11-30-4, Fences and Freestanding Walls
- Arizona State LegislatureArizona Revised Statutes, Title 11, Chapter 6, Section 11-861, Adoption of codes by reference
- Arizona State LegislatureArizona Revised Statutes, Title 9, Chapter 6, Section 9-802, Procedure for adoption by reference
- Arizona State LegislatureArizona Revised Statutes, Title 36, Chapter 15, Article 5, Section 36-1681, Pools; enclosures; safety features
- Arizona State LegislatureArizona Revised Statutes, Title 3, Section 3-1426, Lawful fence defined
- Arizona State LegislatureArizona Revised Statutes, Title 28, Chapter 20, Section 28-7053, Misuse of public highway or airport; violation; classification; injunction; definition
- Arizona State LegislatureArizona Revised Statutes, Title 3, Chapter 11, Article 4
What this page does not cover
A city ordinance is not the only rule that reaches a fence. The zoning district a parcel sits in can change the height allowed on it, and so can an overlay district, a recorded easement, a fire hazard severity zone or a coastal zone. A homeowner association can be stricter than the city and nothing in the municipal code will say so. None of those appear here.
The rules above are the ones Mesa publishes, plus the Arizona rules that apply where the city sets none. Fence laws in Arizona has the state layer in full.
This is general information drawn from published government documents. It is not legal advice, ordinances are amended, and the date beside each finding is the date the document was read. How findings are made · What the terms mean