Fence laws in Bakersfield, California
What the Bakersfield municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Bakersfield sets no rule of its own, the California rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Bakersfield, California, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- Two neighbors split the cost of a fence on the line in California.
- How tall
- Rear and side yards in the residential zones are held to six feet, and the exception runs upward rather than downward: a greater height is allowed where city or state rules require it for noise or for screening. The figure is 6 feet, for a fence, wall or hedge in a rear or side yard. It reaches rear and side yards in the R-1, R-2, R-3 and R-4 zones only.
- Permits
- California does not write its own building code from scratch.
- Pool barriers
- A pool fence in California stands at least sixty inches high. The figure is 60 inches, for minimum height of a pool enclosure.
- Spite fences
- A fence over ten feet tall in California is a private nuisance when it was put up or kept there to annoy the neighbor and the extra height serves no purpose. The figure is 10 feet, for spite fence threshold, with malice required.
- Measured from what
- Bakersfield leaves the measuring rule to the legislative body of each county and city, through its zoning ordinance.
- Corner lots
- California writes no clear view triangle into state law. It reaches the right of way of a state highway, whether or not the whole width is paved only.
- Retaining walls
- Bakersfield leaves retaining walls to Title 24 of the California Code of Regulations, the California Building Standards Code, which tracks the International Building Code and the International Residential Code.
- Materials
- Bakersfield is the first city on this site that makes somebody build a wall rather than only saying how tall one may be. The figure is 10 feet, for height above the roadway below which the masonry wall is required. It reaches a through lot in a residential zone with its rear line on a state, major or secondary highway only.
- Livestock
- Farm fencing in the Bakersfield agricultural zone may use barbed or electrified wire, but only at least 1,300 feet from any residential area, and the Building Director signs off on it. The figure is 1300 feet, for least distance from a residential area for agricultural barbed or electric fence. It reaches the A zone only.
Who owns the fence between two properties in Bakersfield?
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California answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Two neighbors split the cost of a fence on the line in California. The law starts from the idea that both get the same benefit from it, so both owe the same share of building it, keeping it up and replacing it. A neighbor about to spend that money gives the other one thirty days written notice first. Either neighbor can show the even split is wrong, and a court can then order less than half or nothing at all.
This one is California law, not Bakersfield law. All California findings
Adjoining landowners are presumed to share an equal benefit from any fence dividing their properties and, unless otherwise agreed to by the parties in a written agreement, shall be presumed to be equally responsible for the reasonable costs of construction, maintenance, or necessary replacement of the fence.
Also on fences on the property line in Bakersfield
- set in state lawThe notice has to say six things: that the law starts from an even split, what is wrong with the fence now, what is planned instead, what it is expected to cost, how the cost gets shared, and when the work happens. Civ. Code 841(b)(1)California · Statute
How tall can a fence be in Bakersfield?
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Bakersfield answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Rear and side yards in the residential zones are held to six feet, and the exception runs upward rather than downward: a greater height is allowed where city or state rules require it for noise or for screening. A hedge is counted with fences and walls in the same sentence, so a tall row of shrubs along a side line is measured the same way a fence is.
no fence, wall or hedge located in the rear or side yards shall exceed a height of 6 feet unless a greater height is required by City or State regulations for noise attenuation or sight screening
6 fta fence, wall or hedge in a rear or side yard
Also on fence height in Bakersfield
- no rule, documents checkedCalifornia sets no limit on how tall a fence at a house can be. Cities and counties write that in their zoning codes and the answer changes a lot from one town to the next. The one height in state law is the ten feet in the spite fence rule, and that only matters when the fence was put up to annoy a neighbor. It is not a building limit. Civ. Code 841California · Statute
- depends, see the pageA fence, wall or hedge in a required Bakersfield front yard stops at four feet. Six is possible in exactly two situations and neither one is something a homeowner can simply choose. The first is where the Planning Commission decides a side yard next to an arterial or collector needs the extra height to finish a subdivision wall. The second is where the City Council, the Planning Commission or the Board of Zoning Adjustment decides the height is needed to cut noise. Both are decisions by a body, not a permit over the counter. BMC 17.08.180.BBakersfield · Zoning code
Do I need a permit for a fence in Bakersfield?
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California answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
California does not write its own building code from scratch. Section 17922 adopts Title 24 of the California Code of Regulations and requires it to ask for much the same things as the International Building Code and the International Residential Code, with state additions and cuts. So the permit rule for a fence starts out as outside code text that California then edits.
This one is California law, not Bakersfield law. All California findings
The building standards and rules and regulations shall impose substantially the same requirements as are contained in the most recent editions of the following international or uniform industry codes as adopted by the organizations specified:
Also on permits in Bakersfield
- set in state lawA California city or county can make the statewide building code stricter, but not quietly. Section 17958.7 makes the city council say in writing why each change is needed because of local weather, ground or land shape. That finding goes to the California Building Standards Commission, and the change does nothing until it is filed. The finding is a public record, which is why a local permit line can sit well below the statewide one. Health & Saf. Code 17958.7California · Statute
Pool fence requirements in Bakersfield
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California answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
A pool fence in California stands at least sixty inches high. No more than two inches may be left between the ground and the bottom of it, and no gap in it may pass a four inch ball. The outside face has no handholds or footholds a child under five could climb. Gates open away from the pool and close and latch by themselves, with the latch set no lower than sixty inches above the ground.
This one is California law, not Bakersfield law. All California findings
An enclosure shall have all of the following characteristics: (a) Any access gates through the enclosure open away from the swimming pool, and are self-closing with a self-latching device placed no lower than 60 inches above the ground. (b) A minimum height of 60 inches. (c) A maximum vertical clearance from the ground to the bottom of the enclosure of two inches. (d) Gaps or voids, if any, do not allow passage of a sphere equal to or greater than four inches in diameter. (e) An outside surface free of protrusions, cavities, or other physical characteristics that would serve as handholds or footholds that could enable a child below the age of five years to climb over.
60 inminimum height of a pool enclosure
Spite fence laws in Bakersfield
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California answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
A fence over ten feet tall in California is a private nuisance when it was put up or kept there to annoy the neighbor and the extra height serves no purpose. Height on its own is not enough. The case turns on proving why the fence is there. The rule covers anything built like a fence, not only a fence.
This one is California law, not Bakersfield law. All California findings
Any fence or other structure in the nature of a fence unnecessarily exceeding 10 feet in height maliciously erected or maintained for the purpose of annoying the owner or occupant of adjoining property is a private nuisance.
10 ftspite fence threshold, with malice required
How fence height is measured in Bakersfield
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Bakersfield does not set this. It leaves it to the legislative body of each county and city, through its zoning ordinance.
California gives a fence height and never says what it is measured from. Civil Code section 841.4 makes a fence over ten feet a private nuisance when it is kept up to annoy a neighbor. It does not say whether the ten feet starts at bare dirt, at the finished yard, or at the high side of a slope. Government Code section 65850 is why the state stops there: it lets any county or city set the place, height and size of structures. So the number and the surface it starts from are both written into local zoning.
This one is California law, not Bakersfield law. All California findings
Regulate all of the following: (1) The location, height, bulk, number of stories, and size of buildings and structures.
The code hands this to the legislative body of each county and city, through its zoning ordinance, which is not published in the code itself.
Fence rules for corner lots in Bakersfield
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California answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
California writes no clear view triangle into state law. The Streets and Highways Code counts a fence as an encroachment once it stands in, under or over any part of a state highway right of way. Section 670 then makes putting one there without a written permit from the department a misdemeanor. That covers the public strip, not the corner of a private yard. Government Code section 65850 gives every city and county the power to set the height and place of structures, and that is where a corner triangle gets written in California.
This one is California law, not Bakersfield law. All California findings
“Encroachment” includes any tower, pole, pole line, pipe, pipe line, fence, billboard, stand or building, or any structure, object of any kind or character not particularly mentioned in this section, or special event, which is in, under, or over any portion of the highway.
Retaining wall rules in Bakersfield
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Bakersfield does not set this. It leaves it to Title 24 of the California Code of Regulations, the California Building Standards Code, which tracks the International Building Code and the International Residential Code.
California has no rule of its own in statute for a wall that holds back earth. The rule is in Title 24 of the California Code of Regulations, which section 17922 adopts by reference and requires to match the newest editions of a named list of outside codes, the International Building Code and the International Residential Code among them. The same section leaves setbacks, side yards, rear yards and property line rules entirely to cities and counties.
This one is California law, not Bakersfield law. All California findings
The building standards and rules and regulations shall impose substantially the same requirements as are contained in the most recent editions of the following international or uniform industry codes as adopted by the organizations specified:
The code hands this to Title 24 of the California Code of Regulations, the California Building Standards Code, which tracks the International Building Code and the International Residential Code, which is not published in the code itself.
Fence materials allowed in Bakersfield
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Bakersfield answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Bakersfield is the first city on this site that makes somebody build a wall rather than only saying how tall one may be. A through lot in a residential zone whose rear line meets a state highway, major highway or secondary highway has to have a masonry wall, where the lot sits below the road, level with it, or less than ten feet above it. Wood will not do and the choice is not the owner. The definition of masonry wall the rule relies on is in the code at 17.04.462.
a masonry wall as defined by Section 17.04.462 shall be provided
10 ftheight above the roadway below which the masonry wall is required
Also on materials in Bakersfield
- set in state lawCalifornia sets a wire standard for a lawful fence in grazing counties. A wire fence takes three tight barbed wires on solid posts set no more than a rod apart, with one wire at least four feet up. Any fence as strong and as tall as that one counts too. Cal. Food & Agric. Code 17121California · Statute
- set in state lawIn the residential zones barbed and electrified wire are out, not only on the lot lines but anywhere within three feet of them. Bakersfield then adds a rule most cities never write: no sharp wire or points may stick up from the top of any fence or wall under six feet. So spiked finials and anti climb strips on an ordinary garden fence are caught even where no barbed wire is involved. BMC 17.08.180.DBakersfield · Zoning code
- set in state lawCommercial and industrial zones may use barbed wire, and Bakersfield says exactly where it has to start. The lowest strand sits at least six feet three inches above the highest ground on either side of the fence, which is the strict way to write it: measuring from the low side would let the wire sit nearer the ground on a slope. The wire has to lean back over the land it protects or run straight up, never out over the neighbor or the street. BMC 17.08.180.EBakersfield · Zoning code
Livestock and boundary fence law in Bakersfield
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Bakersfield answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Farm fencing in the Bakersfield agricultural zone may use barbed or electrified wire, but only at least 1,300 feet from any residential area, and the Building Director signs off on it. That quarter mile buffer is the widest separation of its kind found anywhere on this site. San Diego, by comparison, asks 600 feet for the same thing.
permitted to be erected, installed, used or maintained at locations at least 1,300 feet from any residential area
1300 ftleast distance from a residential area for agricultural barbed or electric fence
Also on agricultural fencing in Bakersfield
- set in state lawCalifornia calls a fence lawful when it is strong enough to keep livestock from getting in or out. A wire fence gets real numbers: three tight barbed wires on posts set no more than one rod apart, with one of those wires at least four feet off the ground. Any other fence as tall, as strong and as good at holding animals counts too, and so does a cattle guard wide and deep enough to turn them. Cal. Food & Agric. Code 17121California · Statute
- depends, see the pageCalifornia answers this one county by county. Section 17123 names Siskiyou, Lassen and Modoc, plus parts of Trinity and Shasta, as land used mainly for grazing. Section 17124 lets the board of supervisors of any county put the same label on the county or part of it. Where the label applies, the land has to be fully fenced before the person on it may take in a stray animal or hold it for payment. Cal. Food & Agric. Code 17122California · Statute
Documents behind this page
10 documents, of which 1 was published by Bakersfield itself. Each was read on the date shown.
- California LegislatureCalifornia Civil Code Section 841, Good Neighbor Fence Act of 2013
- California LegislatureCalifornia Civil Code Section 841.4, spite fences
- City of BakersfieldBakersfield Municipal Code, Title 17, Zoning Ordinance, Chapter 17.08, General Regulations
- California LegislatureCalifornia Health and Safety Code Section 17922, adoption of building standards
- California LegislatureCalifornia Health and Safety Code Section 17958.7, local modification of building standards
- California LegislatureCalifornia Health and Safety Code Section 115923, enclosure requirements
- California LegislatureCalifornia Government Code, Title 7, Division 1, Chapter 4, Article 2, Section 65850
- California LegislatureCalifornia Streets and Highways Code, Division 1, Chapter 3, Section 660
- California LegislatureCalifornia Food and Agricultural Code, Division 9, Part 2, Chapter 3, Article 5
- California LegislatureCalifornia Food and Agricultural Code, Division 9, Part 2, Chapter 3, Article 5
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 Bakersfield publishes, plus the California rules that apply where the city sets none. Fence laws in California 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