Fence laws in Lake Forest, California
What the Lake Forest municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Lake Forest sets no rule of its own, the California rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Lake Forest, 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
- The Lake Forest table runs from three and a half feet to twelve, and the answer turns on which setback the fence stands in, and whether a sound wall or a dedication applies. The figure is 3.5 feet, for fence or wall in the front yard setback.
- Permits
- Extra height in Lake Forest runs through a site development permit under section 9.184.010, and the fence section adds two findings on top of the ordinary ones.
- 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
- Lake Forest reads height from the base to the top of whichever side is higher, so the taller face governs rather than the owner’s own. The figure is 30 inches, for gap below which two fences count as one structure.
- Corner lots
- Lake Forest controls the corner twice over. The figure is 15 feet, for leg of the street intersection vision triangle.
- Retaining walls
- Lake Forest folds the retaining wall into the fence rules rather than giving it a chapter of its own. The figure is 8 feet, for ceiling measured from the lower side in a side or rear setback.
- Materials
- California sets a wire standard for a lawful fence in grazing counties. The figure is 3 strands, for barbed wires in a lawful wire fence. It reaches lawful fences in grazing counties only.
- Livestock
- California calls a fence lawful when it is strong enough to keep livestock from getting in or out. The figure is 4 feet, for height of the top wire on a lawful wire fence.
Who owns the fence between two properties in Lake Forest?
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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 Lake Forest 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 Lake Forest
- 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 Lake Forest?
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Lake Forest answers this, but the answer changes depending on which setback the fence stands in, and whether a sound wall or a dedication applies.
The Lake Forest table runs from three and a half feet to twelve. A front yard setback takes three and a half, which rises to six where the fence is built outside the required front setback or set ten feet back from the front property line, whichever is less. An interior side or rear setback takes six feet, as does a side or rear setback that borders a street. A controlled area vision triangle drops back to three and a half. Outside every required setback, in the main building area, the limit is twelve feet. A part of the site where vehicular access rights have been dedicated to a public agency gets six feet, and a city-required sound attenuation wall along a freeway or major arterial may be six, or eight where the road sits two feet or more above the building site or where the outside face measures no more than six.
Height can be increased above 3.5 feet to a maximum height of 6 feet if constructed outside of the required front yard setback or setback 10 feet from the front property line, whichever is less.
9.144.080.5.C, Table 9.144.080.5(A)
The answer turns on which setback the fence stands in, and whether a sound wall or a dedication applies.
- within the front yard setback
- Three and a half feet. 3.5 ft
- within an interior side or rear setback, or one bordering a street
- Six feet. 6 ft
- outside every required setback
- Twelve feet. 12 ft
- a city-required sound wall on a freeway or major arterial
- Six feet, or eight where the road is raised or the outside face stays at six. 8 ft
Also on fence height in Lake Forest
- 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
Do I need a permit for a fence in Lake Forest?
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Lake Forest answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Extra height in Lake Forest runs through a site development permit under section 9.184.010, and the fence section adds two findings on top of the ordinary ones. The reviewing body has to find that the height and location will not result in or create a traffic hazard, and that the location, size, design and other characteristics will not create conditions that may be objectionable, detrimental or incompatible with other permitted uses nearby. Both are written as findings the application has to satisfy rather than as factors to weigh.
Exceptions and modifications to the fence and wall height provisions may be permitted subject to the approval of a site development permit application processed in compliance with the provisions of Section 9.184.010.
Also on permits in Lake Forest
- set in state lawCalifornia 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. Health & Saf. Code 17922California · Statute
- 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 Lake Forest
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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 Lake Forest 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 Lake Forest
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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 Lake Forest 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 Lake Forest
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Lake Forest answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Lake Forest reads height from the base to the top of whichever side is higher, so the taller face governs rather than the owner’s own. Two further rules do most of the work. Where the adjoining building site sits higher than the base of a side or rear setback fence, the height may be taken from that higher elevation, subject to a hard ceiling of eight feet measured from the lower side. And two fences whose adjoining faces stand less than thirty inches apart are treated as one structure, measured from the base of the lower to the top of the higher. At thirty inches or more they become separate structures and are measured on their own.
Fences less than 30 inches apart (measured between adjoining faces) shall be considered one structure and fence height shall be measured from the base of the lower fence to the top of the higher fence. Fences 30 inches or more apart shall be considered separate structures and their heights shall be measured independently.
30 ingap below which two fences count as one structure
Also on how height is measured in Lake Forest
- left to the townCalifornia 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. Cal. Gov. Code 65850(c)(1)California · Zoning code
Fence rules for corner lots in Lake Forest
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Lake Forest answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Lake Forest controls the corner twice over. At a street intersection the limit is three and a half feet inside a triangle drawn between two points fifteen feet from where the two ultimate street right of way lines meet, extended. A smaller five foot radius carries the same three and a half foot limit at four other points: where a street right of way meets an interior property line, where it meets the edge of a driveway or vehicular accessway, where it meets an alley right of way, and where a driveway or accessway meets an alley. The table repeats the figure for anything inside a controlled area vision triangle.
Street Intersection Areas. Notwithstanding subsection B above, the maximum height shall be three and one-half feet within the triangular area formed by drawing a straight line between two points located on, and 15 feet distant from, the point of intersection of two ultimate street right-of-way lines extended
15 ftleg of the street intersection vision triangle
Also on corner visibility in Lake Forest
- set in state lawCalifornia 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. Cal. Sts. & Hy. Code 660California · Traffic code
Retaining wall rules in Lake Forest
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Lake Forest answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Lake Forest folds the retaining wall into the fence rules rather than giving it a chapter of its own. The applicability line puts any retaining wall, along with a sound attenuation wall, a screen, a hedge or a thick growth of shrubs or trees, inside the term fences and walls, so the height table and the measuring rules apply to all of them. That makes the eight foot ceiling measured from the lower side the practical limit on a retaining wall in a side or rear setback, and the twelve foot figure the limit outside every setback.
For purposes of this section, "fences and walls" include any type of fence, wall, retaining wall, sound attenuation wall, screen, hedge, or thick growth of shrubs or trees.
8 ftceiling measured from the lower side in a side or rear setback
Also on retaining walls in Lake Forest
- left to the townCalifornia 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. Health & Saf. Code 17922(a)California · Statute
Fence materials allowed in Lake Forest
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California answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
California 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.
This one is California law, not Lake Forest law. All California findings
No wire fence is a good and substantial fence within the meaning of this article unless it has three tightly stretched barbed wires securely fastened to posts of reasonable strength, firmly set in the ground not more than one rod apart, one of which wires shall be at least four feet above the surface of the ground.
3 strandsbarbed wires in a lawful wire fence
Livestock and boundary fence law in Lake Forest
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California answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
California 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.
This one is California law, not Lake Forest law. All California findings
No wire fence is a good and substantial fence within the meaning of this article unless it has three tightly stretched barbed wires securely fastened to posts of reasonable strength, firmly set in the ground not more than one rod apart, one of which wires shall be at least four feet above the surface of the ground.
4 ftheight of the top wire on a lawful wire fence
Also on agricultural fencing in Lake Forest
- 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 Lake Forest 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 Lake ForestZoning Code, Chapter 9.144, Section 9.144.080.5, Fences and walls
- 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 Lake Forest 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