Fence laws in Oakland, California
What the Oakland municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Oakland sets no rule of its own, the California rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Oakland, 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
- Oakland allows one tall thing in the front setback that the 42 inch limit does not reach. The figure is 10 feet, for one entry gateway or trellis in the required front setback. It reaches the required front setback area of a lot 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
- Oakland leaves the measuring rule to the legislative body of each county and city, through its zoning ordinance.
- Corner lots
- Oakland leaves corner clearance to Chapter 10.60 of the Oakland Traffic Code, Vision Obscurements at Intersections.
- Retaining walls
- Oakland 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
- Barbed wire, razor wire and electrified wire are all out of residential fences in Oakland, with no height at which they become allowed. It reaches residential zones, and any zone containing residential facilities 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 Oakland?
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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 Oakland 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 Oakland
- 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 Oakland?
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Oakland answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Oakland allows one tall thing in the front setback that the 42 inch limit does not reach. A single entry gateway, trellis or similar entry structure may stand up to ten feet, in height or in width, in the required front setback of each lot. One per lot, so an arch over the path is fine and a row of them is not.
One (1) entry gateway, trellis or other entry structure may be permitted in the required front setback area of each lot provided the maximum height or width of the facility does not exceed ten (10) feet.
Oakland Planning Code 17.108.140.B.1.d
10 ftone entry gateway or trellis in the required front setback
Also on fence height in Oakland
- 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 pageOakland runs from 42 inches at the front to eight feet at the back, which is the widest spread of any city on this site. A minimum front yard, and the street side yard of a corner lot, are held to 42 inches. Any other minimum yard or court gets eight feet by right, with no design review and no application. A rear yard within ten feet of a street is pulled back to six. The street side yard can also reach six feet in the part nearest the rear lot line, measured 35 feet back or to the rear of the house, whichever reaches further. Oakland Planning Code 17.108.140.B.1Oakland · Zoning code
Do I need a permit for a fence in Oakland?
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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 Oakland 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 Oakland
- 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 Oakland
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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 Oakland 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 Oakland
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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 Oakland 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 Oakland
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Oakland 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 Oakland 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 Oakland
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Oakland does not set this. It leaves it to Chapter 10.60 of the Oakland Traffic Code, Vision Obscurements at Intersections.
Oakland keeps its corner rule in the traffic code rather than the planning code, and then says the traffic code wins. Chapter 10.60, Vision Obscurements at Intersections, applies to every fence, dense hedge, barrier and freestanding wall, and it overrides anything else in the planning code. So a fence that clears every height limit on this page can still be unlawful if it blocks the view at an intersection, and the rule that does that sits in a different title from the one a homeowner would think to read.
all fences, dense hedges, barriers, and similar freestanding walls shall comply with the applicable provisions of Chapter 10.60 of the Oakland Traffic Code
Oakland Planning Code 17.108.140.A
The code hands this to Chapter 10.60 of the Oakland Traffic Code, Vision Obscurements at Intersections, which is not published in the code itself.
Also on corner visibility in Oakland
- 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 Oakland
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Oakland 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 Oakland 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 Oakland
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Oakland answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Barbed wire, razor wire and electrified wire are all out of residential fences in Oakland, with no height at which they become allowed. The one exception is a building site, where the Director of City Planning can permit them for the length of the construction if they decide it makes the site safer or that people getting in would be a hazard. In commercial zones the ban is narrower: it applies where the wire is visible from the street rather than everywhere.
Barbed wire, razor wire, or electrified wire is not allowed to be used in fences.
Oakland Planning Code 17.108.140.B.3.a
Also on materials in Oakland
- 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 lawOakland will not accept a bare concrete block wall. Plain block is not a permitted fencing material unless it is capped and finished in stucco or something else the Director of City Planning signs off on. This is a rule about how the wall looks rather than how it performs, which is rare in a fence chapter, and it means the finish is not optional on a block wall here. Oakland Planning Code 17.108.140.B.3.cOakland · Zoning code
- set in state lawChain link carries its own ceiling in Oakland regardless of what the yard would otherwise allow. It cannot exceed 42 inches in a street fronting yard, and it cannot exceed 42 inches in an interior side yard that sits closer to the front lot line than the front wall of the house. So the eight feet an interior side yard normally gets is not available in chain link until the fence is behind the front of the building. Oakland Planning Code 17.108.140.B.3.bOakland · Zoning code
Livestock and boundary fence law in Oakland
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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 Oakland 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 Oakland
- 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 Oakland 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 OaklandOakland Planning Code, Title 17
- 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 Oakland 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