Fence laws in Palo Alto, California
What the Palo Alto municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Palo Alto sets no rule of its own, the California rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Palo Alto, California, question by question
The short version
- Who pays on the line
- Where two Palo Alto corner lots sit next to each other with their rear yards joining, a six foot fence is allowed on the street side lot line, but only from a point fifty feet back from the radius point of the corner. The figure is 50 feet, for distance back from the radius point where a six foot street side fence may begin. It reaches corner lots whose rear yards join another corner lot only.
- How tall
- Palo Alto sets three heights by where the fence sits relative to the street setback line, and the answer turns on whether the fence stands inside or beyond the street setback line, and which yard it is in. The figure is 4 feet, for fence height between the street setback line and the lot line.
- Permits
- Palo Alto requires no fence permit and no building permit for a fence, at any height.
- 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
- Between the setback line and the lot line, Palo Alto measures a fence from natural grade rather than finished grade, and the chief building official decides where natural grade was.
- Corner lots
- At an intersection of any street improved for vehicular traffic, nothing in the nature of a fence stands more than three feet above the adjacent curb grade inside a triangle of thirty five feet. The figure is 35 feet, for each leg of the intersection triangle, measured from the projected curblines. It reaches street intersections only.
- Retaining walls
- Palo Alto 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
- Palo Alto prohibits barbed wire fences and then prohibits something no other city on this site mentions: any wire, twine or rope fence of one or more strands that stands under three feet high and within three feet of a public sidewalk. The figure is 3 feet, for distance from a public sidewalk within which a low strand fence is prohibited.
- 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 Palo Alto?
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Palo Alto answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Where two Palo Alto corner lots sit next to each other with their rear yards joining, a six foot fence is allowed on the street side lot line, but only from a point fifty feet back from the radius point of the corner. A driveway in that stretch clears out twelve feet: no fence at all within twelve feet of where the driveway meets the property line. The allowance does not apply where a corner lot backs onto an interior side yard instead, so the shape of the block decides it.
where a driveway occurs in that area, no fence may be constructed for a clear distance of twelve feet from the point of intersection of driveway and property lines.
Palo Alto Municipal Code 16.24.060
50 ftdistance back from the radius point where a six foot street side fence may begin
Also on fences on the property line in Palo Alto
- set in state lawTwo 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. Civ. Code 841California · Statute
- 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 Palo Alto?
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Palo Alto answers this, but the answer changes depending on whether the fence stands inside or beyond the street setback line, and which yard it is in.
Palo Alto sets three heights by where the fence sits relative to the street setback line. Between that line and the lot line the limit is four feet. Beyond it, a front yard or street side yard gets six feet and an interior side or rear yard gets seven. Support posts and columns are allowed five feet if no wider than eighteen inches, and a pedestrian gate or entry trellis is allowed eight feet within three feet of depth and five feet of width.
A fence, wall, or other structure in the nature of a fence located between the street setback line and the lot line, shall be permitted up to four feet in height, except as otherwise provided in this chapter.
Palo Alto Municipal Code 16.24.020
The answer turns on whether the fence stands inside or beyond the street setback line, and which yard it is in.
- between the street setback line and the lot line
- Four feet, with posts to five and entry gates or trellises to eight. 4 ft
- beyond the setback line in a front yard or street side yard
- Six feet. 6 ft
- beyond the setback line in an interior side yard or rear yard
- Seven feet. 7 ft
Also on fence height in Palo Alto
- 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 Palo Alto?
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Palo Alto answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Palo Alto requires no fence permit and no building permit for a fence, at any height. The one exception runs the other way: a fence built or replaced inside a public utility easement needs an encroachment permit from Public Works. Where the Architectural Review Board has to approve a fence, that approval or a variance is enough on its own. The rules still apply, and violating them is an infraction with each day counted separately.
No fence permit is required per Palo Alto Municipal Code (PAMC) Section 16.48.050.
Palo Alto Municipal Code 16.48.050
Also on permits in Palo Alto
- 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 Palo Alto
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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 Palo Alto 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 Palo Alto
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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 Palo Alto 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 Palo Alto
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Palo Alto answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Between the setback line and the lot line, Palo Alto measures a fence from natural grade rather than finished grade, and the chief building official decides where natural grade was. That removes the usual way of buying height, which is to raise the ground first and measure from the new surface. It also means the measurement can depend on what the ground looked like before work somebody else did years ago.
height of fences or walls between the setback line and lot line shall be measured from natural grade, as determined by the chief building official.
Palo Alto Municipal Code 16.24.010.a
Also on how height is measured in Palo Alto
- 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 Palo Alto
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Palo Alto answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
At an intersection of any street improved for vehicular traffic, nothing in the nature of a fence stands more than three feet above the adjacent curb grade inside a triangle of thirty five feet. The triangle is measured along the curblines and their projection, from where those projections meet. Two details do the work. The triangle is built from projected curblines rather than property lines, and the three feet are counted from the curb rather than from the ground the fence stands on.
A fence, wall or structure in the nature of a fence located at the intersection of any street improved for vehicular traffic, shall not exceed three feet in height above the adjacent curb grade, within a triangular area formed by the curblines, and their projection,
Palo Alto Municipal Code 16.24.040
35 fteach leg of the intersection triangle, measured from the projected curblines
Also on corner visibility in Palo Alto
- 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 Palo Alto
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Palo Alto 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 Palo Alto 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 Palo Alto
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Palo Alto answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Palo Alto prohibits barbed wire fences and then prohibits something no other city on this site mentions: any wire, twine or rope fence of one or more strands that stands under three feet high and within three feet of a public sidewalk. That is the low single strand run around a lawn edge to keep people off the grass. The code calls both a nuisance constituting an unsafe and unlawful condition, which makes them abatable rather than merely non-compliant.
All wire, twine or rope fences consisting of one or more strands of wire, twine or rope less than three feet in height and within three feet of any public sidewalk.
Palo Alto Municipal Code 16.24.070
3 ftdistance from a public sidewalk within which a low strand fence is prohibited
Also on materials in Palo Alto
- 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
Livestock and boundary fence law in Palo Alto
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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 Palo Alto 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 Palo Alto
- 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 Palo Alto itself. Each was read on the date shown.
- California LegislatureCalifornia Civil Code Section 841, Good Neighbor Fence Act of 2013
- City of Palo Alto, Planning and Development ServicesPalo Alto Fence Code, reprinting Municipal Code Chapter 16.24
- California LegislatureCalifornia Civil Code Section 841.4, spite fences
- 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 Palo Alto 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