Fence laws in Santa Rosa, California
What the Santa Rosa municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Santa Rosa sets no rule of its own, the California rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Santa Rosa, 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
- Two extra feet of lattice on a six foot fence is allowed by right in Santa Rosa, in an interior side or rear setback and anywhere outside a required front or street side setback. The figure is 2 feet, for lattice allowed on top of a six foot fence by right.
- Permits
- The Building Official in Santa Rosa is barred from issuing a permit for a fence that would get in the way of the Fire Department reaching nearby buildings.
- 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
- Santa Rosa settles the slope argument in one sentence.
- Corner lots
- Santa Rosa allows no fence in a vision triangle. It reaches a vision triangle only.
- Retaining walls
- There is one way out of the lowest grade rule and it is narrow. The figure is 42 inches, for a safety fence on top of a retaining wall of 30 inches or more. It reaches a retaining wall of 30 inches or more only.
- Materials
- Santa Rosa defines a fence to include hedges, walls and anything in the nature of a fence, so a hedge in a front setback is held to the same 36 inches a picket fence is.
- 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 Santa Rosa?
Compare fences on the property line across all 50 states
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 Santa Rosa 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 Santa Rosa
- 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 Santa Rosa?
Compare fence height across all 50 states
Santa Rosa answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Two extra feet of lattice on a six foot fence is allowed by right in Santa Rosa, in an interior side or rear setback and anywhere outside a required front or street side setback. No permit from planning and no findings to make. The catch sits in the same note: anything over seven feet needs a building permit, so the eight foot fence is allowed by the zoning and still needs the building side to sign it off. Huntington Beach has the same device and asks for the neighbors to be notified instead.
A six-foot fence with two feet of lattice is allowed by right in an interior side or rear yard setback
Santa Rosa Zoning Code 20-30.060
2 ftlattice allowed on top of a six foot fence by right
Also on fence height in Santa Rosa
- 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 Santa Rosa single family lot runs off one table. 36 inches inside the required front yard setback, and the same 36 inches inside an exterior side setback, which is the street facing side of a corner lot. Six feet inside an interior side or rear setback, and six feet again outside any required setback. Multifamily and non residential properties are not on the table at all: those go to Design Review instead. Santa Rosa Zoning Code 20-30.060Santa Rosa · Zoning code
Do I need a permit for a fence in Santa Rosa?
Compare permits across all 50 states
Santa Rosa answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
The Building Official in Santa Rosa is barred from issuing a permit for a fence that would get in the way of the Fire Department reaching nearby buildings. It is written as a prohibition on the official rather than as a condition on the applicant, which means there is nothing to argue about at the counter: a fence that blocks fire access cannot be permitted, whatever else it complies with.
The Building Official shall not grant a building permit for any fence that will interfere with access in case of fire by the Fire Department to buildings in the vicinity
Santa Rosa Zoning Code 20-30.060
Also on permits in Santa Rosa
- 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 Santa Rosa
Compare pool barriers across all 50 states
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 Santa Rosa 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 Santa Rosa
Compare spite fences across all 50 states
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 Santa Rosa 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 Santa Rosa
Compare how height is measured across all 50 states
Santa Rosa answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Santa Rosa settles the slope argument in one sentence. Where the ground within six feet of a fence sits at different levels on the two sides, as it does at the top of a slope or on a retaining wall, the height is measured from the side with the lowest natural grade. The downhill neighbor decides the number. Ordinary height is the distance from the finished grade at the base of the fence to the top edge of the material, and a fence sitting on a wall is measured from the base of the wall rather than from its top.
the height shall be measured from the side with the lowest natural grade
Santa Rosa Zoning Code 20-30.060
Also on how height is measured in Santa Rosa
- 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 Santa Rosa
Compare corner visibility across all 50 states
Santa Rosa answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Santa Rosa allows no fence in a vision triangle. Not a low one, not an open one, none. Every other city read for this site sets a height inside the triangle and lets something stand there: two feet six in Stockton, three feet in San Diego and Fresno, three feet six in Sacramento. Santa Rosa is the only one that empties it. The Minor Director Conditional Use Permit that can raise height everywhere else on the lot is expressly unavailable inside the triangle.
No fence allowed, except as provided by Section
Santa Rosa Zoning Code 20-30.060
Also on corner visibility in Santa Rosa
- 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 Santa Rosa
Compare retaining walls across all 50 states
Santa Rosa answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
There is one way out of the lowest grade rule and it is narrow. A safety fence of 42 inches is allowed on top of a retaining wall 30 inches or higher, with a Minor Use Permit. That exists because a drop of two and a half feet is a fall risk and the measuring rule would otherwise make a guard rail impossible to build legally. It is a permit rather than an allowance, so it is asked for rather than assumed.
a safety fence with a height of 42 inches shall be allowed on the top of a retaining wall of 30 inches or more in height with Minor Use Permit approval
Santa Rosa Zoning Code 20-30.060
42 ina safety fence on top of a retaining wall of 30 inches or more
Also on retaining walls in Santa Rosa
- 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 Santa Rosa
Compare materials across all 50 states
Santa Rosa answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Santa Rosa defines a fence to include hedges, walls and anything in the nature of a fence, so a hedge in a front setback is held to the same 36 inches a picket fence is. That puts Santa Rosa with Los Angeles, Oakland, Fresno, Bakersfield and Santa Ana. San Diego is still the outlier that exempts living plants outright.
the term "fence" includes fences, hedges, walls or structures in the nature of a fence
Santa Rosa Zoning Code 20-30.060
Also on materials in Santa Rosa
- 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 Santa Rosa
Compare agricultural fencing across all 50 states
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 Santa Rosa 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 Santa Rosa
- 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 Santa Rosa 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 Santa Rosa, Planning and Economic DevelopmentSanta Rosa Zoning Code, Section 20-30.060, Fences, walls, and screening
- 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 Santa Rosa 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