Fence laws in Yuba City, California
What the Yuba City municipal code says about fences, one topic at a time, with the section number and a link to the document behind every line. Where Yuba City sets no rule of its own, the California rule is shown in its place and marked as such.
Fence laws in Yuba City, 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
- For a one or two family home in Yuba City the limit is three feet in any required front yard or street side yard and six feet in any other required yard, with the article leaving room for another part of the chapter to say otherwise, and the answer turns on the yard, the district, and what sits on the other side of the line. The figure is 3 feet, for wall, fence or hedge in a front or street side yard.
- Permits
- Yuba City sets no fence permit and no height threshold for one.
- 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
- Yuba City ties the reading to the property that has to provide the fence.
- Corner lots
- Inside a Yuba City sight distance triangle, defined at section 4-9.1901 of the municipal code, nothing over thirty inches above the nearest street curb elevation may be erected, placed, planted or allowed to grow where it would impair the vision of somebody entering or leaving a property or a street intersection, and the rule names walls, fences, hedges, signs, shrubbery and mounds of earth alongside structures. The figure is 30 inches, for anything inside the sight distance triangle.
- Retaining walls
- Yuba City 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
- Yuba City aims its materials rule at the street rather than at the whole lot, and the answer turns on the district, and whether the fence faces a street. The figure is 50 feet, for distance from a General Plan street.
- 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 Yuba City?
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 Yuba City 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 Yuba City
- 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 Yuba City?
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Yuba City answers this, but the answer changes depending on the yard, the district, and what sits on the other side of the line.
For a one or two family home in Yuba City the limit is three feet in any required front yard or street side yard and six feet in any other required yard, with the article leaving room for another part of the chapter to say otherwise. Certain walls are required rather than merely allowed. A multifamily development next to a single family district has to build a six foot masonry wall along every common property line, and so does a commercial or industrial development next to residential property. Outdoor storage or equipment rental fronting a public right of way or a customer parking area needs a six foot wall of masonry, or masonry pilasters with wood or similar decorative material, with fast growing five gallon shrubs allowed instead where they will form a solid barrier within three years.
The maximum height of walls, fences and hedges is three ft. in any required front yard or street side yard and six ft. in any other required yard, unless as otherwise provided for elsewhere in this chapter.
The answer turns on the yard, the district, and what sits on the other side of the line.
- a required front yard or street side yard
- Three feet. 3 ft
- any other required yard
- Six feet. 6 ft
- a multifamily, commercial or industrial line shared with housing
- A required six foot masonry wall. 6 ft
Also on fence height in Yuba City
- 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 Yuba City?
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Yuba City answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Yuba City sets no fence permit and no height threshold for one. What it has instead is a single route out of every standard in the article, through a use permit under section 8-5.7003, secured before the work. The article applies at the moment a building, fence or outdoor use is installed, erected, enlarged, increased in capacity or changed in type of use, so an existing fence is drawn back into the standards when the use around it changes rather than only when the fence itself is rebuilt.
Exceptions to the standards provided in this article may be permitted if a use permit (Section 8-5.7003) is first secured.
Also on permits in Yuba City
- 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 Yuba City
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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 Yuba City 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 Yuba City
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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 Yuba City 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 Yuba City
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Yuba City answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Yuba City ties the reading to the property that has to provide the fence. Height is measured on those premises and from the finish level of the ground beneath the fence, which means a neighbor sitting higher or lower does not move the number, and neither does an averaged grade across both lots. The one other datum in the article belongs to the sight triangle, where obstruction height runs from the nearest street curb elevation instead.
The height of a wall, fence or hedge shall be measured on the premises required to provide it and from the finish level of the ground beneath it.
Also on how height is measured in Yuba City
- 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 Yuba City
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Yuba City answers this in its own law. The words that do it are quoted below.
Inside a Yuba City sight distance triangle, defined at section 4-9.1901 of the municipal code, nothing over thirty inches above the nearest street curb elevation may be erected, placed, planted or allowed to grow where it would impair the vision of somebody entering or leaving a property or a street intersection, and the rule names walls, fences, hedges, signs, shrubbery and mounds of earth alongside structures. Outside the triangle but still in a required front or street side yard the cap is thirty six inches on the same list of things. Three exceptions are named: public utility poles, official traffic warning signs and signals, and trees trimmed to the trunk for at least seven feet of clearance above a sidewalk and fourteen feet above an adjacent right of way or intersection.
Within the sight distance triangle, defined in Section 4-9.1901 et seq. of the Municipal Code, no wall, fence, hedge, sign or other structure, shrubbery, mounds of earth, or other visual obstruction over 30 in. in height, above the nearest street curb elevation, shall be erected, placed, planted, or allowed to grow which would impair the vision of a person entering or exiting property or a street intersection.
30 inanything inside the sight distance triangle
Also on corner visibility in Yuba City
- 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 Yuba City
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Yuba City 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 Yuba City 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 Yuba City
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Yuba City answers this, but the answer changes depending on the district, and whether the fence faces a street.
Yuba City aims its materials rule at the street rather than at the whole lot. Coiled barbed wire, coiled razor wire and similar material are prohibited on fences along street frontages in every zoning district, whether attached to a fence, wall or hedge or standing on their own. Two exceptions are written in: where another law requires it, and on manufacturing district property that fronts a street the General Plan does not identify as an arterial or collector and that sits more than fifty feet from a General Plan street. Along a public right of way a commercial or industrial fence has to be masonry, masonry pilasters with wood, or a decorative open screen such as wrought iron with pilasters and open mesh, and has to stand behind the required landscaping. A wall or fence not visible from the right of way is not limited to any material type.
In all zoning districts, for fences along street frontages, the use of coiled barbed wire, coiled razor wire or similar material in conjunction with any fence, wall, roof hedge, or by itself is prohibited with the following exceptions:
The answer turns on the district, and whether the fence faces a street.
- any fence along a street frontage
- No coiled barbed or razor wire.
- a manufacturing district lot away from an arterial or collector
- Coiled wire is allowed, at least fifty feet from a General Plan street. 50 ft
- a commercial or industrial fence out of sight of the right of way
- No material limit at all.
Also on materials in Yuba City
- 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 Yuba City
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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 Yuba City 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 Yuba City
- 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 Yuba City 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 Yuba CityMunicipal Code, Title 8, Chapter 5, Article 59, Fences, Walls, Hedges and Intersection Visibility
- 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 Yuba City 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