Fence Guides and Advice for Glendale, CA

Three guides to the parts of fencing in Glendale that are genuinely local, written from the actual city code rather than general advice. The Planning office number is (818) 548-2140 if you want to check any of it yourself.

The permit guide answers the question most people arrive with. Glendale runs two separate approvals at two different heights. A building permit starts above seven feet, which is higher than most cities. Design review starts at three feet in the home zones, which is lower than almost anywhere. The ordinary six foot back yard fence falls between them, needing Planning but not Building and Safety, and that gap is where most delayed projects in this city end up.

The front yard guide corrects something almost every other site gets wrong about Glendale. They report a three and a half foot limit out front. The code does not set a lower height at all. It keeps fences out of the front setback altogether and allows only retaining walls, planters and curbs up to eighteen inches. Knowing that before you buy material is the difference between a fence and a notice telling you to take it out.

The fire guide covers the Zone 0 rules the state approved on August 19, 2026. They cover the first five feet around a house, so for a home in Chevy Chase Canyon, Glenoaks Canyon or Verdugo Woodlands with a wood fence running into its wall, they change what that section has to be made of. It also covers the overlap most articles miss, which is that the two materials Zone 0 pushes you toward, block and metal, are the same two Glendale already allows outright in the hillside zones.