Do You Need A Permit For A Fence In Glendale

Most people ask this expecting one answer, and there are two. They come from two different departments with two different height limits. A normal six foot Glendale back yard fence usually needs no building permit at all, and still needs the Planning office to sign off on it. That gap is where almost every delayed fence project in this city goes wrong.

The Building Permit Line Is Seven Feet

The city is unusually clear about this one. You need a building permit for a freestanding fence or wall if it is taller than seven feet, or if it includes a wall holding back dirt that is four feet or taller measured from the top of the wall to the bottom of the footing, or if it sits next to a slope, the public sidewalk or another building, or if something heavy above it presses down on it.

Seven feet is higher than most cities, which usually draw the line at six. That is why a standard six foot privacy fence in a Glendale back yard comes in under the limit. The catch is that three of those four triggers have nothing to do with height at all, and on a hillside lot at least one of them is usually true.

The Three Triggers That Are Not About Height

A wall holding back dirt counts once it reaches four feet, and the measurement is the part people get wrong. You measure from the top of the wall down to the bottom of the footing, not from the ground you are standing on. The footing is buried, so a wall showing only two and a half or three feet of block can still cross the line.

Sitting next to a slope, the public sidewalk or another building counts on its own, at any height. In a city that runs up into the Verdugo Mountains and the San Rafael Hills, a great many fence lines are next to a slope by definition. The last trigger is weight from above, which means a driveway, a pool, a building or the neighbor's higher ground pressing down on the dirt your wall is holding.

Design Review Starts At Three Feet, In A Different Office

This is the part that surprises people. In Glendale's home zones, any fence or wall over three feet has to go through design review, which is handled by Planning rather than by Building and Safety.

Three feet is low, and a six foot back yard fence is double it. So the ordinary residential fence that needs no building permit does still go through Planning, and Planning is a different counter. Two processes, two height limits, two offices.

The same rule limits what the fence can be made of in those zones. You can use wood, block or brick, or decorative metal such as wrought iron, plus anything else the city approves case by case. Vinyl is not named, so it lands in that last group and gets approved one job at a time rather than automatically.

What The City Actually Wants To See

The city lists what it wants plainly, and it is worth reading before a contractor draws anything, because an incomplete site plan is the most common reason a simple application comes back:

• A site plan showing where the fence or wall goes, with both its height and its length
• How far it sits from each property line
• What it will be made of, with product information
• For walls that hold back dirt, the ground height at the top, the ground height at the bottom, and the top of the wall, taken at several points including the tallest and the shortest
• Where every existing building on the lot sits
• Which zone the property is in, because the home zones carry rules the others do not

When you do need a permit, there are two separate applications, one for a fence or wall and one for a retaining wall. Knowing which one you are filing saves a trip.

Four Worked Examples

A six foot redwood fence replacing an old one along the back of a flat lot in the Vineyard area. No building permit, because it is under seven feet, holds back nothing and is not near a slope. Design review still applies, because six is over three.

An eight foot fence for extra privacy on that same lot. Now you need a building permit, because it is over seven feet, and design review as well. This is the jump most people do not price in when they decide they want two more feet.

A five foot fence along the top of a two foot garden wall on a Chevy Chase Canyon lot. The height question is arguable, but the slope question is not. Sitting next to a slope is its own trigger, so this needs a permit no matter how the math works out.

A three foot decorative fence around a front garden bed. It is under both limits, and in a back or side yard it would be genuinely simple. Out front it runs into a different problem, which is that fences are essentially not allowed in the front setback at all.

Before Anyone Digs

Separate from anything the city wants, state law says you have to call 811 at least two working days before you dig, and no more than fourteen days before. In Southern California that call goes to DigAlert.

A working day means Monday to Friday, seven in the morning to five in the evening, not counting holidays, and the day you call does not count toward the two. A fence post hole counts as digging. Sprinkler lines, gas, low voltage yard lighting and cable all sit at post depth.

Who To Call

For zoning, design review and what you are allowed to build on your own property, the Glendale Planning office is on (818) 548-2140. The city also runs counter appointments through GlendaleCA.gov/PlanningAppt, which is the fastest way to get a specific answer about a specific address.

It is worth making that call yourself even when a contractor offers to handle it. Ten minutes on the phone tells you whether the fence you have been picturing is allowed at the height you want, before anybody has quoted a price against it.

And if a contractor tells you a six foot fence in a Glendale home zone needs no approval of any kind, that is a reasonable moment to get a second bid. It needs no building permit, but it does need Planning.

Rules change and this is a summary rather than advice. Check the current requirements for your own address with the Glendale Planning office on (818) 548-2140 before you order material.