Fence Rules in Los Altos

Six feet is the general limit. Two places drop to four (§14.72.020, and (A)):

• Inside the required front yard setback: 4 feet.
• Within 5 feet of the exterior side property line of a corner lot: 4 feet — a band along the side street, measured from the property line.

That second one is the rule people miss. It is not the whole street side yard and it is not a triangle; it is a five-foot strip along the line, and inside it the fence drops to four feet.

Two of them, with different numbers and different jobs (§14.72.020(C), (D)):

• At the intersection of two streets: nothing over 3 feet within a 25-foot triangle.
• Either side of a driveway where it meets a street: nothing over 4 feet within a 15-foot triangle.

Both are drawn in the chapter's own exhibits. The driveway rule also reaches across a property line: where a neighbour's driveway sits within 15 feet of the intersection of a rear property line and a secondary street property line of a corner lot — or where that adjoining property is vacant — the same 15-foot limit applies to your fence (§14.72.020(E)).

Twenty-five feet is this city's number. A triangle stepped off at the figure a neighbouring city uses will be the wrong size here, and the fence inside it will be the one that moves.

Sometimes, and it is worth asking before designing. The city planner may approve an exception allowing the exterior side yard of a corner lot to be treated as the front yard, with the other yards reoriented accordingly for fencing purposes — but only where that alternative orientation is clearly consistent with how the house itself is oriented (§14.72.020(B)).

So the answer on a Los Altos corner is not universal. On two lots at the same intersection, with houses facing different streets, the same fence line can be governed by different limits.

This is the part no one carries over from another city, and it is recent.

For a solid fence or wall greater than six feet in height, no building permit may be issued until administrative design review has been approved by the development services department (§14.77.020.A.1.c). The provision reads in the current edition as amended by Ordinance No. 2025-534, effective 8 July 2025.

Note what triggers it: solid. An open fence of the same height is not what that line names. And note the sequence — the review comes first and the building permit cannot issue before it.

In practice, no. The city adopted the 2025 building and residential codes and amended only the item about accessory structures, leaving the state exemption for fences intact — a building permit becomes necessary above 7 feet (§12.06.020, §12.08.020).

Since zoning holds the ceiling at six feet, a fence that complies with the fence chapter never reaches the building permit threshold. The permit question only arises through the design review route above, or through an exception that puts a fence higher than the chapter allows.

Two measurements decide most Los Altos fences, and neither is the one people take.

Where the exterior side property line runs, because the four-foot band is measured five feet in from it — not from the sidewalk, and not from the neighbour's fence. And where the two triangles fall, at the intersection and at every driveway.

A boundary survey by a licensed surveyor is the only thing that fixes a property line for certain, and the city's planning counter confirms what applies at a specific address — including whether a corner lot qualifies for the reorientation above. A fence built inside a triangle or inside the five-foot band is not corrected on paper: it comes out and goes back at the owner's cost.

We work on fences in Los Altos — repairs, posts, gates and boards — and on a corner lot these are the questions we answer first. Send photos of what you have and we will tell you what the line allows. The wider picture for neighbouring cities is in the fence rules and permits guide.