Fence Rules in Palo Alto

Three numbers, and which one applies depends on where the fence stands relative to the street setback line (§16.24.020):

• Between the street setback line and the lot line: 4 feet. Support posts or columns may reach 5 feet, and a pedestrian gate or trellis used as an entryway feature may reach 8 feet, within 3 feet of depth and 5 feet of width (§16.24.020(a)).
• Beyond the setback line, in a front yard or street side yard: 6 feet (§16.24.020(b)(1)).
• Beyond the setback line, in an interior side yard or rear yard: 7 feet (§16.24.020(b)(2)).

Nothing over 3 feet above the adjacent curb grade, inside a triangle formed by the curblines and their projections, closed by a line joining points 35 feet from where the projected curblines meet (§16.24.040).

Two details in that sentence do the work. The triangle is built on curblines, not on your property lines. And the height inside it is measured from the curb, not from the ground the fence stands on.

Because a lot that sits above the street quietly loses height. Measure 3 feet from your own grade and the city measures the same fence from the curb below it — the fence the plan calls compliant is taller than the rule allows, and the correction is moving it.

It is also the reason a rule of thumb carried over from a neighbouring city does not survive the drive. The cities next door build the same kind of triangle from different starting points — one from the intersection of property lines, another from right-of-way lines — so the apex lands somewhere else on the ground even when the number of feet is the same. Palo Alto's answer is the curbline, and only the curbline.

Only in one configuration, and this is the part worth reading twice.

Where it applies. Where corner lots are adjacent to each other with rear yards joining, a 6-foot fence is permitted on the street side yard lot line beginning 50 feet from the radius point of the corner. Where a driveway falls inside that stretch, nothing may be built for a clear distance of 12 feet from the point where the driveway meets the property lines (§16.24.060).

Where it does not. The same section says it plainly: this provision does not apply to corner lots whose rear or side yard abuts an interior side yard of an adjacent property. That is an ordinary corner lot whose back neighbour faces the other street — a very common layout, and one where §16.24.060 gives you nothing. The heights in §16.24.020 and the triangle in §16.24.040 still govern; the 50-foot allowance simply is not on the table.

So the first question on a Palo Alto corner is not "how tall" — it is what is behind you. Another corner lot with its rear yard against yours, or a neighbour's interior side yard. The answer changes which section of the code you are reading.

Chapter 16.24 — the fence chapter — contains no permit section. It sets heights, locations and prohibitions, and its only relief mechanism is a variance (§16.24.090). There is no fence application to file for a fence that meets the chapter.

That depends on what the fence is made of, and the code is narrower than the version in circulation.

Palo Alto's own amendment to the building code lists what is exempt (§16.04.110, "Section 105.2 Work exempt from permit"). Item 2 of the Building list exempts wood fences, other than swimming pool barriers, not over 7 feet high, or concrete or masonry walls not over 4 feet high — and it carries a tail: "when not subject to specific city of Palo Alto Planning and Zoning regulations."

Read that literally and three things follow. Only wood is named — metal, vinyl and composite are not in item 2. Masonry and concrete get 4 feet, not 6. And the closing clause narrows the exemption further, because fences in Palo Alto are subject to a fence ordinance and to zoning. How the Building Division applies that clause in practice is a question for the Building Division; we are not going to tell you what they will say.

Because the document most often forwarded to homeowners and contractors — the city's "Fence Code / Fence Permit Eliminated" handout — cites PAMC 16.48.050, and there is no Chapter 16.48 in the current code. It is listed as RESERVED. The section that document points at is not there to read.

The live rule is the one above: §16.04.110 for what is exempt from a building permit, Chapter 16.24 for heights and the corner. Where the handout and the code differ — wood only rather than fences generally, 4 feet rather than 6 for masonry, the trailing clause — the code is what the city enforces from.

This is not a claim that the city is misinforming anyone; handouts age, chapters get repealed and renumbered, and a PDF does not know that. It is a reason to check a number against the code before it becomes a fence, and a reason to be careful with a quote whose justification is a handout rather than a section.

Two things decide a Palo Alto corner, and neither is on the drawing you were sent.

Where the curb is, because the triangle and the height inside it are measured from it. And what sits behind your lot — another corner lot with a joining rear yard, or a neighbour's interior side yard — because that is what decides whether §16.24.060 is available to you at all.

A boundary survey by a licensed surveyor is the only thing that fixes a property line for certain, and the city's Planning Division is who confirms what applies at a specific address. Worth the effort in proportion to how tall the run is and how close it goes to the line: a fence that is over height in the triangle or standing where the section does not reach is not corrected on paper — it comes out and goes back at the owner's cost.

We work on fences in Palo Alto — fence repair, posts, gates and boards — and on a corner lot these are the questions we answer before anything is set. Send photos of what you have and we will tell you what the corner allows. The wider picture for neighbouring cities is in the fence rules and permits guide.