Does a new 6-foot wood fence in Palo Alto need a permit?

Not a building permit. The Building Division's list of work exempt from permit covers fences other than block and concrete walls up to 7 feet, and a block or concrete wall up to 6. The height limit for the yard the fence stands in still comes from Chapter 16.24, and a fence built or replaced inside a public utility easement needs an encroachment permit from Public Works.

Our Eichler has no front fence. Can we fence in the front lawn?

Chapter 16.24 would allow a fence up to 4 feet near the street, but the city's Eichler guidelines advise against it. They call fences between an Eichler and the street a later addition that does not fit the tracts and single out the front property line as the worst place for one. If a front-yard fence goes in, they suggest keeping it within 10 feet of the front wall, or enclosing a courtyard flush with the facade.

Our Palo Alto lot runs between two streets. Where can the 6-foot fence go?

On the rear lot line. Section 16.24.065 allows a 6-foot fence there on a through lot and defines the rear line as the property line on the street that does not provide the primary access to the lot. The allowance covers that rear line only; the line along the street you use to reach the house keeps the ordinary limits for a street frontage.

Palo Alto Fence Repair and What Chapter 16.24 Allows

Free request

Describe the fence and gate job once. Local pros who take work in Palo Alto reply by call or text.

No fee to request, and no obligation to hire
You agree scope and price with the pro you choose
Photos help them quote without a first visit

Get quotes for fence and gate work in Palo Alto

Two short steps. A local pro who takes this work calls or texts you back.

To send a request, call or text (415) 449-8213.

Free to request, and you agree the scope and price with the person you hire before work starts. In California, a job over $1,000 in labor and materials, or one that needs a building permit, must be done by a contractor licensed by the CSLB in the right class. Ask for the license number and check it at cslb.ca.gov.

Permits and local rules

The city documents a Palo Alto fence quote has to match

Chapter 16.24, Fences
Palo Alto places its fence chapter in Title 16, Building Regulations, not in the zoning code. Height between the setback line and the lot line is measured from natural grade as the chief building official or the Director of Planning and Development Services determines it. Building or keeping a fence that breaks the chapter is an infraction, each day a separate offense, and code enforcement officers and the building officials may cite it. Variances follow Chapter 18.76, except from the corner triangle and the list of prohibited fences.
Palo Alto Municipal Code, Chapter 16.24 (opens in a new tab)
Work exempt from permit
The Building Division's handout exempts fences other than block and concrete walls up to 7 feet, block and concrete walls up to 6 feet, and retaining walls up to 4 feet measured from the bottom of the footing to the top of the wall, unless the wall supports a surcharge. Under city policy, a gate trellis is allowed only at an entryway, up to 8 feet tall and 5 feet wide, and every fence must still be built to the fence code.
City of Palo Alto Building Division (opens in a new tab)
Section 6.3 of the Eichler guidelines
The guidelines discourage fences placed between an Eichler and the street and call a fence on the front property line particularly out of character. They ask for modern or simple designs, recommend wood because it matches the siding on most Eichlers, and suggest vertical or horizontal board in the manner of Japanese gardens. Tall, solid fences that would block the view of the house from the street are to be avoided, and shrubbery can stand in for a fence if it leaves the house visible.
Source: City of Palo Alto, Eichler Design Guidelines (paloalto.gov)
Where the old treated posts cannot go
Palo Alto's Household Hazardous Waste Station lists pressure-treated wood among the items it does not accept, so pulled fence posts cannot be dropped off there. RE:Source, the disposal directory StopWaste runs for Alameda and Contra Costa counties and for Palo Alto, says treated wood never belongs in a curbside cart and lists the landfills and haulers that take it for a fee, several of them asking callers to phone first. Settle before demolition whether the contractor hauls the posts away.
Source: City of Palo Alto Zero Waste (paloalto.gov)

State license for this work: C-13 Fencing, C-29 Masonry. Look up a contractor's license on the CSLB website (cslb.ca.gov).

The work

Four fence jobs that read differently under Palo Alto's code

Rebuilding an Eichler side or courtyard fence
The Eichler guidelines are voluntary, but they are specific about where a rebuilt fence should stand. A side-yard fence should be flush with the front facade or set behind it, so the face of the house stays visible. A fence enclosing a front courtyard should also line up with the facade plane, and where a garage projects toward the street, a fence in line with the garage front and parallel to the street is described as appropriate. Any fence in the front yard should sit within 10 feet of the front wall.
Corner lots and the 35-foot triangle
Section 16.24.040 holds any fence, wall or structure in the nature of a fence to 3 feet above the adjacent curb grade inside a triangle formed by the curb lines and a line joining them 35 feet from where those curb lines, projected, meet. Section 16.24.090 bars a variance from it. Where two corner lots join at their rear yards, a 6-foot fence may run along the street side lot line starting 50 feet from the corner's radius point, with 12 feet left clear wherever a driveway crosses that line.
Swapping boards for a block or concrete wall
Masonry reaches the permit line a foot sooner than wood in Palo Alto: the Building Division exempts block and concrete walls only up to 6 feet. In an Eichler front yard, the guidelines also ask owners to avoid brick or stone veneers and to use those materials as structural elements instead, which argues against a stone face over a block core. For licensing, a block, brick or stone wall is masonry work under the CSLB's C-29 class rather than C-13 fencing.
A fence line over a utility easement
A rear or side lot line can carry a recorded public utility easement, and the posts of a new fence may land right in it. Palo Alto's Building Division policy says a fence erected or replaced inside a public utility easement needs an encroachment permit from the Public Works Department, even though the fence itself needs no building permit. The recorded subdivision map or a title report shows whether an easement runs where the new posts will go.

A white wooden picket fence with an open gate in front of a white weatherboard house. Photo: Jorge Royan, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The houses here

Eichler courtyards, Professorville pickets and lots that end at a creek

Two fence traditions sit side by side in Palo Alto. The city's Eichler Neighborhood Design Guidelines, adopted in 2018, describe modernist houses meant to be seen from the street and point out that fences between an Eichler and the sidewalk were not part of the original tracts; what belongs is a side or courtyard fence of simple wood board that lines up with the front of the house. Professorville's 2016 design guidelines record the opposite pattern near downtown: front yards edged by low wood picket fences and hedgerows along the sidewalk, often with a gate, gateposts or a trellis where the front walk meets it. A third group of lots backs onto San Francisquito Creek, where part of a rear yard can lie inside a Valley Water flood-control easement.

Part by part

Three Palo Alto streetscapes with a fence rule of their own

Professorville
The district's guidelines ask owners to keep the wood fences and hedges that follow front and side yards, and to choose low, see-through boundaries, with wood pickets strongly recommended beside the sidewalk. Chain link and plastic fences are out of keeping, stucco walls should stay low and match a stucco house, and gates at the walk should not compete with the residence. Houses on Embarcadero Road are the stated exception, where taller or solid fences against traffic may be appropriate.
University Avenue east of Middlefield Road
Between Middlefield Road and the eastern city limit, Section 16.24.020 lets a home facing University Avenue put a fence up to 6 feet inside its front and street side setbacks, on conditions: at least 5 feet from the sidewalk edge, posts no taller than 7 feet and at least 6 feet apart, a design that suits the house, screen planting kept up on the street side, and nothing over 4 feet in the driveway sight triangle.
Edgewood Drive along San Francisquito Creek
A single-family lot fronting Edgewood Drive and backing onto the creek may have a rear fence or wall up to 10 feet, but only where the part of the site under the Santa Clara Valley Water District's permanent flood-control easement was reconfigured after January 1, 2002. Valley Water separately requires an encroachment permit for work on or near its land or easements.

Before you hire

Before you hire for a Palo Alto fence

On an Eichler, ask for a wood board design that sits flush with or behind the front facade, as the city's guidelines describe.
At a corner lot, ask them to lay out the 35-foot triangle from the curb lines and keep everything inside it within 3 feet of curb height.
If a utility easement crosses the fence line, ask who will get the Public Works encroachment permit before any post hole is dug.
Replacing boards with block? Ask whether the wall will pass 6 feet, where Palo Alto's permit exemption for masonry ends.
Ask where the pressure-treated posts will go, since the city's hazardous waste station turns treated wood away.

Still deciding?

We back onto San Francisquito Creek on Edgewood Drive. How tall can the rear fence be?

Up to 10 feet, if the portion of your lot under the Valley Water flood-control easement was reconfigured after January 1, 2002; otherwise the standard rear-yard limit applies. Any work on or near district land or an easement also needs a Valley Water encroachment permit, and the district's web map shows its land in green and its easements in yellow.

Can we put new chain link along the front of our Professorville house?

The district's design guidelines say not to. They list metal chain link and plastic among fence materials incompatible with Professorville's character and strongly recommend low, see-through wood pickets beside the sidewalk, keeping existing wood fences and hedges where possible. The guidelines apply to every property in the expanded local district, close to 200 homes, so ask the Planning Division whether your project needs historic review.

Keep exploring

More on fence and gate work and Palo Alto

Fences and gates in other cities

Other trades in Palo Alto

Guides and smaller jobs

Where this page belongs

Where these facts come from

Checked against these public sources in October 2026. Rules and programs change: confirm permit requirements with the city before work starts, and a contractor's license on the CSLB website.

codelibrary.amlegal.com: 0 0 0 73292
paloalto.gov: fence code (paloalto.gov)
cityofpaloalto.org: work exempt from permit
paloalto.gov: 2018 04 02 palo alto eichler design guidelines adopted design guidelin (paloalto.gov)
paloalto.gov: final professorville design guidelines 11 3 2016 (paloalto.gov)
paloalto.gov: Household Hazardous Waste (paloalto.gov)
resource.stopwaste.org: wood treated
resource.stopwaste.org: treated wood waste
valleywater.org: permits working district land or easement
cslb.ca.gov: Licensing Classifications Detail (cslb.ca.gov)
cslb.ca.gov: Licensing Classifications Detail (cslb.ca.gov)

Palo Alto fences: Eichler courtyards, Professorville pickets, creek lots

What Palo Alto owners ask before a fence comes down

Get quotes for fence and gate work in Palo Alto

The city documents a Palo Alto fence quote has to match

Chapter 16.24, Fences

Work exempt from permit

Section 6.3 of the Eichler guidelines

Where the old treated posts cannot go

Four fence jobs that read differently under Palo Alto's code

Rebuilding an Eichler side or courtyard fence

Corner lots and the 35-foot triangle

Swapping boards for a block or concrete wall

A fence line over a utility easement