California Fence Rules in 2026: What Changed and What Did Not

Nothing New at the State Level for 2026

California has no statewide fence code. The state sets two things and leaves the rest to cities and counties. The first is who pays for a fence between two properties, which is Civil Code section 841, the Good Neighbor Fence law, rewritten in 2014 and unchanged since. The second is the spite fence rule in section 841.4: a fence over ten feet that is built or kept to annoy the neighbor is a private nuisance. Neither section was amended for 2026, and no bill that passed in 2025 touched either one.

So when a page promises the new California fence rules for 2026, read it carefully. Most of those pages restate the 2014 cost-sharing law with a new date on top. The rules that actually moved are the ones your city writes: how tall a fence can be, where it can stand, what it can be made of, and when you need a permit. In Woodland, those did change.

What stays the same under section 841: the owner who wants to build or replace a shared fence gives the neighbor 30 days written notice, the cost is presumed to split equally, and a neighbor can argue for a smaller share if an equal split would be unfair. The Good Neighbor Fence law page walks through that notice and how to use it.

What Woodland Now Says About Materials

The 2024 code added material rules that older fences do not meet, and they apply to any new fence or replacement:

• Chain link is prohibited in Residential and Downtown zones, and it may not sit in a front or street side setback or anywhere visible from a street or a neighboring residential zone in the zones where it is still allowed. Chain link in Woodland is now a commercial, industrial and farm fence. See chain link fence for where it still fits.
• Fence posts must be set in concrete, and wood fence posts must be wood, or galvanized steel covered in wood, and stained with a semi-transparent or opaque treatment.
• Any fence along a public street must be iron, pre-painted welded steel, brick, wood picket or a similar durable material, and must be stained, painted or treated with a graffiti-resistant coating.
• Double fences are prohibited, with narrow exceptions the Director has to approve. The fix for a neighbor’s bad fence is the Good Neighbor Fence law, not a second fence a foot inside it.
• Plain concrete block is not allowed in any residential zone or along a major street. Block walls have to be stuccoed or decorative and capped.
• Barbed wire, razor wire, electrified fence and improvised materials (plywood, tarps, secondhand material) are prohibited in all zones, with a security exception for certain employment zones east of town that needs a Zoning Administrator review.
• Driveway gates need a Development Review Tier 1 approval, and an electric gate opener needs a building permit as well.

Pool fences did not change. The pool, or the whole yard, has to be fenced so a four inch sphere cannot pass through, with a self-closing, self-latching gate that opens away from the pool and a latch at least 54 inches up. Any pool fence quote from this network is built to that.