Menifee fence rules and permits

A plain-English guide for Menifee, California homeowners. Always confirm with the city before work starts. Rules change.

Do you need a permit?

Depends. Menifee's code exempts residential privacy fences that meet the city's standards from development review, but a building permit may still be required. Block walls and retaining walls are the most likely to need one. Call Building & Safety with your height, material and length before you start.

Who to ask: City of Menifee Building & Safety (website)

The rules

• In the front and street setback, fences and walls in residential zones are limited to 36 inches. Past the setback, they can go to 6 feet.
• Side and rear fences can be 6 feet.
• On a corner street side, a fence can be 6 feet, but the city asks for a landscape planter strip at least 5 feet wide between the sidewalk and the wall.
• Nothing in a street corner cutoff area can be taller than 36 inches above the curb if it blocks the view of traffic.
• Barbed, razor, concertina and electrified wire, corrugated metal or plastic, and tarps are banned in all zones. Chain link cannot face a public street, and it must be out of view of the right of way.
• Blank walls are banned. A screening or security wall within 10 feet of the public right of way needs landscaping in front of it, at least 42 inches high.
• Hedges and other screening plants, not counting trees, cannot be taller than the fence height allowed in the zone.
• A sound wall next to a major road can go up to 12 feet, but only after the city approves a noise study.

HOAs

Many Menifee neighborhoods are planned communities, and some are gated. Check your HOA rules and get approval in writing before you sign a fence contract.

Call before you dig

DigAlert (Southern California 811): dial 811. call at least 2 working days before digging, and no more than 14 calendar days ahead

Local conditions

Menifee has mild winters and hot, dry summers. The record high is 117 degrees and the record low is 18.

• Long, dry heat dries out wood. Stain and seal on a schedule.
• Fences must stay outside public utility easements unless the utility agrees, so check your lot lines before you set posts.
• Retaining walls are common on sloped lots. The city asks that an embankment taller than 48 inches be benched so no single wall is over 36 inches.
• Post depth and soil type: ask your contractor and the building office.

Good to know

• Menifee became a city on October 1, 2008. The 2020 census counted 102,527 people.
• Menifee's elevation is about 1,424 feet. Its record high is 117 degrees (June 20, 2016) and its record low is 18 degrees (January 1, 1976).
• Sun City, Quail Valley and Romoland are communities inside the city.
• Menifee Lakes is a gated community with a golf course, a lake and a clubhouse. Heritage Lake is a master-planned community around a 25-acre lake.
• Retaining walls under 3 feet are exempt from development review in Menifee. A building permit may still apply.
• Height is measured from the finished grade of the property to the highest point of the fence.