Clovis, CA Fence Regulations: Material Restrictions (2026)

34 opens with a blanket prohibition on using or maintaining a barbed wire fence anywhere in the City, then carves out two zoning-based exceptions. In the industrial and commercial districts created by Title 9, Chapter 3, a property owner may add barbed wire on top of a security fence, but every such installation needs review and approval from the Director of Planning. In the R-A (residential-agricultural) and P-F (public facilities) districts, barbed wire on top of a fence needs Council approval instead, and the applicant must mail notice to every adjoining property owner, listed on the latest equalized assessment roll, at least ten days before the Council hearing so neighbors can weigh in.

Wherever barbed wire is permitted, subsection (c) imposes uniform limits unless the Council specifically modifies them for a project: the wire must sit at least six feet above ground level measured from both sides of the fence, it may run in no more than three strands, and it may never extend over the property line. Looped or coiled barbed wire, sometimes called constantine or concertina wire, is confined to the industrial and commercial districts and still needs Planning Director review and approval even there. The rule dates to the City's original 1964 general ordinance and was last amended in 1983.