La Mesa, CA Fence Regulations: Material Restrictions (2026)

LMMC § 14.20.010, adopted in 1989, restricts hazardous security materials on fences citywide. Unless the Chief Building Official approves it, no fence may be equipped with barbed wire, projecting nails, broken glass, electrical shock equipment, or similar security-type materials. The section allows one path to compliance without approval: the bottom of the restricted material or equipment must sit at a height of not less than eight feet above any point of adjacent highest grade located within a five-foot distance from the face of the fence, effectively pushing barbed wire or shock equipment well above head height and out of reach from the ground next to the fence.

Below that eight-foot line, the restricted materials are barred outright unless the Chief Building Official grants approval. The rule sits in Chapter 14.20, the same fencing chapter that sets the pool-barrier standards at § 14.20.020, and a permit-exempt fence under § 14.11.040 (6 feet or less, not enclosing a pool) must still comply with the § 14.20.010 material restriction even though it needs no building permit. Enforcement runs through the Chief Building Official and the chapter's own violation clause at § 14.20.090, which covers every requirement in Chapter 14.20 rather than setting a separate penalty for the fencing-materials rule alone.