Merced County, CA Fence Regulations: Material Restrictions (2026)

020(E)(3) allows barbed wire, electric fence, razor wire, and similar security materials only in agricultural and industrial zones. Subsection (F)(1) flips that permission into a ban for every other district: the use of barbed wire is not permitted in residential zones, and the same paragraph prohibits sharp wire or projections along the top of any fence or wall less than six feet in height anywhere in a residential zone. It goes on to bar electrified fencing or razor wire in conjunction with any fence, wall, roof, or hedge, or standalone, within any urban land use zone, unless a law or regulation of the county, state, or federal government requires it, with exceptions the Director can approve.

Subsection (F)(2) extends the same prohibition to commercial and mixed-use zones, barring barbed wire, electric fencing, razor wire, and similar materials outright. 020(E)(1) and (2): fences may be wood, chain link, PVC formed to resemble pickets or panels, wire mesh, steel mesh, stakes, or louvered glass, while walls must be concrete, concrete block, wood, or another solid material assembled to form a solid barrier. 010's applicability section exempts fencing required by state or federal agencies or by the county for public safety, a barbed-wire enclosure mandated by a state agency, for example around a water treatment facility, would fall outside the residential and commercial ban.