Anaheim, CA Fence Regulations: Retaining Walls (2026)

" A wall visible to a public right-of-way, public trail or private street is capped at six feet measured from grade on the visible side. Anaheim allows an extra six feet, but only if that additional height is broken into a minimum of two three-foot steps or three two-foot steps, each separated by at least two feet of groundcover planted to cascade over the step and obscure the wall; even stepped, the wall cannot exceed twelve feet from the lowest adjacent grade. A wall not visible from any public right-of-way, trail or street may go up to fourteen feet, measured the same way.

Any wall visible to a right-of-way, trail, street or an adjacent residential property must carry landscaping and irrigation, shown on a plan the Planning Department approves before the City issues a grading permit; crib walls favor a mist irrigation system at the top, with drip irrigation as the acceptable fallback, and retaining wall plantings must combine shrubs, non-deciduous vines and trees maintained to keep screening the wall from view on an ongoing basis. 030 requires that all retaining walls, crib walls and wing walls be built under a permit from, and inspected by, the Chief Building Inspector, so height compliance is checked at both the zoning-review and construction-inspection stages.