Garden Grove, CA Fence Regulations: Retaining Walls (2026)

Section 9.08.040.110(B) of the Garden Grove Municipal Code treats retaining walls differently depending on whether they hold back a cut or a fill. Item 7 covers a retaining wall that protects a cut below natural grade along a property line: it may be topped by a fence, wall or hedge of the same height that would otherwise be allowed at that location if no retaining wall existed, so the retaining wall itself does not eat into the fence-height allowance.

Item 8 covers the opposite case, a retaining wall built to hold a fill. Here the retaining wall's own height counts toward the permissible fence height. In every case, a protective fence or wall no taller than 36 inches may sit atop the retaining wall, and any fencing added above the code's seven-foot maximum height must be "openwork," meaning solid material makes up no more than 60% of the fence's surface area. That openwork rule keeps sightlines and airflow across the top of a tall wall-and-fence combination instead of a fully solid barrier.

These height rules sit within the same subsection that limits ordinary interior-lot and corner-lot fences to seven feet under items 2 through 4, and that allows an eight-foot wall where commercial or industrial property backs up to a residential zone under item 11. A fence-and-retaining-wall combination built without regard to these fill/cut distinctions is subject to the same permit and height-limit enforcement as any other wall on the property.