Pismo Beach, CA Fence Regulations: Retaining Walls (2026)

The City of Pismo Beach prints two zoning codes under Title 17: the 1983 Zoning Ordinance and the 1998 Zoning Code. The retaining wall standards on this page come from the 1998 Zoning Code only. The 1983 Zoning Ordinance prints no retaining wall standard of its own, so no numbers from it are blended in here.

Three 1998 Zoning Code provisions work together. Section 17.24.060(B)(2) exempts retaining walls (retaining earth only) from land use permit requirements when they are less than twenty-four inches in height with no surcharge and are not required by Title 18 of the Municipal Code (Grading and Erosion Control Ordinance) to have a grading permit. Section 17.24.060(C)(3) sets the ceiling: individual retaining walls shall not exceed a height of six feet unless otherwise approved by the Director, and retained slopes should be terraced and landscaped or screened as shown in Figure 3-4.

Section 17.22.060(C)(4) controls where a wall can stand. A retaining wall four feet or less in height may be located within a required setback. A wall greater than four feet but less than six feet may also sit in a required setback, provided the exposed side of the wall faces into the property. A wall greater than four feet whose exposed side faces out from the property, and every wall greater than six feet, is subject to the same requirements as the primary structure in the applicable zoning district.

Building permits are a separate track. The city's amendment to the California Building Code in Section 15.08.010(H) lists retaining walls not over 4 feet in height, measured from the bottom of the footing to the top of the wall, as work exempt from a building permit, unless the wall supports a surcharge or impounds Class I, II or IIIA liquids. The zoning exemption is measured in inches of wall height and the building exemption in feet from the footing, so a wall can clear one threshold and fail the other.

Pismo Beach uses two adopted zoning codes. The city's Zoning and Land Use page states that properties inside the Coastal Zone are regulated by the 1983 Zoning Code, and properties outside the Coastal Zone are regulated by the 1998 Zoning Code.