Santa Clarita, CA Outdoor Cooking: Outdoor Kitchen Permits (2026)

060(H) of the Unified Development Code lists which structures the City allows to encroach into a required side or rear yard, and built-in barbecues fall squarely in that list alongside detached fireplaces and built-in entertainment centers. The rule sets two numbers residents actually get checked against: a minimum five-foot setback from any property line, measured to the structure itself, and a maximum height of ten feet, a figure that specifically includes any smoke stack or chimney flue built into the barbecue island. Because an outdoor kitchen combines a barbecue with a grill hood, counter and often a chimney, the ten-foot cap is the number the Community Development Department checks on a building permit application; a masonry chimney that pushes the whole structure past ten feet fails the standard even if the cooking surface itself sits low.

The same subsection separately caps ground-mounted appliances such as pool heaters, filters and fans at a tighter two-and-one-half-foot setback, so a builder should not assume the appliance clearance and the barbecue clearance are identical; the five-foot rule applies specifically to the barbecue, fire pit or entertainment center structure. Detached patio covers built to shelter an outdoor kitchen fall under the separate five-foot accessory-structure setback in subsection (H)(7). 060 governs placement, not construction sign-off.