Security Gates in Palmdale, CA

Palmdale Municipal Code 17.86.040 sets fence heights by zone and by setback. On industrial land the required front setback allows 3 feet sight-obscuring or 5 feet open view. The other required setbacks allow 8 feet, and a fence or wall up to 12 feet may be approved with a minor site plan review, based on a finding of no adverse visual or aesthetic impact on adjacent properties and public rights-of-way. Commercial and office lots share the front setback figures and allow 6 feet in the other required setbacks, or 7 feet where the part above 6 feet is open view. A yard gate set back from the street can stand taller than one at the front edge of the lot. Plan it to the limit for the spot where it will stand, and confirm with Planning how that limit reaches the gate itself.

Home lots follow the residential numbers. In the street side, interior side and rear setbacks the limit is 6 feet, with a seventh foot allowed only where the part above 6 feet is open view. Inside the front setback anything sight-obscuring stops at 3 feet and open view fencing may be allowed up to 5 feet, or 6 feet on a lot of 20,000 square feet or more. An RV gate at the side of a house often stands behind the setback, where width and swing room limit the design more than height does. Any new fence, wall or screening over 6 feet needs a building permit.

Heavier means the tube wall, the hinges, the posts and the latch hardware all step up. A yard gate spans more and takes knocks from trucks and equipment. Posts get bigger as the leaf widens, up to 4 inch square on our widest gates, and our shop practice sets them at least 36 inches into concrete, deeper under a wide leaf. Frames are welded tube with no bolt together joints, so there is no hardware to work loose.

Solid or open is mostly settled for you in Palmdale. The code prohibits fencing made of solid metal, so a security gate here is open steel: bar, picket or tight infill. On a commercial or office lot where open view fencing is required for security and can be seen from a public right-of-way, it has to be decorative, such as tubular steel or wrought iron. The one opening is industrial land, where walls and fences the general public cannot see from a freeway, a regional or crosstown street, or a less intensive zone may be of other materials as the city approves. Ask Planning before counting on it. Open infill lets the wind through and lets a passing patrol see in. On an automated slide gate in Classes I, II or III, ASTM F2200 screening means a 2.25 inch sphere cannot pass the gate or the fence it covers when open, up to 72 inches above grade or the top of a shorter gate, so mesh or tight pickets get settled on the drawing rather than added later.

Once a yard gate is motorized, UL 325 classes it by who drives through. An equipment yard the public never enters is normally Class III. Let customers or tenants in and it moves to Class II. The class decides the entrapment protection the operator trade fits. The frame we build carries the mounting plate, positive stops, roller guards and wiring sleeves that go with it.

Working gates take abuse as well as sun. Galvanizing to ASTM A123 under an AAMA 2604 class powder holds up far longer than paint, and the American Galvanizers Association puts that duplex system at 1.5 to 2.3 times the combined life of the two coatings used separately.

For a quote, tell us the zoning of the parcel if you know it, the clear opening, the widest vehicle or load that passes, whether it will be motorized, and where the required setbacks fall.

This work runs out of our shop on Division Street in Lancaster. Read the full security gates details, or call (818) 220-8704 and we will come out.