Driveway gates in Santa Clarita
A driveway gate planned around your slope, your street yard and your oak.
Swing or slide, steel or wrought iron, by hand or with an opener. Tell us about the drive and we put you in touch with one licensed installer, who walks it and writes the quote.
A referral service. The installer you speak with quotes and builds the gate.
Swing or slide: start with the ground
Most drives in town can take either one, and the ground usually picks. A swing gate needs its whole arc clear. On a 12 ft opening with two leaves, each leaf sweeps a 6 ft quarter circle, and where the drive rises toward the garage, the bottom rail hits the concrete well before the gate is open. The usual fixes are a raised gate, a stepped bottom rail, or hinges that lift the leaf as it turns.
A slide gate needs a flat strip alongside the drive, no shorter than the opening itself, plus room for the gate to park. On a hillside lot that strip is often the hard part, because a wall, a planter or the slope itself is sitting in it. Where the ground beside the drive is level, a slide leaves the whole driveway free and never swings toward a parked car.
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Where it can stand, and how tall
The walls and fences section of the city code sets the height by where the gate sits on the lot.
- Next to a street, in a required yard: 42 in tops, or 48 in when it is open pipe or rail. The same limit covers a required yard beside a driveway that serves the lot next door. 17.57.070(B)
- Outside the required yards: 6 ft, and taller only with the Director's approval, up to 15 ft. 17.57.070(C)
- How it is measured: from whichever side has the higher average ground within 3 ft of the gate. On a sloped drive the top may wander up to 6 in, provided the average height stays legal. 17.57.070(H)
- Chain link: not in a required front yard, or anywhere the public right of way can see it, unless the Director approves. 17.57.070(E)
So a tall gate usually means a gate set back past the front yard. How deep that yard runs depends on your zone, so ask Planning before the posts go in. Ask the same visit if an iron gate qualifies as pipe or rail for the 48 in figure, since the code does not say.
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Posts, pillars and permits
Santa Clarita's building code (SCMC 18.02.030) waives the building permit for open wrought iron fences no taller than 6 ft, if Planning allows them and they sit outside a flood hazard area or a pool barrier. Masonry pilasters are only waived up to 42 in, so brick or block pillars taller than that need a building permit. Gates are not on that list at all, which is why the installer should confirm the job with Building and Safety instead of assuming. The opener's new power circuit is missing from the list too, while low voltage keypad and intercom wiring is on it. The electric gates page covers openers.
Oaks, walls and hillside drives
A slide gate's track slab, a post footing or the trench for the opener's power all count as work in an oak's protected zone when they land inside it. On a house lot the inner half of that zone needs an oak tree permit and the outer half is exempt (17.51.040), so map the zone before choosing where the gate runs. See oak trees and gates.
Drives cut into a slope often have a retaining wall beside them. On lots that average under a 10 percent slope, a fill wall can carry just an open safety fence, 3 1/2 ft at most, and a fence near a fill wall sets back 1 ft for each foot of its height (17.57.070(G)). Lots at 10 percent or more fall under the hillside section, 17.51.020, so bring Planning in early. More on slopes and retaining walls.
What sets the price of a driveway gate
We found no government, trade or university source that prices driveway gates here, so there is no range on this page. These are the things that move your quote.
- Width of the opening
- A wider opening means a longer, heavier leaf or a pair of leaves, more steel, and bigger posts and footings to carry them.
- Swing or slide
- A swing gate needs its whole arc clear; a slide wants flat ground beside the drive at least as long as the opening, plus a track or rollers. Your lot often allows only one.
- Slope
- On a steep drive a swing leaf may have to be raised or shaped to the grade, or the gate moved up to where the ground flattens. Each adds fabrication or concrete.
- An oak nearby
- Digging for a post or a trench inside the inner half of an oak's protected zone takes an oak tree permit, and applying means an oak tree report and a survey (17.51.040). Going around the zone adds length.
- Pillars
- Masonry pilasters taller than 42 in are left off the city's no permit list (SCMC 18.02.030), so they come with a building permit.
- Power for an opener
- Hardwiring means a trench from the house, and the city's list of work that needs no permit leaves out a new line voltage circuit (SCMC 18.02.030). A gate far from the panel means a long trench.
- Safety equipment
- UL 325 asks for two separate ways of protecting against entrapment for each direction of travel where a person could be trapped, for example photo eyes plus edge sensors (DASMA TDS 353).
Before you pay anything, know the legal limit: a home improvement down payment in California can be no more than $1,000 or 10 percent of the contract price, whichever is lower (Business and Professions Code 7159.5).
Your number depends on your drive. A photo taken from the street and the width of the opening is enough to start.
Tell us about your gateQuestions about driveway gates
Do I need a permit to put a gate on my driveway?
Possibly more than one. The building code waives the building permit for open wrought iron fencing to 6 ft, if Planning allows it (SCMC 18.02.030), but it names fences, not gates, so have Building and Safety confirm yours. Pillars of brick or block over 42 in need a building permit, a new circuit for an opener points to an electrical permit, and any footing or trench inside the inner half of an oak's protected zone needs an oak tree permit (17.51.040).
How far back should a driveway gate sit?
The code sets height, not a distance. Inside a required yard next to the street the limit is 42 in; set back outside the required yards it is 6 ft (17.57.070). Required yard depths change by zone, so Planning gives you the line. Many owners also want room to get a car clear of the street before the gate finishes opening, and that alone can push the posts back further than the code asks.
Can a driveway gate be chain link?
Not in a required front yard or anywhere the public right of way can see it, unless the Director approves it (17.57.070(E)). Barbed wire and razor ribbon are banned outright. Steel and open picket iron sit outside that rule.
Steel or wrought iron for a driveway gate?
Either one. The label matters less than it sounds, since steel long ago replaced true wrought iron in structural metalwork (Britannica). Pattern, weight and coating matter more, and the iron gates page covers galvanizing, powder coat and paint.
Is a driveway gate a good idea on a steep drive?
Yes, with the right type. A swing gate on a steep climb needs a raised or lifting leaf, and a slide needs a level strip beside the drive. Where neither fits, installers sometimes set the gate higher up the drive where the ground flattens, which can also clear the street yard height limit.