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Retaining wall permit checklist — Contra Costa County, California

Assembled from Contra Costa County’s own published permit rules. Every line below is quoted from a city document and linked to it. Nothing here is generated, estimated, or inferred from another jurisdiction.

Do you need a permit?

Contra Costa County requires a permit for a retaining wall.

The county's Retaining Wall Examples handout, quoting County Code section 74-4.002(a)(2), exempts a retaining wall no taller than 3 feet, with wall height taken between the footing top and the wall top, provided the ground at the wall's base falls away no more steeply than 1 vertical in 10 horizontal, the wall carries no surcharge, any slope it supports is no steeper than 1 vertical in 2 horizontal, and it impounds no liquids in classes I, II, or III-A. The handout's terraced-wall guidelines keep multiple walls exempt, with no limit on their number, when each wall stays within 3 feet and the horizontal separation between walls is at least twice the height of the taller adjacent wall with no surcharge; a retaining wall on fill takes a grading permit.

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Sources

• retaining wall — permit rules ↗verified August 2026

Other permits Contra Costa County publishes rules for

Listed because the city publishes a separate rule for each type — not because this project necessarily triggers one. Whether it does depends on your scope of work.

• Deck permit checklist
• Fence permit checklist
• Shed permit checklist
• Water heater permit checklist
• Re-roof permit checklist
• Electrical work permit checklist
• General building work permit checklist

BuildSpec is a reference, not the authority having jurisdiction. Confirm requirements with Contra Costa County before you build.