Washington (CNN) Efforts to increase the security of the White House fence jumped one obstacle Thursday, as an important board advanced preliminary concepts for a new design.

The Commission of Fine Arts signed off on the basic ideas from the U.S. Secret Service and National Park Service for a perimeter fence that would be much higher than the current one, which has been increasingly a problem for security breaches.

The goal is to start construction on a new fence by 2018.

In the past few years, several high-profile fence-jumping incidents have sent Secret Service agents scrambling, including an instance in 2014 when a man made it into the White House before being apprehended by agents. In 2015, temporary measures were put in place, including an anti-climb feature on top of the fence, though jumpers have still attempted to scale the structure.

The fence reached its current form between 1900 and 1920 and is about 7 feet tall.

Read More