FENCE RULES – BARDSTOWN (CITY), KENTUCKY
OVERVIEW
Residential fences are permitted on private property within City of Bardstown, subject to local regulations. For properties located outside City of Bardstown municipal limits, Nelson County regulates fences in unincorporated areas.
Local fence rules in the City of Bardstown are not contained in one standalone fence article. They appear across the Zoning Regulations for Bardstown, Bloomfield, Fairfield, New Haven, and Nelson County, the Nelson County Joint City-County Planning Commission zoning-compliance process, the City of Bardstown Code of Ordinances, the Kentucky Residential Code building-permit framework, the Bardstown Historic Preservation Design Guidelines, floodplain rules, drainage-control rules, land-disturbance materials, right-of-way procedures, and subdivision/plat materials.
This page focuses on typical single-family residential fencing. If the jurisdiction’s adopted materials do not state a specific limit or requirement, this page notes that the code does not specify one.
Compiled From City of Bardstown Code of Ordinances Chapter 150, Chapter 154, and Chapter 156; Zoning Regulations for Bardstown, Bloomfield, Fairfield, New Haven, and Nelson County; Nelson County Joint City-County Planning Commission zoning-compliance materials; Bardstown Historic Preservation Design Guidelines; City of Bardstown Land Disturbance Permit; City of Bardstown Floodplain Permit Application; City of Bardstown Historic District Map; and Subdivision Regulations for All of Nelson County, Kentucky as of June 2026.
GOVERNANCE
The City of Bardstown is governed locally by the City of Bardstown Code of Ordinances and by zoning regulations administered through the Nelson County Joint City-County Planning Commission.
The Nelson County Joint City-County Planning Commission administers zoning compliance for Bardstown and reviews qualifying fence projects for consistency with the zoning regulations, subdivision regulations, easements, site information, and required permit documentation.
The City of Bardstown Building & Electrical Inspector is the local enforcement agent for the Kentucky Building Code and Kentucky Residential Code as adopted by the city. That building-code structure is separate from zoning-compliance review.
The City Engineer’s Office and city stormwater materials administer floodplain, drainage, land-disturbance, and right-of-way issues where a fence project affects those areas.
For properties in the Bardstown Historic District or on locally designated historic property, the Bardstown Historic Review Board and the Historic Preservation Administrator administer the Certificate of Appropriateness process and the historic design guidelines.
PERMIT AND APPROVAL REQUIREMENTS
• Zoning Compliance Permit: The Nelson County Joint City-County Planning Commission states that a zoning compliance permit is required for accessory structures, including fences 5 feet or taller. The zoning-compliance process reviews the proposed work for compliance with applicable zoning regulations, subdivision regulations, site-plan requirements, and related standards.
• Application Materials: Zoning-compliance materials require fence applicants to provide project information such as the fence height, site plan, property dimensions, location of proposed and existing structures, distances from property lines, easement information, and any required entrance, drainage, encroachment, or historic-district approvals.
• Historic District Approval: A fence in the Bardstown Historic District may require a Certificate of Appropriateness. The historic-district checklist and design guidelines treat new fences and most exterior work in the district as reviewable, while ordinary repairs to existing fences do not require a COA only when replacement materials match the original or existing materials in detail and color and cause no harm or adverse effect to the historic building or its visual setting.
• Floodplain Permit: Any improvement or building project within a FEMA-designated floodplain must be permitted with the City of Bardstown. A fence project in a special flood hazard area may require floodplain review where it involves development, grading, filling, dredging, alteration of a watercourse, floodway work, or other regulated activity.
• Stormwater and Drainage Approval: Fence work must not cover, alter, redirect, obstruct, impair, or encroach into regulated drainage systems. The city drainage rules specifically include fences in the list of items that can affect drainage systems, including right-of-way ditches, street curb and gutter, drainage swales, open ditches, stormwater inlets, stormwater management facilities, natural streams, creeks, rivers, ponds, and lakes.
• Land Disturbance Permit: The City of Bardstown Land Disturbance Permit applies to construction and land-disturbance activities within city limits. The city form includes minor construction activities, work over 1,000 square feet, entrances, sidewalk repairs, right-of-way work, single-lot sites, and larger sites requiring stormwater management planning or erosion-control documentation.
• Right-of-Way and Encroachment Approval: Fence work that affects a public street, entrance, sidewalk, drainage feature, or right-of-way must follow the applicable city, county, or state encroachment or entrance-approval process. For Bardstown streets, city permit materials identify the City Engineer as the approval contact for entrance and drainage approval.
FENCE PLACEMENT RULES
• Property Lines and Easements: The code does not specify a citywide setback requirement for standard residential fences from private property lines. For fences requiring zoning compliance, the application process reviews the fence location, type, height, property-line distances, and existing or proposed easements. Fences must be located entirely on the owner’s property and must not encroach into rights-of-way or easements unless the applicable approval allows it.
• Zoning Review: For fences 5 feet or taller, the zoning-compliance process is the local placement review point. The zoning application materials require the site plan to show the proposed fence in relation to lot dimensions, structures, driveways, sidewalks, open space, and property lines.
• Historic District Placement: In the Bardstown Historic District, fences in front of primary façades must preserve visibility of the primary façade from the street. Rear yard fences must be recessed from the back corner of the primary building.
• Drainage and Stormwater Areas: Fences must not obstruct or interfere with drainage systems, drainage swales, right-of-way ditches, open ditches, stormwater inlets, stormwater management facilities, or natural streams and similar water features. Grading or regrading associated with fence work must not obstruct, divert, or impede the natural flow of stormwater across the property or adjoining properties.
• Flood Hazard Areas: In a special flood hazard area, a fence project may require a development permit before work begins. Floodplain review may include floodway status, no-rise certification, base flood elevation, freeboard, watercourse alteration, grading, filling, and other flood-damage-prevention standards.
• Subdivision and Plat Conditions: Subdivision plats, recorded easements, utility easements, drainage easements, deed restrictions, and protective covenants may affect where a fence can be placed. The subdivision regulations and zoning permit materials treat these items as separate conditions that may be more restrictive than the general zoning text.
• Right-of-Way and Entrance Areas: Fence work that affects an entrance, driveway, sidewalk, public street, drainage crossing, ditch crossing, or right-of-way must follow the applicable entrance, encroachment, drainage, or land-disturbance approval process.
• Utility Safety: Kentucky law requires notice through Kentucky 811 before excavation where Kentucky’s underground utility damage-prevention law applies. For fence projects that involve digging, including fence post holes, notice must be given not less than two full working days and not more than 10 full working days before excavation begins, unless a different future start date is allowed by law. Kentucky locate requests are valid for 21 calendar days from the initial request. Kentucky law also includes exemptions, including certain agricultural tilling and certain nonmechanized excavation on private property where no operator right-of-way or easement is encroached.
FENCE HEIGHT AND VISIBILITY RULES
• Citywide Residential Height: Outside the historic-district rules and visibility standards described below, the code does not specify a separate citywide maximum height for standard residential fences.
• Zoning Compliance Threshold: Fences 5 feet or taller require zoning compliance review through the Nelson County Joint City-County Planning Commission.
• Historic District Front Fence Height: In the Bardstown Historic District, new fences situated in front of primary façades must not be higher than 4 1/2 feet and must not obstruct visibility of the primary façade from the street.
• Historic District Side and Rear Fence Height: In the Bardstown Historic District, wooden privacy fences and solid wall fences of painted or stained wood, brick, metal, or stone may be built to a maximum height of 6 feet on interior side and rear property lines.
• Intersection Visibility: At street or railroad intersections, no obstruction to vision is permitted within the triangle formed by the right-of-way lines and a line connecting points 30 feet from the intersection. Within that triangle, obstructions are prohibited between 2.5 feet and 12 feet above the imaginary plane defined by the three points.
MATERIAL AND CONSTRUCTION LIMITS
• Citywide Residential Materials: Outside the historic-district rules below, the code does not specify a citywide list of permitted or prohibited materials for standard residential fences.
• Historic District Compatibility: In the Bardstown Historic District, the material and style of a new fence or wall must be compatible in design and materials with the associated historic building and the visual setting.
• Historic District Front-Yard Materials: In front of primary façades, cast iron, painted aluminum, and white-painted picket wood fences may be used.
• Historic District Front-Yard Prohibitions: In front of historic buildings in the district, vinyl, composite, plastic, solid wood board fences, solid wall fences, chain link, and wire fences are not permitted.
• Historic District Chain Link: Chain link fencing is not permitted as fencing within the historic district.
• Historic District Split Rail: Wooden split rail fencing is not permitted in the historic district because the guidelines identify it as a rural fence type that is not appropriate in Bardstown’s nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century urban landscape.
• Finished Side: In the Bardstown Historic District, new fences must be installed facing inward toward the area being fenced, with the finished side facing the public right-of-way.
• Historic Fences: Original fences must be maintained and preserved. The guidelines identify wrought or cast iron as a common historic fence material in Bardstown and require those fences to be retained and kept in good repair.
• Retaining Walls: In the Bardstown Historic District, new retaining walls must be built of brick, stone, concrete block, or poured concrete and must not be constructed of railroad ties. Historic retaining walls must be maintained and preserved.
PRIVATE RESTRICTIONS
Private restrictions operate separately from city zoning and building-code review.
• Subdivision Restrictions: Subdivision plats, deed restrictions, and protective covenants may establish fence limits, placement rules, easements, or design requirements that are more restrictive than public zoning rules.
• HOA and Covenant Review: HOA covenants, architectural-review covenants, private easements, deed restrictions, private agreements, and recorded subdivision conditions may limit fence height, style, location, color, material, or approval procedures.
• Independent Effect: The City of Bardstown does not replace private covenant review. A fence that satisfies public zoning or permit requirements may still be limited by private restrictions.
REVIEW AND ENFORCEMENT CONTEXT
Fence issues are typically reviewed during permit or approval review when required, and through complaint-based code enforcement. Examples include:
• Zoning Review: Fences 5 feet or taller are reviewed through the zoning-compliance process administered by the Nelson County Joint City-County Planning Commission.
• Historic District Review: Fences in the Bardstown Historic District may be reviewed for COA approval, design compatibility, front-façade visibility, material limits, finished-side orientation, and historic-fence preservation.
• Height and Visibility: Fence height and obstruction issues may be reviewed where a fence is 5 feet or taller, where it is in the historic district, or where it affects the 30-foot intersection visibility triangle.
• Drainage and Stormwater: Fence placement may be reviewed where it affects drainage swales, right-of-way ditches, stormwater inlets, stormwater facilities, watercourses, grading, erosion, ponding, or stormwater flow across adjoining property.
• Floodplain Review: Fence work in a mapped floodplain or floodway may be reviewed through the floodplain development-permit process, including no-rise, watercourse, grading, filling, and flood-damage-prevention standards.
• Right-of-Way and Easement Review: Fence work may be reviewed where it affects public rights-of-way, entrances, sidewalks, drainage crossings, utility easements, drainage easements, or recorded plat conditions.
USING THIS INFORMATION
This page provides general orientation on how residential fence rules are structured and applied within City of Bardstown, based on publicly available source materials reviewed as of June 2026.
In addition to local fence rules, certain Kentucky laws apply statewide. See Statewide Fence Laws in Kentucky.
It is not legal advice and does not replace official ordinances, permits, surveys, or professional guidance. Rules and interpretations may change, and application may vary based on zoning district, site conditions, easements, rights-of-way, floodplain status, stormwater or drainage requirements, road or highway encroachment, historic district status, rural or agricultural context, livestock or farm-boundary context, pool-barrier use, and private restrictions such as HOA covenants, deed restrictions, private agreements, or agricultural conservation easements. Before purchasing materials or beginning construction, confirm current requirements and any site-specific limitations with Nelson County Joint City-County Planning Commission, City of Bardstown Building & Electrical Inspector, City Engineer’s Office, and the Bardstown Historic Review Board where applicable and any applicable private agreements. If this page conflicts with official ordinances, published guidance, or direction from City of Bardstown staff, the official sources control. For legal advice or legal interpretation, consult a licensed attorney.