FENCE RULES – ST. MATTHEWS (CITY), KENTUCKY
OVERVIEW
Residential fences are permitted on private property within City of St. Matthews, subject to local regulations. For properties located outside City of St. Matthews municipal limits, Jefferson County, through the Louisville Metro planning and code framework, regulates fences in unincorporated areas.
Local fence rules for the City of St. Matthews appear primarily in the St. Matthews Development Code, especially the provisions for signature entrances, fences, and walls, the zoning-district yard rules, vision-clearance rules, swimming-pool fence rules, right-of-way rules, drainage-easement rules, and local permit 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 the St. Matthews Development Code, City of St. Matthews Codes & Ordinances, City of St. Matthews Planning & Design, City of St. Matthews Permits, City of St. Matthews drainage and right-of-way materials, Louisville Metro Construction Review Fence and Retaining Walls guidance, and Kentucky utility-safety baseline materials as of June 2026.
GOVERNANCE
The City of St. Matthews publishes its own local ordinances and the St. Matthews Development Code. The City states that its ordinances may be more restrictive than Louisville Metro rules.
Building permits are issued through the Louisville Metro Department of Inspections, Permits and Licenses (IPL), but the City of St. Matthews requires a Letter of Compliance before a building permit will be issued.
The City Engineer is responsible for approval of building plans and working with building-permit applicants. All Planning & Zoning applications are initially processed by Louisville Metro Government, and City-specific development questions are directed to the St. Matthews Planning Officer.
The St. Matthews Development Code does not operate as one standalone backyard-fence article only. Residential fence rules are distributed across fence-and-wall height rules, required-yard rules, vision-clearance rules, right-of-way rules, drainage rules, swimming-pool barrier rules, property-maintenance rules, and private-restriction context.
PERMIT AND APPROVAL REQUIREMENTS
• Building Permit: Louisville Metro Construction Review states that fences over 7 feet tall and retaining walls over 4 feet tall require a building permit.
• City of St. Matthews Letter of Compliance: When a fence or retaining-wall project requires a Louisville Metro building permit, the City of St. Matthews requires a Letter of Compliance before the building permit will be issued.
• Letter of Compliance Materials: The City’s Letter of Compliance process requires a completed application, contractor and subcontractor information where contractors are used, and two copies of a scaled site plan showing existing buildings and the proposed work. Contractors and subcontractors must have a current City of St. Matthews business license before the Letter of Compliance can be issued. Property owners performing the work themselves are not required to have a business license.
• Zoning Compliance: Building permit requirements are separate from zoning, setback, subdivision, floodplain, historic, right-of-way, easement, and plat requirements. Confirm any applicable zoning conditions, setbacks, and plat requirements with St. Matthews Planning Officer before construction.
• Right-of-Way Work: Work that opens, restores, obstructs, or encroaches into a City right-of-way is subject to the City’s right-of-way standards and encroachment-permit process. A fence may not obstruct a street, alley, sidewalk, or right-of-way.
• Floodplain and Drainage Review: Floodplain rules may apply where fence, wall, fill, grading, or related work is located in a regulated floodplain, floodway, or drainage-sensitive area. City drainage materials allow fences in easements only if they do not block storm-drainage flow.
• Pool Barrier Use: A fence used to enclose a private swimming pool must meet the pool-fence standards described below. This is separate from ordinary yard-fence height permission.
FENCE PLACEMENT RULES
• Residential and Office-Residential Districts: In the R-R, R-E, R-1, R-2, R-3, R-4, R-5, RRD, R-5A, R-5B, R-6, R-7, R-8A, OR-1, OR-2, OR-3, and OTF districts, fences and walls may be placed in required yards only within the height limits listed in the Height section.
• Front and Street-Side Yards: In the listed districts, fences and walls up to 4 feet high may be located in required front yards and street-side yards, subject to the vision-clearance rules.
• Side and Rear Yards: In the listed districts, fences and walls up to 7 feet high may be located in required side yards and rear yards.
• Double-Frontage Lots: On double-frontage lots, where one required front yard adjoins a major arterial, minor arterial, or collector roadway and access is prohibited, a fence or wall may be constructed in that yard up to 7 feet high.
• Other Zoning Districts: In zoning districts not listed above, fences and walls are restricted by the maximum building height of the district, except where the fence or wall is adjacent to one of the listed residential or office-residential districts. In that adjacency situation, the listed-district fence limits apply.
• Outside Required Yards: Fences and walls that are not located within a required yard are restricted by the maximum building height of the zoning district.
• Property Lines: The ordinance does not state a setback requirement for standard residential fences from property lines; however, fences must be located entirely on the owner’s property and must not encroach into rights-of-way or easements. Fences or walls over 4 feet that front a right-of-way must also meet the right-of-way setback and height limits listed in the Height section.
• Right-of-Way Obstruction: A fence or structure may not obstruct any street, alley, sidewalk, or right-of-way within the City of St. Matthews, except for otherwise lawful and compliant mailboxes and driveways.
• Drainage Easements: Fences are allowed in drainage easements only if they do not block the flow of storm drainage. Drainage systems and easements must be kept free of obstructions that block water flow.
• Signature Entrances: A signature entrance is a wall, fence, guard house, or similar structure over 4 feet high at the entrance to a major residential subdivision, a multi-family complex of 10 units or more, or a nonresidential subdivision. Signature entrances must be located at least 20 feet from dwellings and driveway entrances, and plans are reviewed through the Public Works construction-plan 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
• Front and Street-Side Yard Height: In the listed residential and office-residential districts, fences and walls in required front yards and street-side yards may be up to 4 feet high.
• Side and Rear Yard Height: In the listed residential and office-residential districts, fences and walls in required side yards and rear yards may be up to 7 feet high.
• Double-Frontage Roadway Yard: On a double-frontage lot, a fence or wall may be up to 7 feet high in a required front yard that adjoins a major arterial, minor arterial, or collector roadway where access is prohibited.
• Right-of-Way Setback / Height Table for Fences Over 4 Feet: Any signature entrance, wall, or fence over 4 feet that fronts a right-of-way must meet this right-of-way setback and height structure: 0 feet from the right-of-way allows 4 feet maximum height; 1 foot allows 5 feet; 2 feet allows 6 feet; 3 feet allows 7 feet; 4 feet allows 8 feet; 5 feet allows 9 feet; 6 feet allows 10 feet; 7 feet allows 11 feet; 8 feet allows 12 feet; 9 feet allows 13 feet; and 10 feet allows 14 feet. This table does not remove lower yard-based limits where the code sets a lower maximum height for the fence location.
• Vision Clearance: On corner lots where a street intersects another street and yards are required on the street sides, no fence, wall, or shrubbery planting may exceed 2 feet above the established curb elevation within the triangular vision-clearance area. For plant material, branches must also be clear from 2 feet to 6 feet above the established elevation. The regulated distance equals the respective required yard, but not more than 25 feet, measured from the point where the intersecting lot lines meet.
• Fence Height Measurement Near Sidewalks and Roadways: Grade is measured at the outside of a fence or wall. If a wall or fence is parallel to and within 5 feet of a sidewalk, ground level is measured from the sidewalk elevation. If there is no sidewalk and the wall or fence is parallel to and within 5 feet of the roadway pavement, ground level is measured from the roadway pavement elevation.
• Private Swimming Pools: Private swimming pools must be enclosed by a fence at least 42 inches high with a self-latching gate. Above-ground pools with a vertical barrier of at least 42 inches that are made inaccessible by removing the ladder or a similar measure are allowed without a separate fence.
• Taller / Longer Fence and Wall Landscaping: Where a signature entrance, fence, or wall of 8 feet or more in height and 100 feet in length is allowed, plantings must be placed adjacent to at least 50% of the exterior façade. A fence or wall may not extend more than 100 feet without a visual break, either by a reasonable offset or evergreen plantings that will equal or exceed the height of the fence or wall at maturity.
• Signature Entrance Height: A signature entrance may be up to 14 feet high. Light fixtures and guard houses may extend an additional 4 feet. The maximum length of a signature entrance is 150 feet on each side of the entrance roadway; any structure extending beyond that length is treated as a fence or wall.
MATERIAL AND CONSTRUCTION LIMITS
• Fence Definition: The St. Matthews Development Code defines a fence as construction of wood, metal, wire mesh, masonry, or other material erected for privacy or protection, excluding shrubbery and plantings.
• General Residential Materials: The code regulates ordinary residential fences and walls mainly by height, yard location, right-of-way setback, drainage, and visibility. The code does not specify a general color rule, opacity rule, finished-side rule, or prohibited-material list for ordinary single-family residential fences.
• Swimming Pool Fence Construction: A private swimming pool fence must be at least 42 inches high and must have a self-latching gate.
• Drainage Construction Limit: A fence in a drainage easement must not block storm-drainage flow. Sheds and other permanent structures may not be placed in drainage easements or on top of drainage structures.
• Tall / Long Wall and Fence Breaks: A permitted fence or wall that reaches 8 feet or more in height and 100 feet in length must include plantings along at least 50% of the exterior façade and must not extend more than 100 feet without an offset or evergreen-planting visual break.
• Barbed Wire, Razor Wire, and Electric Fence: The St. Matthews Development Code does not publish a general residential barbed-wire, razor-wire, or electric-fence standard for ordinary single-family yard fences.
PRIVATE RESTRICTIONS
Private restrictions operate independently from the public fence rules of the City of St. Matthews.
• Deed and Subdivision Restrictions: The Development Code specifically notes that deed restrictions may address fence location, materials, and general permissibility.
• HOA and Covenant Rules: Homeowner association rules, subdivision covenants, deed restrictions, architectural-review covenants, private easements, and recorded agreements may be more restrictive than the City’s public rules.
• Private Enforcement: The City’s public fence rules do not state that the City of St. Matthews enforces private covenants or HOA restrictions as ordinary public code requirements.
REVIEW AND ENFORCEMENT CONTEXT
Fence issues are typically reviewed during permit or approval review when required, and through complaint-based code enforcement. Examples include:
• A fence over 7 feet tall that requires a Louisville Metro building permit.
• A fence or retaining wall project that requires a City of St. Matthews Letter of Compliance before a Louisville Metro building permit is issued.
• A fence or wall in a required front yard, street-side yard, side yard, or rear yard that exceeds the applicable height limit.
• A fence, wall, or shrubbery planting that violates the 2-foot corner vision-clearance limit.
• A fence or wall over 4 feet that fronts a right-of-way and does not meet the required right-of-way setback and height relationship.
• A fence that obstructs a street, alley, sidewalk, right-of-way, drainage ditch, drainage device, drainage system, or storm-drainage flow.
• A private swimming pool that is not enclosed by a compliant 42-inch fence with a self-latching gate, unless the above-ground pool barrier exception applies.
• A signature entrance that exceeds the applicable height, length, location, professional-plan, or Public Works review requirements.
• Fence work in a floodplain, floodway, drainage easement, or other regulated site condition where additional floodplain, drainage, or easement review applies.
USING THIS INFORMATION
This page provides general orientation on how residential fence rules are structured and applied within City of St. Matthews, 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 St. Matthews Planning Officer and any applicable private agreements. If this page conflicts with official ordinances, published guidance, or direction from City of St. Matthews staff, the official sources control. For legal advice or legal interpretation, consult a licensed attorney.