FENCE RULES – WOODFORD (COUNTY), KENTUCKY
OVERVIEW
Residential fences are permitted on private property within Woodford County, subject to local regulations. This page applies to properties in the unincorporated areas of Woodford County; incorporated municipalities such as the City of Versailles and the City of Midway may regulate fences under their own ordinances.
Local fence rules appear primarily in the Versailles-Midway-Woodford County Zoning Ordinance, including the development review procedures, supplementary district regulations, flood damage prevention regulations, historic overlay provisions, and district-specific accessory-use standards. The Versailles-Midway-Woodford County Planning Commission administers zoning permit review.
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 Versailles-Midway-Woodford County Zoning Ordinance, Application for Zoning Permit, Farmstead Exemption Affidavit, and Kentucky statewide residential-code and utility-safety baseline rules as of June 2026.
GOVERNANCE
Woodford County participates in a joint zoning structure with the City of Versailles and the City of Midway. The Versailles-Midway-Woodford County Planning Commission has jurisdiction over zoning administration for land within Woodford County, including the incorporated cities, while this page is limited to the unincorporated county context.
The Woodford County Fiscal Court is one of the legislative bodies under the zoning ordinance. The Versailles-Midway-Woodford County Planning Commission Director serves as the administrative official, reviews building, grading, paving, demolition, sign, and zoning permits for zoning compliance, and administers zoning enforcement. The Building Inspector reviews building permits and certificates of occupancy for conformance with the ordinance and takes final action on building permits and certificates of occupancy.
Woodford County does not use a separate consolidated fence-only chapter. Fence rules appear across zoning permit procedures, the fence definition, supplementary height and visibility rules, district accessory-use provisions, pool provisions, historic overlay rules, floodplain regulations, subdivision/development-plan provisions, and landscape-buffer definitions.
PERMIT AND APPROVAL REQUIREMENTS
• Zoning Permit: The zoning ordinance states that it is unlawful to begin the construction, moving, or alteration of any fence until the Versailles-Midway-Woodford County Planning Commission has issued a Zoning Permit. The current zoning permit application separately identifies Fence (Over 48” in Height) as a listed project type.
• Application Materials: A zoning permit application requires a completed and signed application, project plans showing the portions of the property included in the proposed construction project, and water, sewer, or floodplain verification letters or signatures if applicable.
• Farmstead Exemption: The farmstead exemption affidavit applies to qualifying farmstead residential dwellings or agricultural accessory structures on qualifying farm property outside municipal corporate limits. It does not state a separate ordinary residential fence exemption from the zoning-permit language.
• Floodplain Development Permit: A development permit is required before development begins within a special flood hazard area. Because the floodplain article defines obstruction to include a fence, fence work in a mapped floodplain or floodway may require floodplain review.
• Historic Review: In a Local Historic Site or Historic Overlay District, exterior work, building-lot alteration, improvements, structures, exterior fixtures, and work subject to public view may require a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Board of Architectural Review before work proceeds.
• Grading or Drainage Work: Grading, excavation, filling, soil removal, or paving that significantly affects the permanent drainage characteristics of a site requires a grading permit from the Planning Commission. Ordinary fence work that does not involve that kind of site alteration is addressed through the fence and zoning-permit rules rather than the grading-permit section.
• Pool Barrier: When a fence is part of a swimming-pool enclosure, pool-specific rules apply. In A-1, CO-1, and SC districts, all swimming pools require a Building or Zoning Permit and the pool area must be enclosed by a fence or other suitable barrier at least 4 feet high, with openings small enough to prevent a child from entering except through the gate.
FENCE PLACEMENT RULES
• 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.
• Right-of-Way to Building Line Area: Fence height is specifically regulated between any public right-of-way and the building line, including front streets and side streets.
• Corner and Double-Frontage Lots: Corner lots and double-frontage lots must provide front yards on both frontage streets. The fence-height rule for the area between a public right-of-way and the building line applies to both front and side street frontages.
• Agricultural Districts: The fence, wall, and hedge height limits in §504.2 do not apply to fences, walls, and hedges in agricultural districts.
• Approved Subdivision Plans: When subdivision plans approved by the Planning Commission contain setbacks or other features greater than the minimum zoning ordinance requirements, those approved plan features govern and are enforced by the local Zoning Administrator.
• Rural Residential / Residual Farmland Developments: In RR/RF development contexts, property perimeter screening or buffering may be required between residential and agricultural uses. Where a platted landscape buffer area is required, no principal or accessory structures may be constructed within that designated landscape buffer area.
• Historic or Mapped Features: Rural Residential district standards recognize floodplains, streams, steep slopes, woodlands, designated historic structures, and stone (rock) fences as features that may be designated in the non-dwelling portion of a development.
• Floodplain Placement: In special flood hazard areas, fences may be treated as obstructions or development under the floodplain article. Floodway encroachments are restricted unless the required engineering showing is made under the floodplain regulations.
• Construction and Drainage: Construction, excavation, or grading activity must not damage adjoining property. Erosion, siltation, and water impoundment must be handled in accordance with applicable subdivision regulations.
• 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 Side Street Area: Fences between any public right-of-way and the building line, including front streets and side streets, are limited to 4 feet in height.
• Walls and Hedges Near Streets: Walls and hedges between any public right-of-way and the building line, including front streets and side streets, are limited to 3.5 feet in height.
• Side and Rear Yards: In Woodford County, no fence or wall along the sides or rear of any yard may be over 8 feet high unless otherwise permitted by the Board of Adjustment.
• Agricultural District Exception: The height limits in §504.2 do not apply to fences, walls, and hedges in agricultural districts.
• Height Measurement: Fence and wall height is measured as the vertical distance from the average established grade at the fence or wall to the top of the fence or wall.
• Corner Visibility: On corner lots in unincorporated Woodford County, except in the HD and A-1 districts, nothing may be erected, placed, planted, or allowed to grow in a way that materially impedes vision between 2.5 feet and 12 feet above the center-line grades of the intersecting streets within the area bounded by the right-of-way lines and a line joining points along those right-of-way lines 25 feet from the intersection.
• Pool Barriers: In A-1, CO-1, and SC districts, swimming-pool enclosure fences or suitable barriers must be at least 4 feet high. Other residential district pool language requires private swimming pools to be adequately fenced to prevent free access by small children.
MATERIAL AND CONSTRUCTION LIMITS
Woodford County does not publish a general list of permitted or prohibited materials for ordinary residential fences.
• Landscape Fences: A landscape fence is defined as a barrier made of wood, metal, stone, brick, or other weatherproof material used to restrict movement or screen conflicting activities from sight. For wood landscape fences, slats must be at least 1/2 inch thick and placed on the outside of the fence unless the design is two-sided, such as shadow-box fencing.
• Chain Link in Landscape Requirements: Chain link fencing may not be used to meet the ordinance’s landscape-fence requirements. This is a landscape and screening rule, not a general chain-link prohibition for ordinary residential yard fences.
• Advertising: Landscape fences and required parking-screening fences may not be used for advertising purposes. The sign rules also restrict banners located on fences, except for limited charitable-event or activity banners.
• Required Screening: Where the ordinance requires screening for parking areas or landscape buffers, the required screen may involve a wall, fence, hedge, or planting screen of the height and type stated for that specific context.
• Barbed Wire and Electric Fences: The code does not specify a standard residential rule for barbed wire, electric fencing, or similar security fencing in the ordinary residential fence provisions reviewed for this page.
PRIVATE RESTRICTIONS
Private deed restrictions, private covenants, subdivision restrictions, HOA requirements, private easements, architectural-review covenants, agricultural agreements, and recorded land-use restrictions operate independently from Woodford County zoning rules and may be more restrictive.
The zoning ordinance states that private deed restrictions or private covenants for a subdivision do not fall within the jurisdiction of local agency enforcement and cannot be enforced by the Zoning Administrator. Separately, approved subdivision plans, development plans, variances, conditional-use permits, and land-use restrictions may be enforceable through the zoning process when they are part of the official public approval record.
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 Permit Review: Fence construction, moving, or alteration before issuance of a required zoning permit.
• Application Trigger: Fence projects identified on the zoning permit application as Fence (Over 48” in Height).
• Height Review: Fences over 4 feet between a public right-of-way and the building line, walls or hedges over 3.5 feet in that same area, and side or rear fences or walls over 8 feet in Woodford County unless otherwise permitted by the Board of Adjustment.
• Visibility Review: Corner-lot obstructions that materially impede vision between 2.5 feet and 12 feet above street center-line grades within the 25-foot right-of-way triangle.
• Agricultural District Context: Fence, wall, and hedge height limits in §504.2 do not apply in agricultural districts.
• Floodplain Review: Fence work or related grading, filling, excavation, or obstruction in a special flood hazard area or floodway.
• Historic Review: Exterior work, structures, building-lot improvements, or visible site changes in a Local Historic Site or Historic Overlay District before issuance of any required Certificate of Appropriateness.
• Pool-Barrier Review: Fences or suitable barriers used to enclose swimming pools.
• Subdivision and Development-Plan Review: Approved subdivision plans, development plans, landscape buffer areas, easements, or recorded land-use restrictions that contain site-specific requirements.
• Drainage and Construction Review: Fence-related grading, excavation, drainage changes, erosion, siltation, water impoundment, right-of-way obstruction by construction materials, or damage to adjoining property.
USING THIS INFORMATION
This page provides general orientation on how residential fence rules are structured and applied within Woodford County, 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 the Versailles-Midway-Woodford County Planning Commission and any applicable private agreements. If this page conflicts with official ordinances, published guidance, or direction from Versailles-Midway-Woodford County Planning Commission staff, the official sources control. For legal advice or legal interpretation, consult a licensed attorney.