Vanderburgh County, IN Building Setbacks & Zoning: Setback Rules (2026)

050(C). Sills and belt courses may project up to twelve inches into a required yard; cornices, eaves, and gutters up to three feet, but no closer than one foot to a lot line; chimneys, fireplaces, and bay windows up to two feet; and movable awnings may not extend closer than two feet to a lot line. Unenclosed fire escapes, stairways, decks, and balconies may project five feet into a required rear yard and three feet eight inches into a side yard, while unroofed patios and terraces under three feet six inches high may reach five feet into a front yard, ten feet into a rear yard, and three feet into a side yard.

All required front yards, apart from permitted driveways, must be planted and maintained in grass or comparable natural ground cover. A 'front yard' runs the full lot width between the building's front line and the front lot line, with the shorter of two street frontages controlling on a corner lot; a 'rear yard' runs along the back lot line; a 'side yard' runs from the front yard to the rear yard along the foundation line. Where a commercial lot abuts a residential lot, the county requires an unobstructed ten-foot buffer with no primary or accessory structure inside it; an industrial lot abutting residential property requires a twenty-foot buffer under the same no-build rule.

District-by-district minimum footages for front, side, and rear yards are fixed in Zoning Table A at the end of Title 17, which applies uniformly regardless of whether the permitted use includes a building.