Vermilion Parish, LA Building Setbacks & Zoning: Structure Height Limits (2026)

Sec. 8-3 of the Vermilion Parish Code is titled Permit for tall structures and applies to any person, corporation or entity desiring to construct any structure having a height of more than 40 feet. The text makes the certification a prerequisite to obtaining a permit for construction. It is not a cap on how tall a house can be. It is a gate that a taller structure has to pass before the Police Jury's permit process will accept it.

The certification comes from the City of Abbeville, and it must state two things: that the structure does not interfere with flight and/or communication operations at the Chris Crusta Memorial Airport in the City of Abbeville, and that it does not violate Federal Aviation Administration guidelines regarding the placement of communication towers/structures and similarly erected edifices. The party seeking authority to construct carries the responsibility for compliance, so the Police Jury is not the one who chases down the paperwork.

The section also states the consequence directly: failure to obtain the certification invalidates any permit issued in error by the parish. A builder who starts work on a permit that was released without the certificate is therefore building on a permit the Code treats as invalid.

No other section of the Vermilion Parish Code prints a building height limit for houses or other structures. Height appears elsewhere only in narrow settings: Sec. 22-1 defines flood heights and elevations for the flood chapter, the tower article in Chapter 38 defines a tower as a structure taller than 15 feet, and specific signs and fences carry their own height figures. Flood elevation rules in Chapter 22, such as the lowest-floor elevation standards in Sec. 22-67, control how high a floor sits above the base flood, not how tall the roofline can be. Structures under 40 feet face no parish height certification.