Franklin County, KY Fence Regulations: Material Restrictions (2026)

The only fence material restriction in the Franklin County Code is in § 155.215, Walls and Fences, which opens by stating that walls and fences are permitted in any zoning district in accordance with the provisions that follow. Division (B) is the material rule: no barbed wire or electric fence shall be permitted in any residential (R) district or special (S) district, if developed. The ban names two products only, barbed wire and electric fence, and it does not prescribe an approved list of materials such as wood, vinyl or chain link.

Two features of the wording matter. First, the prohibition is tied to the district, not to the use of the lot. It applies in every R district (the code's residential districts include RR, RA, RB, RC, RD, RS, RL, RH and RM in the height table) and in S districts once they are developed. The section prints no equivalent bar for the commercial CL, CG and CH districts or the industrial IC and IG districts, so the ban is limited to the districts it names. Second, the phrase 'if developed' limits the S-district half of the rule to special districts where development has occurred.

Division (A) works alongside it: any wall or fence must be constructed entirely within the lot lines of the lot or parcel. A strand of barbed wire or an electrified wire strung on a boundary line the owner does not control is therefore a problem under two divisions at once.

Height is handled separately in the table in § 155.215(C), which sets front, side and rear yard limits by district, and corner lots face the 25-foot vision triangle in § 155.214. The Frankfort-Franklin County Planning and Community Development office administers the zoning chapter. Livestock fencing on agricultural land is not addressed by this section, and the City of Frankfort, which has its own code, is not covered.