Franklin County, KY Sign Regulations: Freeway-Facing Signs (2026)

Franklin County Code § 155.375 creates a narrow path for businesses that want to be seen from the interstate. Its stated purpose is to let establishments offering goods and services to the traveling public inform the motorist of what is available along the interstate. The section applies only to on-premises pole signs. Fascia signs stay under the other sections of the sign chapter.

The code defines INTERSTATE as a fully controlled access highway that gives preference to through traffic, has access only at selected public roads and has no at-grade crossings or intersections. Location is tightly bounded. A sign can sit only within a 3,500-foot radius of the center point of one of three Interstate 64 intersections: U.S. Highway 127, U.S. Highway 60 (Versailles Road), and U.S. Highway 151. Maps 11-1, 11-2 and 11-3 are attached to the ordinance as a general reference for finding eligible properties.

Size limits are printed in two parts. No interstate business sign can exceed 100 feet in height, and the maximum is 350 square feet per sign face with 700 square feet for all sign faces. The sign must stand on the same site as the business and meet setbacks measured from the property lines: 15 feet front, five feet side and 15 feet rear. A property with several street frontages must meet the front setback along any one of them.

This is separate from the billboard rule in § 155.373(B)(5). That division bars any non-premises sign within 1,000 feet of the right-of-way of an interstate or of a highway classified by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet as a federal-aid highway. So an advertiser cannot buy a billboard beside the interstate in Franklin County, while a business on its own lot inside one of the three interchange zones can put up a tall pole sign.