Franklin County Planning, Zoning and Building Code Enforcement, at 321 West Main Street in Frankfort (502-875-8701, Monday to Friday 8:00am to 4:30pm), administers zoning and provides building and electrical permits and inspections for Franklin County outside the city, with applications through its online permit portal. The City of Frankfort runs its own building code programme through its Planning & Community Development department at 315 West 2nd Street (502-352-2094). State-owned building construction projects, wherever they are, require review and inspection by the Division of Building Codes Enforcement rather than by a local programme, and the county holding the capital has a large share of them.
Beyond the capitol complex the ordinary framework applies. The Kentucky Building Code and Kentucky Residential Code govern without local amendment; review of other projects is divided between the local programme and the state under Sections 104.15 and 104.16 of the building code; and the county's own control lies in zoning, subdivision regulation, its fee schedule and its inspection programme. The department that writes the statewide codes has its offices on Mero Street, in the same town.
This guide covers Franklin County and the City of Frankfort, which permit separately: the county office for the county outside the city, the city’s own programme inside it. State-owned buildings are reviewed by the state’s Division of Building Codes Enforcement rather than locally, and Scott, Owen, Henry, Shelby, Anderson and Woodford counties around it run their own arrangements. The Franklin Counties elsewhere in the country are unrelated jurisdictions.
State-owned buildings go to the state. State-owned building construction projects require review and inspection by the Division of Building Codes Enforcement — not by the county or the city. In the county holding the capitol complex, the state office buildings and the agencies around them, that carve-out covers a large share of the significant construction, and it is not a local file at all.
What requires a building permit in Franklin County?
What is local in Franklin County is the inspection programme, the fee schedule, zoning and planning, contractor registration, and the county's zoning and the state's role over state-owned buildings.
Short on time to read all of this?
Get a free quote →Typically permit required
- Any construction, alteration, repair, demolition or change of occupancy under the Kentucky Building Code or Residential Code
- Zoning and subdivision approval under the county's or the City of Frankfort's ordinance
- Electrical, plumbing and heating and air work, each by a state-licensed contractor on its own permit
- New buildings, additions and any structural work on an existing building
- Alterations, repairs and renovations under the building or residential code, and any change of occupancy
- Decks, accessory structures above the code threshold, retaining walls over 4 feet and in-ground swimming pools
Often exempt
- Ordinary repairs that do not alter structure, egress or systems, and agricultural buildings within the statutory definition
- Ordinary repairs that do not alter structure, egress or systems
- Painting, papering, flooring, cabinets and similar finish work
- Like-for-like replacement that the codes place below the permit threshold
- Small accessory structures below the code's threshold — the zoning ordinance still applies
What is actually local, and what is not
The code is the Commonwealth's and cannot be added to. Franklin County's layer is its building inspection programme and the certified inspectors staffing it, the fee schedule its ordinance sets, the zoning ordinance and planning commission that govern use and site development, any local contractor registration it requires, and the state-owned buildings the state reviews directly, and the county's own zoning and subdivision regulations.
Kentucky has one mandatory statewide building code that local governments may not add to. Cities and counties enforce it and run zoning. The state reviews plans for larger and higher-risk buildings, and the local programme reviews smaller ones. Kentucky rules
Who handles permitting in Franklin County?
Franklin County Planning, Zoning and Building Code Enforcement administers zoning and provides building and electrical inspections for the county outside Frankfort, with certified inspectors as the state regulation requires. The City of Frankfort runs its own building code programme through its Planning & Community Development department at 315 West 2nd Street (502-352-2094), and the city and county share subdivision and development plan regulations. The state Division of Building Codes Enforcement reviews and inspects state-owned building projects and the other projects the code assigns to it, and the Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction’s own offices are in Frankfort.
Not sure this scope needs a permit?
Get a free quote →| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Authority | Franklin County Planning, Zoning and Building Code Enforcement (county outside Frankfort); City of Frankfort Planning & Community Development (inside the city) |
| Office | 321 West Main Street, Frankfort, KY 40601 (city: 315 West 2nd Street, 502-352-2094) |
| Phone | (502) 875-8701 |
| Hours | Monday to Friday, 8:00 am to 4:30 pm |
| State-owned buildings | Reviewed and inspected by the Division of Building Codes Enforcement |
| State department | Housing, Buildings and Construction, 500 Mero Street, Frankfort |
In 2025, building permits issued in unincorporated Franklin County authorized 89 new privately owned housing units, 85 of them single-family homes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey.
Permit types
Residential permits
A Franklin County house project files against the Kentucky Residential Code and the applicable zoning, with the electrical, plumbing and heating and air work carried out by state-licensed contractors on their own permits. The proximity of the state department is of no particular help on a private house — the ordinary local and state division applies exactly as it does in any other county.
Commercial permits
Commercial work in Franklin County divides three ways: state-owned building projects to the Division of Building Codes Enforcement, other larger projects to the state or the local programme under the code's jurisdictional division, and the smaller work to the local programme. On a site adjoining the capitol complex, establishing which of the three applies is the first task.
Plan review, local programmes and the state's role
In Franklin County the Kentucky River runs through Frankfort with a floodplain that has shaped the town's history, the capitol complex and state properties carry the state's own review, and the county's zoning governs use and setbacks elsewhere. Fees a local government charges are required by statute to cover the cost of the service performed and not to exceed it.
Rather talk it over?
Call 1-855-478-4290 →Kentucky has no general contractor licence: the state licenses the trades, and cities or counties may require their own contractor registration. Kentucky rules
Franklin County permit costs and fees
Fees follow the local schedule where a local programme reviews, capped by statute at the cost of the service, and the state's plan review and inspection fees where the state division does.
| Item | Fee or rule |
|---|---|
| Building permit | The local schedule, by project type and construction value |
| State-owned projects | Reviewed and inspected by the Division of Building Codes Enforcement |
| State plan review | Department fees where the project falls to the state division |
| Fast track | State expedited site and foundation review at an additional half of the basic fee |
| Trade permits | Electrical, plumbing and heating and air by state-licensed contractors |
| Statutory limit | Local fees may not exceed the cost of the service performed |
The code's authors are in the same town. The Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction, which writes and adopts the codes every Kentucky jurisdiction must enforce, has its offices on Mero Street in Frankfort — along with the Division of Building Codes Enforcement that reviews state-owned projects and the larger commercial work. On a question of interpretation, the source is unusually close to hand here.
Rather not deal with the Franklin County building department?
Get a free quote →Trade permits and who may pull them
Permit required
- State-owned building projects — review and inspection by the Division of Building Codes Enforcement
- Electrical — state-licensed electrical contractor; separate permit and a certified electrical inspector
- Plumbing — state-licensed master plumber; separate plumbing permit, inspected under the state plumbing code
- Heating and air conditioning — state-licensed HVAC contractor; separate mechanical permit
- Fire sprinkler and fire alarm — sprinklers by a state-licensed fire sprinkler contractor and alarms by a state-licensed electrical contractor; system plans are reviewed with the building plans, and the fire official may inspect
Typically exempt
- Like-for-like replacement the trade codes place below the permit threshold
- Electrical or heating and air work a homeowner does on their own home, which state law exempts from the trade licence — a permit is still needed
The trades are permitted separately and done by contractors holding state licences. Kentucky rules
How to apply for a Franklin County building permit
Zoning approval, and planning commission or site development review where the ordinance requires it, precede the building permit.
The state reviews plans for larger and higher-risk buildings, and the local programme reviews smaller ones; homes are local.
The state licenses the trades; general contractor registration, where it exists, is the city's or county's own.
Reviewed against the Kentucky Building Code or Kentucky Residential Code as adopted, with no local amendments to satisfy.
Fees are set by local ordinance and by statute may not exceed the cost of the service performed.
Footing to final, with the trades inspected on their own permits, then the certificate of occupancy.
Want this handled start to finish?
Get a free quote →Review, corrections and what actually causes delay
Franklin County's review splits between the local programme, the state division and the state's own carve-out for state-owned buildings. What delays a file here is a project on state property filed locally, and a zoning question left until after the building application.
Inspections in Franklin County
Inspections follow the codes' sequence — footing, foundation, framing, rough trades, insulation and final — and are requested from the local inspection programme by permit number, with the electrical inspections carried by a certified electrical inspector. Work that passes final receives a certificate of occupancy for new buildings and changes of occupancy. Franklin County's inspections run through the county or city programme within its jurisdiction, with electrical inspections carried by a certified electrical inspector as the state regulation requires; state-owned projects are inspected by the Division of Building Codes Enforcement.
Franklin County permit search and official resources
- Division of Building Code Enforcement — the division's review and inspection role including state-owned projects
- Kentucky building codes and jurisdiction — Sections 104.15 and 104.16 and the state-local division
- 815 KAR 7:120 — Kentucky Building Code — the mandatory uniform state building code
- Kentucky Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction — the statewide codes, trade licensing and the Division of Building Code Enforcement
- 815 KAR 7:120 — Kentucky Building Code — the mandatory uniform state building code and its general provisions
- 815 KAR 7:125 — Kentucky Residential Code — the code governing one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses
Inspections are where schedules slip.
Get a free quote →Frequently asked questions
Who reviews state-owned buildings?
The Division of Building Codes Enforcement — state-owned building construction projects require its review and inspection rather than a local programme's.
Is this Franklin County in Kentucky?
Yes — the county containing Frankfort, the Commonwealth's capital. The Franklin Counties elsewhere in the country are unrelated jurisdictions.
Does the county have special powers because it holds the capital?
No. Kentucky's mini/maxi framework applies here as everywhere; the county's control is zoning, subdivision regulation, fees and its inspection programme.
Who reviews a large private commercial building?
Either the local programme or the state division, under the jurisdictional division in Sections 104.15 and 104.16 of the Kentucky Building Code.
Where is the state department?
The Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction is at 500 Mero Street in Frankfort, in the same county.
Which code editions apply?
The 2018 Kentucky Building Code, Fourth Edition and the 2018 Kentucky Residential Code, Third Edition, both built on the 2015 International Codes with Kentucky amendments.
Simplify Franklin County permitting with Alliance Permitting
In Franklin County a project can belong to the county, the state division or the state's own building programme. We place it correctly first, and use the proximity of the department where an interpretation is genuinely in doubt.
Ready to break ground in Franklin County sooner?
Send us the scope and the parcel. We confirm the review path with the Franklin County Planning, Zoning and Building Code Enforcement office, assemble the submittal, file it, and track it through issuance — corrections included.
More Kentucky permitting guides
More Kentucky permitting guides
This guide is provided by Alliance Permitting for general information about Franklin County permitting. Requirements, fees, and procedures change; confirm details with the permitting authority before relying on them.