Derby Fence Installation

Derby is its own permitting authority. Applications go to 611 Mulberry Road, Suite 300, or permits@derbyks.gov, and the permit line is (316) 788-6632 option 2. You need one for a new fence or a replacement. Fixing less than an 8-foot section or a gate needs none. The $25 fee is non-refundable, so draw what you actually intend to build.

That drawing is not optional. The application will not be accepted until it is attached, and it has to show property lines, easements, existing structures and the proposed fence location. After the fence is up, an inspection must be scheduled at least 24 hours in advance through the same number.

Derby also publishes a GIS map of HOA and development names covering the city, which is the fastest way to find out which association, if any, governs a given address before you start drawing.

Zoning Section 303 sets the heights. Back and side fences can be 6 feet, but they can't run past the front corner of the house on the address side. Front-yard fences stop at 36 inches and must be open: split rail, picket or decorative metal, pickets no wider than 3.5 inches and at least 4 inches apart, no points on top. On a corner lot, Section 303.N keeps a triangle with 30-foot legs from the corner clear of anything between 33 inches and 8 feet tall.

Where a wood fence is visible from public property, the finished side faces out, with posts and rails inside. A shadowbox design, boards alternating from one side of the rail to the other, also works.

Easements are the other trap. Derby will allow a fence inside a drainage or utility easement only under conditions: it has to let normal drainage flow continue, it cannot divert storm water, it must include removable panels so crews can get in for maintenance, and the City Engineer has to approve the placement. Even then, the city states that it assumes no liability for damage to the fence during maintenance work. On a lot where the rear easement is wide, it is usually cheaper to set the line in front of it than to rebuild a panel run after a storm-sewer repair.

Derby is the largest suburb in the Wichita metro, and most of its growth arrived as platted additions with covenants attached, Stone Creek, The Oaks, Amber Ridge, Spring Ridge, Cedar Ranch and Glen Hills among them. Homeowners associations in these developments commonly require written architectural approval before a fence goes up. That approval is separate from the city's $25 permit, and getting one does not substitute for the other.

For ground conditions, the reference point most Derby contractors work to is MABCD's frost line for Wichita and Sedgwick County: 24 inches below finish grade. Wind is the other constant. The National Weather Service office in Wichita records an average annual wind speed of 11.5 mph over the 1991-2020 normals, prevailing out of the south-southwest, and the highest gust in its records for the metro is 102 mph on June 17, 2025. A solid privacy fence takes that load straight into the posts.

Before any digging, Kansas 811 requires at least two full business days' notice. Post holes count.