Permitting Authorities / Planning and Development Services of Kenton County (PDS) — Building Codes Administration
Planning and Development Services of Kenton County (PDS) — Building Codes Administration
Adopted code
A joint city-county agency that administers the Kentucky Building Code's "Local Projects" function — plan review, permit issuance, field inspections, and certificate-of-occupancy issuance — for unincorporated Kenton County and 17 of its 19 cities, under interlocal agreements dated 2004 through 2022. PDS's own published matrix of statutory and interlocal responsibilities (as of 03/01/2025), read as a rendered image because its cell shading does not survive text extraction, was the source used to establish this territory rather than any secondary account: Edgewood, Fort Mitchell, Fort Wright, Taylor Mill, Crestview Hills, Crescent Springs, Ryland Heights, Lakeside Park, Park Hills, Covington, Kenton Vale, Ludlow, Villa Hills, Elsmere, Bromley, Fairview and Erlanger, plus unincorporated Kenton County, are marked "Service Provided" for Kentucky Building Code Local Projects. Two named jurisdictions on the same matrix are NOT: Independence is marked "No Service Provided" for Local Projects specifically (PDS retains Independence's State Projects, HVAC and Local Appeals Board functions, marked "Service Provided", but not the local building-permit function that reaches an ordinary house), and the Walton/Kenton Co line is marked "No Service Provided" across every Kentucky Building Code column. This record therefore does NOT cover Independence or the Kenton County portion of Walton; each would need its own building-permit issuer identified before a record is written for it. Kentucky's residential code is a mandatory, uniform, statewide "mini maxi" code under 815 KAR 7:125 that no Kentucky local government may vary in either direction, so the code-content fields below are identical to every other Kentucky record; only the permit and registration fields are specific to PDS's own territory and its own published rules.
Jurisdiction
Kenton County region, Kentucky (unincorporated county plus 17 of its 19 cities; see description for the two exceptions)
Jurisdiction type
district
Address
1840 Simon Kenton Way, Suite 3400, Covington, KY 41011
Contact
- url: https://www.pdskc.org/pds-departments/building-codes-administration/
- phone: 859-957-2408
- permit_portal_url: https://pdskc.govbuilt.com/
Roofing permit required
Not required
Registration details
- state_level: Kentucky licenses five construction trades (HVAC, electrical, plumbing, boilers, and fire protection sprinkler contracting) and roofing appears in none of their statutory scope definitions. Kentucky has no general contractor or home-improvement license, and the Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction publishes no roofing division. Kentucky expressly preempts local licensure for electricians (KRS 227A.020(6)) and home inspectors (KRS 198B.726) but enacts no such bar for roofers, leaving room for a local credential.
- local_level: NOT ESTABLISHED THIS SESSION. PDS's own permit portal (pdskc.govbuilt.com) publishes a page titled "Licensed Contractors," which by its title suggests PDS maintains some form of contractor registration or license list, but the page's substantive content loads through a client-side application that returned no readable text this session — only its title and site chrome. No PDS page describing registration requirements, fees, or which trades must register was found and read. Because a sourced negative or affirmative at the local level could not be earned, contractor_registration_required is omitted rather than set to false.
Permit process note
PDS accepts building, zoning, planning, and subdivision permit applications through a single online portal (pdskc.govbuilt.com) described on its own site as available for digital submission around the clock. This record covers only the territory where PDS's own published interlocal-responsibilities matrix marks it as providing the Kentucky Building Code's "Local Projects" service: unincorporated Kenton County and 17 named cities. Independence and the Kenton County portion of Walton are excluded from that service on the same document and are not covered by this record.
Adopted code
2015 International Residential Code for One and Two Family Dwellings, as amended by the 2018 Kentucky Residential Code, Third Edition (August 2024), the mandatory statewide residential code under 815 KAR 7:125 Section 2(1), effective 12-3-2024. The code's own text bars any Kentucky local government from adopting or enforcing a different one for one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses (KRC R101.3; KRC R102.2), so this edition applies uniformly across PDS's territory regardless of which jurisdiction issues the permit. One statewide carve-out: KRS 198B.010(4) excludes a farm dwelling or other farm building outside a municipality's boundary from the definition of "building" the code reaches, provided it is not used for retail sale, as a place of employment for ten or more people, or for timber storage.
Drip edge
Required — Kentucky's own Chapter 9 amendment, KRC R905.2.8.5, requires a drip edge at eaves and gables of shingle roofs, overlapped a minimum of 2 inches, mechanically fastened at a maximum of 12 inches on center, with underlayment installed over the drip edge at eaves and under it at gables. The same section allows an alternate: site-formed coil stock, or wood, composite, or manufactured fascia trim, that creates an equivalent drip line, is treated as meeting the requirement without a standard metal drip edge.
About drip edgeImpact-resistant roofing
Not required — A counted read of both the Kentucky Residential Code amendment packet and the Kentucky Building Code amendment packet turns up zero occurrences of UL 2218, Class 4, Class IV, hail, or impact of any kind. Because KRC R102.2 bars any Kentucky local government from adding a building-construction standard the state code does not contain, this negative reaches PDS's entire territory, not only the state layer.
Repair permit threshold
PDS's own building-codes FAQ lists "Ordinary re-roofing (no sheathing and/or structural members are being repaired or replaced)" among the categories exempt from a building permit, and that item is not among the categories the same page marks as still needing a zoning permit. So an ordinary reshingling that leaves the deck and framing untouched needs no permit of any kind across PDS's territory. Re-roofing that does repair or replace sheathing or structural members falls outside that exemption and needs a building permit; PDS's fee schedule (effective 07/01/2024) has no dedicated roofing line, so such work most likely falls under its flat "Repair" category ($550, defined as "repair of a structure on a residential lot") or, if the work amounts to a fuller renovation, its per-square-foot "Alteration/Remodel" rate. Separately, Kentucky's own KRS 198B.010(21) classes ordinary roofing repair as non-structural "ordinary repair," excluded from the statutory definition of "construction," while the Kentucky Residential Code's own exempt-work list (R105.2) does not name roofing at all. This record states both the state and local tests without deciding how a specific job is classified.
Wind design criteria
Basic ultimate wind speed 115 mph (V_ult) for all Kentucky counties, including Kenton County, per the Kentucky Residential Code's own replacement Table R301.2(1) (topographic effects must still be investigated separately). Kenton County is one of the counties assigned the higher ground snow load in that table: 20 psf, versus 15 psf for most other Kentucky counties. Weathering is designated SEVERE and termite exposure MODERATE TO HEAVY statewide. A footnote to the table cross-references Section 301.2.1.3 for converting the ultimate figure to a nominal design wind speed for methods that call for one; this record states the ultimate figure only and does not perform that conversion.
Roof layer limit / recover
The Kentucky Residential Code's Chapter 9 amendment packet contains no amendment to R908 (roof replacement) at all — its only content is the drip-edge provision at R905.2.8.5 — and IRC Chapter 8 (Roof-Ceiling Construction) does not appear in the amendment packet's own table of contents. This is reported as an absence in the state's own amendment instrument rather than as a classification of the base 2015 IRC's layer-count rule, which this record does not independently quote or classify.
Deck & sheathing requirements
The Kentucky Residential Code's amendment packet contains no amendment to IRC Chapter 8: Chapter 8 does not appear anywhere in the packet's own table of contents (which runs 1-7, 9, 11, 13-20, 24-44), and neither R802 nor R803 appears in its text. So the base 2015 IRC's roof-sheathing provisions apply statewide unmodified; this record does not restate their content.
Sales & use tax
6.00%, statewide, with no local sales or use tax anywhere in Kentucky (KRS 139.200; Kentucky Department of Revenue: "There are no local sales and use taxes in Kentucky"). The roofing contractor, not the homeowner, is the taxable consumer of materials: 103 KAR 26:070 Section 2(1) makes all sales of building materials and supplies to a contractor for incorporation into real property taxable at the time of sale to the contractor, and Section 1 of the same regulation lists "Roofing" by name among the covered trades and materials. Repair and replacement are taxed identically; Kentucky has no capital-improvement distinction for contractor purchases.
Working an insurance claim in Planning and Development Services of Kenton County (PDS) — Building Codes Administration? Everything on this page — drip edge, ice & water shield, inspections, Class 4 rules — formatted as a claim-ready evidence pack: verbatim ordinance quotes, code section cites, verification dates, and official source links, ready to attach to a supplement. See a real sample pack (PDF) — one page, free.
Buy this jurisdiction's pack — $12 Delivered by email within minutes.
Questions about the Planning and Development Services of Kenton County (PDS) — Building Codes Administration pack?
Not ready to buy, or need a different jurisdiction? Tell us and we’ll reply directly.