We build pickleball courts across the St. Louis metro on both sides of the river: St. Louis City and St. Louis County; St. Charles, Jefferson, Franklin, Lincoln and Warren counties in Missouri; and Madison and St. Clair counties in Illinois. In four areas the rules differ enough to change how a court gets built. Everywhere else, we read the local code for your address before we quote.
Where local rules change the build
Chesterfield, Wildwood and Clarkson Valley — West County. Wildwood requires Planning and Zoning Commission approval of a court's location and bans court lighting in its "R" districts; Clarkson Valley caps fences at 6 feet and prohibits chain link; Chesterfield routes building permits through the county and has floodplain rules in the Valley.
Kirkwood, Webster Groves and Des Peres — where the region's best-known pickleball noise case happened; Kirkwood's stormwater rule treats a court as impervious area that triggers a drywell; 15-foot court fences allowed in Kirkwood and Webster Groves; no court lights in Des Peres.
St. Charles County — O'Fallon, St. Peters, Wentzville, Lake St. Louis, Dardenne Prairie and the subdivision belt. 2021 codes, a 30-inch frost depth in the county code, and fence rules from a 6-foot cap to no limit for sports courts.
Ladue, Town and Country, Frontenac and Creve Coeur — large lots, 12- to 15-foot court fences, conditional use and architectural review, and court lighting prohibited on residential lots in Ladue and Town and Country.
The rest of our service area
St. Louis City. Independent of the county, on the 2018 International Residential Code. Fences up to 8 feet behind the building line; every new fence needs a permit. Lots are often narrow.
The rest of St. Louis County. Eighty-eight municipalities plus the unincorporated county, about 89 governing authorities. Unincorporated county is on the 2015 I-codes and caps fences within setbacks at 6 feet.
Jefferson County. Unincorporated Jefferson County amends the 2015 IRC, allows side and rear fences up to 8 feet, and exempts patios and driveways from building permits.
Franklin, Lincoln and Warren counties. More rural lots with more room and more slope. Code adoption varies; we confirm the rules for each address.
Madison and St. Clair counties, Illinois. Edwardsville, Glen Carbon, Collinsville, Belleville, O'Fallon IL, Fairview Heights and nearby communities. Illinois permitting is its own system; Edwardsville, for example, requires a permit for every fence and caps side and rear fences at 6 feet. Pickleball demand is strong here too — Belleville has reported converting park tennis courts to pickleball, and Fairview Heights lists a field house with indoor and outdoor courts as coming in early 2027.
What doesn't change with the address
The ground does a lot of the same things everywhere in our area: clay that swells when wet, frost that reaches about 30 inches, a coating season from mid-April to mid-October. That's why our St. Louis court construction guide applies across the metro, and why we size footings and choose slabs the same way from Wentzville to Belleville.
Sources
- St. Charles County — Residential Code §500.150 (frost 30) and §500.100/§500.920 (2021 codes) — Ord. 25-085 (2025-12-15); accessed 2026-10-10
- St. Louis County code edition: 2015 I-codes, Ord. 27,654 (via Crestwood, Pagedale, Oakland) — 2019-12-18 / eff. 2020-04-01; accessed 2026-10-10
- City of St. Louis — Building codes — upd. 2025-08-11; accessed 2026-10-10
- St. Louis REALTORS — "Inconsistent Regulations" white paper — Oct 2021; accessed 2026-10-10
- Jefferson County §500.400, §400.2860 — Ord. 23-0465 (2023-11-16); accessed 2026-10-10
- Edwardsville — Fence & Pool Permit Guidelines — rev. 02/2023; accessed 2026-10-10
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