Cabarrus County, NC Accessory Structures: Tiny Homes (2026)

Chapter 2, Section 2-2 of the Cabarrus County Development Ordinance defines "Recreational Vehicle or RV" to expressly include "tiny homes on wheels" alongside travel trailers, truck campers, camping trailers, and motor homes. That classification pulls tiny homes on wheels directly into Section 6-20's storage and habitation rules for RVs. Under Section 6-20(A), a Recreational Vehicle stored on a residential parcel must not be used as a temporary or permanent dwelling or accessory to a dwelling, must not store personal property unrelated to the RV (including animals, building materials, business inventory, or agricultural products), must not be hooked to permanent electric, water, or sewer service, must stay attached to its wheels and axles, must carry current insurance, registration, and highway licensing, and cannot support attached accessory structures like decks, porches, or awnings.

Section 6-20(B) then bars occupying a Recreational Vehicle, including a wheeled tiny home, as a dwelling or accessory dwelling at all, unless it is installed temporarily in a manufactured home park under Section 4-26, or it is used as a temporary dwelling for no more than 180 days in any one-year period on a parcel where the occupant is rebuilding or repairing a home damaged by fire, flood, hurricane, tornado, or another peril. A separate flood-hazard-area definition in Chapter 16 clarifies the flip side: a tiny house or park model that does NOT meet the RV criteria (single chassis, 400 square feet or less, self-propelled or towable, licensed for highway use) is not treated as an RV at all, and instead must meet the full development and construction standards for a residential structure, meaning a foundation-set tiny home is reviewed like any other dwelling rather than under the wheeled-RV rules.