Carteret County, NC Business Licensing & Operations: Auto Repair on Residential Property (2026)

Section 1102 of the Carteret County Zoning Ordinance defines 'home occupation' as an occupation, service, profession, or enterprise carried on by resident family members and not more than two non-resident employees, operating as an accessory use that is clearly incidental and subordinate to the principal residential use of the property. The same sentence that creates that allowance also carves out four specific uses that can never qualify: 'Kennel, vehicle repair, veterinarian, and wrecker services are not a home occupation.' That means someone running an auto repair operation out of their house, garage, or yard in unincorporated Carteret County cannot rely on the home-occupation provisions to legalize it, no matter how small the operation or how few customers visit, because vehicle repair is excluded by name rather than merely regulated as a 'major' home occupation requiring extra review.

The ordinance separately caps what any lawful home occupation may store, allowing materials and supplies only inside a completely enclosed structure customary to residential use, a standard a vehicle repair operation, with cars, parts, and fluids typically kept outdoors or in an open bay, generally cannot meet even if the excluded-use list did not already bar it outright. A resident who wants to operate a repair shop must instead locate it on land zoned for that commercial use and go through the county's ordinary business zoning review.