Catawba County, NC Ordinances (2026)

Catawba County lets homeowners park a domestic or recreational vehicle on their own residential property, but it can never be lived in or hooked up to utilities, except under a…

Tractors can park in Catawba County residential districts, but trailers and tractor-trailer combos cannot unless fully enclosed. Commercial vehicles left outside a garage must sit at…

Catawba County makes it unlawful to leave an abandoned vehicle on public property once it has been declared abandoned, and the board of commissioners can direct the sheriff to tow it…

Any commercial or industrial use in unincorporated Catawba County that receives or ships goods by vehicle must provide dedicated off-street loading berths sized for a delivery truck or…

Catawba County bars running lawn mowers or other power-operated domestic tools, including leaf blowers, outdoors between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. under Code Sec. 16-69(14); the county…

Catawba County outlaws keeping any animal or bird that causes frequent, habitual, repeated or excessive noise under County Code Sec. 16-69(7), part of the county's noise ordinance…

Catawba County bars most building construction and demolition noise outside 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekdays and Saturdays in areas not zoned commercial or industrial, and separately…

Catawba County's noise ordinance sets an 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. quiet period during which firearm discharge and garage or service-station machinery are barred, under Code Sec…

Catawba County bans unnecessary horn use, driving without a proper muffler, tire-screeching or engine-racing, and loud grating, grinding or backfiring vehicles under Code Sec. 16-69(1)…

Catawba County bars playing sound amplification devices, TVs or musical instruments loudly enough to unreasonably disturb residents or interfere with churches, schools or libraries…

Catawba County keeps outdoor lighting off neighboring land two ways. Sec. 44-522(a)(3) bars any nonresidential or multifamily light fixture from sitting within 20 feet of a…

Catawba County requires every outdoor light fixture on new nonresidential and multifamily development to be shielded. Sec. 44-522 mandates 'semi-cutoff or full-cutoff fixtures only,'…

Residents can do minor maintenance like oil changes and tire rotations at home, but anything beyond that has to happen inside an enclosed space, only on vehicles registered to the…

Catawba County requires adult uses to screen their windows, doors and entries from public view and keeps them at least 1,000 feet from any other adult use and 500 feet from residential…

Catawba County requires a permit for any act in a county park that the parks article otherwise allows only by permit, under Code Sec. 20-6; permit terms and fees come from the board's…

Groups of 25 or more people who want to assemble, protest, or hold an event on county-owned grounds like the Justice Center or Government Center lawns must apply for a permit to…

Catawba County bars residents from storing garbage in any container that is not durable, rust-resistant, watertight and rodent-proof, capped at 96 gallons, with a tight-fitting cover…

Catawba County requires its licensed solid waste haulers to collect roadside garbage and separated recyclables from every customer's premises at least once a week, with the monthly fee…

Catawba County's board of commissioners has reserved the authority to require residents to separate recyclables from trash and to participate in an approved recycling program under…

Catawba County bars yard trash, meaning brush, grass, tree limbs and similar vegetative material, from the county landfill and its solid waste convenience centers unless it goes into a…

Every new commercial, institutional, or multifamily building in unincorporated Catawba County must set aside a central solid-waste storage area, and if the dumpster sits outside a…

Catawba County requires its franchised solid waste haulers to provide 'special haul services,' the county's term for bulky-item and non-routine pickups, to every county resident at a…

Catawba County makes it unlawful for anyone to throw, dump or deposit solid waste on their own property, someone else's property, any public street or highway, or any public park…

Catawba County defines an unrestrained dog off its owner's property as 'at large' and treats habitual roaming onto a neighbor's land as an animal nuisance, letting animal services…

Catawba County regulates dogs by behavior, not breed: the director of emergency services can declare a dog dangerous (level 1 or 2) or potentially dangerous based on bites, kills or…

Catawba County bans harboring dangerous exotic animals outright: primates, big cats, bears, wolf hybrids, venomous or large constricting reptiles and other non-domesticated species…

A home occupation in Catawba County gets exactly one sign, and it cannot be illuminated. The sign face is capped at 4 square feet and the whole structure, sign plus post, cannot rise…

Catawba County allows home occupations by right in every residential district, but caps the business at 25 percent of the dwelling's usable floor area and bars any outside sign of the…

A home-based business in unincorporated Catawba County cannot generate more than two customer vehicles on site at any given time, one of several standards under UDO Sec. 44-615 that…

Catawba County caps yard and garage sales at four per property each 12-month period, with each sale running no more than three days. The rule covers garage, yard, tag, patio, estate…

Catawba County requires an approved erosion and sedimentation control plan before any land-disturbing activity uncovers more than one acre. Plans go to the county 30 days in advance…

Catawba County requires a county-approved erosion and sedimentation control plan before any land-disturbing activity that will uncover more than one acre, under Code of Ordinances §…

Catawba County requires new construction in a special flood hazard area to sit two feet higher than FEMA's base flood elevation. Sec. 44-429.05 defines the 'regulatory flood protection…

Any development in a Catawba County special flood hazard area needs a floodplain development permit before work starts, under Sec. 44-429.04. The county maps those areas from FEMA's…

Catawba County bans loitering on county public grounds and buildings between 7:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. under Code of Ordinances Sec. 22-31. Government employees, people with legitimate…

Catawba County makes it a class 3 misdemeanor to stand, sit, or loiter in the street, median, or right-of-way of a multi-lane divided highway, or anywhere traffic is controlled by a…

Catawba County allows one accessory dwelling unit or guesthouse per lot, capped at 650 square feet or 50 percent of the principal home's heated area, whichever is greater. The ADU must…

A residential shed or other accessory structure in unincorporated Catawba County cannot go in the front setback, must sit at least five feet from the house, ten feet from any side line…

Catawba County makes it unlawful to camp on any county-owned public property, including rights-of-way and sidewalks, and declares camping a public nuisance under Section 34-27(d)(1)…

Private pools in Catawba County cannot go in the required front setback and must clear side and rear lot lines by at least 10 feet. A pool has to sit at least 5 feet from the house…

Catawba County prohibits open burning of solid waste or garbage entirely under County Code Section 32-6(h). No person may set fire to trash, refuse, or debris outdoors within the…

Catawba County records Voluntary Agricultural Districts and posts a formal notice warning real estate buyers that farming activity, including manure spreading and machinery at night…

Catawba County zones farmland and open land through the Rural Conservation (RCon) district, setting a five-acre minimum lot size to protect prime farmland, viewsheds and…

Catawba County park rules define e-bikes as Class 1 electric bicycles that stop assisting the rider at 20 m.p.h., and Sec. 20-5(c)(3) lets Class 1 e-bikes operate anywhere ordinary…

Catawba County bars taking off, landing or flying any drone in county parks under Code Sec. 20-4(h), which groups drones with airplanes, balloons, parachutes and radio- or…

Catawba County governs all building, remodeling and construction under the adopted North Carolina State Building Code, and no building permit may issue until the property has an…

Catawba County's Watershed Protection Overlay District (WP-O) caps built-upon area for nonresidential and multifamily development at a fixed percentage set by watershed classification…

Catawba County sets minimum yard setbacks by zoning district in Table 44-404-1 under Sec. 44-404. A standard R-20 single-family lot must keep 30 feet at the front (20 feet allowed on…

Catawba County caps residential structure height at 45 feet in every district from RCon through R-7 under Table 44-404-1, rising to 70 feet in Highway Commercial, Light Industrial and…

Off-premises billboards in unincorporated Catawba County may be upgraded to or built with LED technology only in the districts where billboards are allowed, and any LED billboard must…

Catawba County prohibits depositing, storing or accumulating solid waste or garbage on any property in a manner that provides food or harborage for rodents and vermin, or creates a…

Fences and walls anywhere in unincorporated Catawba County face just one dimensional limit: a maximum height of six feet when located within a required front setback. Outside that area…

Catawba County caps fences and walls at six feet only where they sit in a required front setback, per Sec. 44-607(1)f, and no zoning permit is needed to build one anywhere. Separately…

Ground-mounted solar panels on a residential lot in unincorporated Catawba County cannot go in the front yard and are capped at 12 feet in height, treated as an accessory structure…

Catawba County does not enforce your subdivision's CC&Rs; it only confirms, before a plat records, that the homeowners' association itself has legal power to run the community. Sec…