Gaston County, NC Ordinances (2026)

Gaston County requires new and substantially improved structures in Special Flood Hazard Areas to sit at least 3 feet above the Base Flood Elevation. The Land Use Administrator, acting…

Gaston County requires a Floodplain Development Permit before any development activity begins within a Special Flood Hazard Area, under Chapter 16 of the Unified Development Ordinance…

Unincorporated Gaston County requires a stormwater control permit before any residential or commercial development disturbing an acre or more, or a smaller phase of a larger plan…

Anyone disturbing an acre or more of land in unincorporated Gaston County must have an erosion and sedimentation control plan approved by the Natural Resources Department before…

Gaston County's UDO classifies residential pools as accessory structures, so a zoning permit and a building permit for the lot's principal structure must already be issued before…

In unincorporated Gaston County, every outdoor or indoor swimming pool, hot tub, and spa must be enclosed by a barrier, a fence, wall, or combination that completely surrounds the…

Gaston County Code of Ordinances § 11-43 makes it unlawful for an owner to abandon a vehicle on public or private property in the unincorporated county. Section 11-42 sets the clock…

Gaston County requires off-street parking areas to be paved, but one- and two-family residential parking is exempted and may be surfaced with gravel instead. Where a driveway meets a…

Gaston County's Unified Development Ordinance bans tractor-trailers, cargo trucks and other two-or-more-axle vehicles on residential lots under one acre, and allows only one such…

Gaston County's Unified Development Ordinance makes every non-residential use in the unincorporated county provide off-street loading space sized under Section 10.10. Spaces must be…

Gaston County limits residential lots to one recreational vehicle over eight feet tall and one boat or trailer combination over eight feet tall. RVs must sit behind the front building…

Camping, pitching a tent, or leaving bedding on any Gaston County-owned property, including rights-of-way and sidewalks, is unlawful without written permission from the county manager…

Gaston County parks are open 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. under Code of Ordinances § 12-10(a); entering or staying past those hours without a special written permit is unlawful. The Parks…

Gaston County requires a special parks and recreation permit for any gathering that exceeds one hundred people or significantly alters normal park operations, per Code of Ordinances §…

Gaston County requires written notification before any parade or public assembly on county property under Code of Ordinances § 8-103. Organizers must file at least two business days…

Gaston County treats a street fair or festival as a "public assembly" under Code of Ordinances § 8-102 once it draws 25 or more people and obstructs traffic on county property. At that…

Gaston County permits one accessory living unit, called a private residential quarters, per single-family lot, capped at half the main home's ground floor or 1,000 square feet…

Sheds and other accessory structures on Gaston County lots under two acres are capped at 20 feet in height, kept out of the front yard, limited to 4% of the lot's total acreage, and…

Gaston County bars a private home occupation from operating like a retail store that depends on substantial walk-in traffic, and it caps the vehicles tied to the business at two…

Gaston County limits a private home occupation to 10 percent of a home's heated floor area or 300 square feet, requires the operator to live on-site, and restricts hours to 8 a.m. to 8…

Gaston County allows a small in-home daycare, called a Day Care Center Class A, as a permitted use in the county's residential districts, but only inside a single-family dwelling with…

In Gaston County's residential districts a fence or wall cannot exceed four feet in the front yard or eight feet in the side or rear yard, and fences cannot block road-right-of-way…

Where a nonresidential use in unincorporated Gaston County abuts a residential use and grading creates a two-foot or greater elevation change within 20 feet of the common property…

Gaston County's Unified Development Ordinance exempts fences from the zoning permit required for most structures. Section 5.3.D.4 lists fences among items that need no zoning permit…

Gaston County bans electric fences in residential districts, except for livestock protection fencing, and treats invisible pet-containment fences as exempt from that ban.

Gaston County's UDO bars unshielded outdoor illumination of buildings or landscaping, requiring semi-cutoff or full-cutoff fixtures to avoid light spillage onto motorists, pedestrians…

Gaston County's UDO requires outdoor light fixtures on covered properties to be full-cutoff or semi-cutoff, with full-cutoff fixtures emitting no light above the 90-degree horizontal…

Gaston County exempts holiday decorations and displays from the sign permit requirement, but only if they stay up no longer than 60 days. The same 60-day cap applies in residential…

Gaston County lets commercial and industrial businesses put up window signs without a zoning permit as long as the signs cover less than 25 percent of the window space. The exemption…

Gaston County bans flashing and scrolling signs but carves out a narrow exception for LED signs with electronically scrolled messages. Each message must hold static for at least eight…

A single-family home in Gaston County's R-1, R-2, or R-3 district needs a 30-foot front setback, a 15-foot side setback, and a 25-foot rear setback under Table 7.1-2 of the Unified…

Gaston County's standard zoning tables set no maximum lot-coverage percentage; Tables 7.1-2 through 7.1-5 regulate lot size, setbacks, and height but never cap building or impervious…

Gaston County caps single-family and two-family homes at 45 feet in every conventional residential zoning district, from R-1 through RMF, with limited exceptions for rooftop equipment…

In the unincorporated county, weeds or grass grown twelve inches or higher within 100 feet of a residential or occupied nonresidential structure is a declared public nuisance under…

Excessive horn use, unmuffled exhaust and defective, rattling vehicles are all separately banned nuisance noises under Code of Ordinances § 8-1(a)(1), (6) and (7), each punishable as a…

Playing a radio, amplifier, loud speaker or musical instrument loudly enough to disturb neighboring inhabitants is a nuisance noise violation under Code of Ordinances § 8-1(a)(2)…

Code of Ordinances § 8-2 sets numeric maximum sound-pressure levels by octave band across residential, commercial and manufacturing districts, from 65-80 decibels at low frequencies…

A dog that disturbs neighbors with continued or repeated howling, yelping or barking is a nuisance animal under Code of Ordinances § 3-5(e)(1), but only after two households complain…

Smoking, vaping and any tobacco product use is banned outright in all Gaston County-owned, leased or operated parks under Code of Ordinances § 12-8, backed by a separate Board of…

Gaston County bans possessing an open container of, or drinking, malt beverages or unfortified wine inside any county-owned or county-occupied building under Code of Ordinances § 11-1…

Gathering at a party loud enough to disturb neighbors is a nuisance noise under Code of Ordinances § 8-1(a)(11), and a police officer can order everyone but the owner or tenant to…

Gaston County's Unified Development Ordinance caps garage and yard sales at six days per calendar year per site under Section 5.8.4(E). Table 5.8-1 confirms no temporary use permit is…

Gaston County requires anyone practicing massage, or operating a massage parlor, health salon, or similar business, to hold a license under Code of Ordinances § 10-82. The county board…

Gaston County requires a body piercing establishment or tattoo parlor to hold local and state health permits and comply with North Carolina's tattooing rules, and the use table…

Gaston County requires a police-chief-issued license before anyone opens or operates an adult establishment, under Code of Ordinances § 10-144. The $300.00 nonrefundable application…

Gaston County requires a license to run a pawnshop outside the limits of any city, under Code of Ordinances § 10-123. The $50.00 application undergoes a felony background check, and…

Outdoor car repair on residentially zoned Gaston County lots is limited to routine maintenance on vehicles registered to the resident, capped at 48 continuous hours, with major engine…

Gaston County licenses "rotation wreckers," the tow operators its communications center dispatches for police-ordered, non-consent tows of disabled or wrecked vehicles. Code of…

Gaston County's solid waste ordinance requires every property owner, occupant, tenant, or lessee to clear solid waste from the property at least once every seven days. Sec. 7-3(b) also…

Gaston County bans open dumping, littering, and roadside yard-waste dumping under three separate clauses of its solid waste ordinance. Sec. 7-3(o), (r), and (s) each outlaw a different…

Gaston County's solid waste ordinance caps how long bulky items like old furniture and appliances can sit outside a home. Sec. 7-3(f) bars leaving bulky wastes outside a building for…

Gaston County runs drop-off solid waste/recycling centers rather than curbside pickup in the unincorporated area. Residents may use the centers only during posted operating hours, only…

Gaston County requires garbage stored on any property to sit in a durable, fly-resistant, close-fitting-cover container sized to hold a full week's accumulation. Bulky waste cannot sit…

Gaston County bars keeping a wild animal as a pet anywhere in the unincorporated county unless it was registered with the county before January 1, 1999. The Sec. 3-2 definition sweeps…

Gaston County has no breed ban; instead Sec. 3-5(g)-(h) lets animal control declare any individual dog vicious, dangerous or potentially dangerous based on its own bite or attack…

Gaston County requires every animal to stay on the owner's property unless it is on a leash, chain or harness held in hand. Letting a pet run at large is also charged as a public…

Gaston County requires every dog or cat adopted from its animal shelter to be spayed or neutered; Sec. 3-11(b) bundles the mandatory procedure into the adoption fee and authorizes…

Gaston County can declare a vacant, blighted nonresidential building 'especially dangerous to life' under Sec. 4-109(c) whenever the code enforcement official finds any one of a list…

Every rental dwelling in unincorporated Gaston County must meet the Minimum Housing Standards in Sec. 4-124: no owner may occupy or lease a unit that fails the article's structural…

Any structure covered by the North Carolina State Building Code needs a permit from the Gaston County Building Inspections Department before it can be built, added to, altered, moved…

Gaston County's solid waste ordinance flatly bans burning trash in the open air. Sec. 7-3(n) prohibits open burning of solid waste alongside open dumping, and a first offense draws a…

Gaston County's minimum housing code requires automatic smoke detection systems in any residential unit the housing inspector has already ordered repaired. A landlord who ignores a…

Gaston County's Unified Development Ordinance does not apply to bona fide farms or agricultural/farm buildings under UDO § 3.1. Section 8.4.26 spells out the exemption: qualifying…

Gaston County's minimum housing code requires basement and cellar openings to carry rodent-proof screens and puts extermination duty on whoever controls the unit. A new tenant gets…