Johnson County, IA Ordinances (2026)

Johnson County's building code exempts fences seven feet tall or shorter from needing a building permit at all, so most residential fences, capped at six or eight feet under the zoning…

In unincorporated Johnson County, a retaining wall over 4 feet tall must sit back from the property line at least 1.5 times its own height, measured from footing to the top of the…

Unincorporated Johnson County caps boundary fences at six feet and interior fences at eight feet, measured on average across the fence run, with no portion allowed to rise more than…

Iowa's distinctive partition-fence law, Iowa Code Chapter 359A, makes adjoining rural landowners share the cost of a division fence, with township trustees acting as fence viewers to…

Iowa City enforces its noise ordinance and a well-known disorderly house rule aimed at loud student rentals near campus. Overnight noise disturbances draw police citations, and repeat…

Iowa City does not allow amplified sound in residential areas except at churches and schools, and its disorderly house ordinance targets loud parties at student rentals. Outdoor events…

Johnson County's zoning code sets numeric decibel caps only for specific conditional uses, not general residential noise. Battery energy storage systems are capped at 60 dBA and…

Electrical work in unincorporated Johnson County follows the Iowa State Electrical Code, adopted county-wide under UDO Section 8:6.5. Any installation, alteration or replacement of an…

Operating a child care center serving seven or more children in unincorporated Johnson County requires a Conditional Use Permit from the Board of Adjustment, not just a business…

Anyone building, altering, moving, enlarging, repairing or demolishing a building or structure in unincorporated Johnson County needs a building permit from the Zoning Administrator…

Rental buildings in unincorporated Johnson County that are required to have an automatic sprinkler system must have it tested every two years by a qualified sprinkler technician who…

Johnson County's Unified Development Ordinance allows one auxiliary dwelling unit per property in the A, AR, SF, RS, RM, RC, and AG-T districts, capped at 1,300 square feet or half the…

Johnson County treats attached auxiliary dwelling units as an accessory use and detached units as a conditional use in the A, AR, SF, RS, RM, RC, and AG-T districts under UDO Section…

Johnson County's amended building code exempts one-story detached tool sheds and playhouses up to 200 square feet from a building permit, but the shed still must clear the county's…

Johnson County's Sensitive Areas Ordinance requires any development site with a historically significant structure or archaeological site to carry a 50-foot protective buffer, and to…

Any development in a mapped floodplain in unincorporated Johnson County, including placing a factory-built home, needs a Floodplain Development Permit from the Zoning Administrator…

Unincorporated Johnson County requires an adequate stormwater management plan before approving most subdivisions, site plans, and conditional uses. Plats for commercial, industrial, or…

Johnson County requires an approved soil erosion and sediment control plan before the Zoning Administrator issues a building permit for a new dwelling, a dwelling addition of 1,000…

Coastal rules do not apply in Johnson County. This is landlocked eastern Iowa. Work near water here follows Iowa DNR floodway permits, local floodplain ordinances, and Army Corps rules…

New and substantially improved residential structures in Johnson County's Floodway Fringe Overlay District must have their lowest floor, including any basement, elevated at least one…

Johnson County caps backyard poultry and livestock by animal unit under UDO Section 8:1.24(A), converting each species into a fraction of an animal unit and capping the running total…

In unincorporated Johnson County, a veterinary office is zoned as an Animal Service under UDO Section 8:1.4(21) and is a permitted primary use only in the C-AG Agri-Business Zoning…

Iowa City, Coralville, and unincorporated Johnson County require dogs to be leashed or controlled off the owner's property, with the shared Iowa City Animal Care and Adoption Center…

A backyard pool in unincorporated Johnson County must be fenced to the standards set in the county's amended Building Code, and that fence still has to respect the UDO's general height…

In unincorporated Johnson County the Planning, Development and Sustainability department permits residential pools under the adopted 2024 International Residential Code. Iowa City…

Suspected zoning violations, unpermitted construction, or land-use complaints in unincorporated Johnson County go to the Zoning Administrator in the Planning, Development and…

Homes built or altered in unincorporated Johnson County follow the smoke alarm rules of the adopted 2021 International Residential Code, effective January 1, 2022. The county's Section…

Iowa legalized consumer fireworks in 2017, but every Johnson County community sharply limits when you may set them off. Rural unincorporated areas allow July 3 through 5, while Iowa…

Iowa's DNR bans open burning of combustible materials by default, allowing landscape waste only on the premises where it grew. Iowa City goes further and prohibits open burning of…

Johnson County caps how many customers a home-based business can host under its zoning intensity table: two customers at a time and 30 per month for a bare home occupation, rising to…

Johnson County's UDO splits home-based work into three permit tiers: home occupations, home businesses, and home industries, each with different districts, approval bodies, and…

Running a small daycare out of a single-family home in unincorporated Johnson County is allowed by right as long as headcount stays within the county's two-tier limit: up to five…

Iowa bans yard waste from landfills, so Johnson County's cities run curbside recycling and organics diversion. Iowa City collects curbside recycling plus a combined yard- and…

No sign may stand in the right-of-way of a county road, state highway, or interstate highway anywhere in unincorporated Johnson County, and signs near any intersection must clear a…

Cities and the county regulate signs through zoning codes, not a countywide rule. Since Reed v. Town of Gilbert (2015), those codes must stay content-neutral: Iowa City or Coralville…

Every rental dwelling in unincorporated Johnson County must meet the minimum structure standards of UDO Section 8:7.8, including heat to at least 68°F in habitable rooms, a working…

Iowa is landlord-friendly and has no just-cause eviction law, so no Johnson County city can add one. But the security deposit is capped at two months' rent under Iowa Code section…

Rental permits are a city job, not a county one. Iowa City runs a mandatory rental-permit program with a two-year inspection cycle through its Housing Inspection Services, and…

In unincorporated Johnson County, tenants in a single-family rental must exterminate rodents, insects or other pests on the premises themselves. In a multi-unit rental, the owner must…

Every commercial, industrial, and manufactured-housing Site Plan filed in unincorporated Johnson County must be built EV-ready: the electrical switchgear must have spare capacity for…

In unincorporated Johnson County, unlicensed or inoperable vehicles count as junk storage under the Unified Development Ordinance. Unscreened lots may keep only two such vehicles in…

Any non-residential building of 6,000 square feet or more that takes deliveries must build off-street loading berths on-site in unincorporated Johnson County. Each berth needs at least…

Every property in unincorporated Johnson County that must provide off-street parking, including single-family homes, needs a driveway at least 12 feet wide for one-way access or 24…

Johnson County's UDO prohibits outdoor lighting that spills past your property line. Fixtures must be designed so light does not extend beyond the property boundaries, and bulbs must…

Johnson County's UDO includes real Downcast Lighting Regulations for unincorporated land. Outdoor fixtures must be hooded, aimed downward no more than 45 degrees from vertical, and…

Renting a single-family home, ADU, seasonal home, cabin, or multi-family unit short term in unincorporated Johnson County requires a Zoning Administrator permit that expires every two…

Short-term stays in Johnson County owe Iowa's 5% state hotel/motel excise tax plus the local hotel/motel tax, which is 7% in Iowa City and Coralville, for a 12% total. Platforms…

Johnson County allows an auxiliary dwelling unit to be rented as a short-term rental only if the property's legal owner lives on site. UDO Section 8:1.24(E)(5) ties that host-presence…

State law lets cities regulate short-term rentals for noise and nuisance even though they cannot ban them. Iowa City's noise and disorderly house rules apply to STR guests, and repeat…

Iowa City can set occupancy limits for short-term rentals through building and nuisance rules, but state law bars STR-only caps stricter than those on comparable homes. Hosts list a…

Iowa City does not impose a short-term-rental-only insurance mandate, because state law bars STR-specific requirements and permit fees. Hosts should still carry liability coverage…

A short-term rental in unincorporated Johnson County must supply off-street parking under the county's standard residential table: one space per dwelling unit for a single-family…

Johnson County genuinely zones its unincorporated land under the Unified Development Ordinance. In the base Residential Single-Family (R) district, structures must sit 30 feet from the…

Johnson County's Unified Development Ordinance defines lot coverage at Section 8:1.4(131) as the portion of a lot covered by all structures, and enforces it through a…

Most homes in unincorporated Johnson County's residential and agricultural districts are capped at 35 feet and 2 1/2 stories under the zoning district bulk tables. Churches, hospitals…

Rooftop solar is welcome across Johnson County, and Iowa City actively encourages it. A homeowner needs a building and electrical permit plus a net-metering interconnection with the…

Johnson County placards and can order the immediate vacation of any rental dwelling so damaged, decayed, dilapidated, unsanitary, unsafe or vermin infested that it endangers occupants…

Johnson County's Unified Development Ordinance exempts bona fide farmland, barns and up to two agricultural domiciles from its zoning, environmental and floodplain chapters under Iowa…

Johnson County lets subdivisions in the Agricultural Residential (AR), Residential Single-Family (RS), and Residential Multiple-Family (RM) districts build 25% more dwelling units than…

Two layers apply. Statewide, Iowa Code Chapter 317 makes every landowner destroy noxious weeds like Canada thistle and Palmer amaranth, enforced by the Johnson County weed…

A food truck in Johnson County needs a mobile food unit license issued through Johnson County Public Health as Iowa DIAL's local agent, plus a city vending permit. Expect inspection…

Cryptocurrency mining is a permitted primary use only in the MH Heavy Industrial Zoning District under UDO Section 8:1.19(A)(3), added by Ordinance 10-10-24-01 in October 2024. Every…