Lancaster County, NE Ordinances (2026)

Running a business from home in unincorporated Lancaster County is allowed under Section 15.001 as long as it stays inside the dwelling or an accessory building, uses no more than 20%…

Lancaster County allows a small in-home daycare as a conditional use in its Agricultural and Residential zoning districts. Section 4.005 caps the operation at fifteen children…

A home occupation run out of a Lancaster County dwelling can post only one nameplate sign, capped at two square feet with letters no taller than two inches, under Zoning Resolution §…

An Expanded Home Occupation on Lancaster County acreage caps outside participants at two people, excluding deliveries, and lets the Planning Commission attach a firm cap on daily…

Nebraska lets Lincoln residents make non-hazardous foods in their home kitchen and sell them directly to consumers with no sales cap, but the producer must register with the Nebraska…

Large solar facilities need a special permit in Lancaster County's AG and Industrial districts, and small residential-scale systems need one in AGR and R. The Lincoln-Lancaster County…

A Battery Energy Storage System permitted in Lancaster County's AG district cannot exceed the dBA limits Section 13.054 sets for the zoning of the land receiving the noise: 65 dBA by…

Lancaster County's only zoning rule on amplified sound sits inside the farm winery social hall special permit: Section 13.052 bars amplified music anywhere outside the hall itself…

Lancaster County's AG and AGR districts flatly bar any sign lit by flashing, intermittent or moving lights or with animated or moving parts under Section 16.005, ruling out digital…

Lancaster County's Agricultural (AG) zoning district makes farming the district's baseline permitted use under Lincoln-Lancaster County Zoning Resolution §§ 4.001 and 4.003…

Section 17.009 keeps required front, side and rear yards open to the sky, so an RV, trailer or boat parked at home in unincorporated Lancaster County must sit in the rear yard, or in…

Both Lincoln Municipal Code and Nebraska statute deem a vehicle abandoned after set periods: six hours with no plates on public property, 24 hours where parking is not permitted, 48…

Lancaster County classifies carnivals, circuses, fairs, festivals and musical festivals as an "Annual Attraction Event." On land zoned Agricultural, the event is allowed as a…

Lancaster County caps how much accessory-building floor area a single-family or two-family residential lot can carry, scaling the limit by lot size and zoning district under § 17.005…

One accessory dwelling unit per lot is allowed by special permit on Lancaster County acreage of 20 acres or more, capped at 1,000 square feet or 40 percent of the main house, with the…

Anyone seeking a special permit to excavate clay, sand, gravel or stone on more than an acre in Lancaster County's AG or AGR districts must build retention and sediment basins and…

Any development within Lancaster County's mapped 100-year floodplain needs a separate development permit from the Director of Building and Safety before construction starts. The…

New and substantially improved buildings in Lancaster County's floodway fringe must have their lowest floor at least one foot above the regulatory flood elevation, the county's…

In the "R" Residential District, Lancaster County caps buildings at two and one-half stories and thirty-five feet under § 6.011 of the county zoning resolution, with narrow exceptions…

Lancaster County's "R" Residential District sets minimum yard depths under § 6.015: at least thirty feet in front, ten feet on each side, and the smaller of thirty feet or twenty…

A Heritage Center special permit in Lancaster County's AG District caps building coverage at five percent of the lot when more than one main building sits on a parcel of thirty acres…

A sexually oriented live entertainment establishment can locate only in Lancaster County's Industrial zone by special permit, and must sit at least 1,500 feet from another such use and…

A special-permit recreation facility in Lancaster County's AG or AGR districts cannot cast more than 2.0 foot-candles onto a neighbor's property line, and any fixture over 4,050 lumens…

Nebraska law lets landfills take yard waste with no conditions only from December 1 through March 31. The rest of the year, grass clippings, leaves and brush headed to a Lancaster…

Nebraska law requires landowners to trim trees, hedges, and undergrowth along public roads at least once a year when they become a nuisance to travel or block sightlines. Trees must be…

Nebraska state law requires the owner of every rental dwelling, apartment, mobile home, or lodging unit to supply, install, maintain, and test smoke detectors. Detectors must meet…

Lincoln and Lancaster County do not ban any dog breed. Regulation is behavior-based: a dog can be declared dangerous or potentially dangerous under Lincoln Municipal Code Chapter 6.10…

Keeping livestock inside Lincoln is limited to permitted small fowl and small animals; larger livestock generally belongs on agricultural-zoned land. Unincorporated Lancaster County…