Nash County, NC Ordinances (2026)

In unincorporated Nash County a home-based child or adult day care is regulated as a home occupation under the Unified Development Ordinance and may serve no more than 5 clients at one…

Unincorporated Nash County allows home occupations by right in the A-1, residential, office-institutional and commercial districts, but only if the business stays inside a dwelling or…

Unincorporated Nash County bans home occupation signs outright in residential and agricultural zoning districts: no sign advertising the business is allowed at all. A home business…

Home-based businesses in unincorporated Nash County cannot generate more traffic, noise, glare, fumes or electrical interference than normally occurs in the zoning district where they…

Nash County's only numeric decibel standard applies to junkyards and salvage operations under Nash County Code Sec. 8-120(3): a maximum of 55 decibels continuous and 60 decibels impact…

Amplifying or intensifying the human voice or any other sound so that it annoys or disturbs reasonable persons of ordinary sensibilities is a public nuisance in unincorporated Nash…

In unincorporated Nash County, a vehicle stereo audible more than 60 feet away, unreasonable horn use, and a vehicle operated so as to disturb a residence are all public nuisances…

Unincorporated Nash County confines kennels and pet grooming businesses to the RC and GC zoning districts under the Unified Development Ordinance, and bars outdoor pens or runs…

Nash County bans letting any dog run at large across the unincorporated county under Sec. 4-7(a), and separately requires a leash in every county public park under Sec. 4-7(c) unless…

Nash County does not require microchipping for pets generally; the only county-wide chip mandate applies to a dog the Health Director has declared dangerous or potentially dangerous…

In unincorporated Nash County, no ordinance licenses cats, but Sec. 4-7 bans letting any cat run at large and specifically requires owners to confine a female cat in heat inside an…

Unincorporated Nash County bans keeping any inherently dangerous animal, defined as a non-domestic mammal that is dangerous or reasonably likely to become dangerous, under Sec…

Nash County has no breed-specific ban; instead Sec. 4-12 lets the Health Director declare any individual dog 'dangerous' or 'potentially dangerous' based on its bite or attack history…

Nash County's animal control chapter, Sec. 4-20, explicitly declines to regulate or restrict generally accepted livestock practices, so keeping chickens, goats or other farm animals is…

In unincorporated Nash County, a residential swimming pool counts as a structure, so building it without a permit from the building inspection department first is unlawful under Nash…

Unincorporated Nash County requires every outdoor swimming pool on residential, office-institutional or commercial property to be protected by a fence under the Unified Development…

A stand-alone child or adult day care center in unincorporated Nash County must fence any outdoor activity area with a security fence at least 4 feet high, kept outside the road…

Nash County's Building Inspection Department, created under Sec. 6-1, enforces the North Carolina State Building Code across the unincorporated county and inspects work under any…

Anyone who wants to locate, erect, construct, enlarge, alter, repair or relocate a building, structure or mobile home in unincorporated Nash County must first get a permit from the…

Unincorporated Nash County outright bans artificial obstructions inside any mapped floodway under the Unified Development Ordinance's Flood Hazard Overlay District rules. No…

Where base flood elevation data exists, unincorporated Nash County requires new or substantially improved residential and nonresidential buildings in a special flood hazard area to…

Piers, boat docks, boat houses, boat slips, and bulkheads are accessory structures under Nash County's Unified Development Ordinance and can be built on a waterfront lot even without…

In unincorporated Nash County, every development must include a drainage system that keeps surface water from unreasonably pooling on site and never dumps it into a sanitary sewer. The…

Nash County withholds zoning, special use, conditional use and preliminary plat approval for any project whose land-disturbing activity triggers state erosion control review, until the…

Operating a massage establishment or working as a massagist in unincorporated Nash County requires separate licenses from the sheriff under Nash County Code Sec. 8-29: a $100.00 annual…

Nash County bars adult and sexually oriented businesses, adult arcades, bookstores and motion picture theaters from locating within 1,000 feet of a dwelling, church, school, day care…

Nash County's Unified Development Ordinance treats a home-based auto repair operation as a home occupation under § 11-4.38, capping it at 500 square feet combined between the dwelling…

No one may operate or work in a food handling establishment in unincorporated Nash County without a food handler's certificate issued by the county health director, under Nash County…

Unincorporated Nash County residents report suspected zoning, building, and land-use violations to the Zoning Administrator in Planning and Development, who has authority under the…

Table 9-4-1 of Nash County's Unified Development Ordinance sets minimum building setbacks for every Agricultural and Residential zoning district in the unincorporated area, from a…

Land in Nash County's WS-III and WS-IV public water supply watersheds is capped at 24 percent built-upon area, or two dwelling units per acre for single-family lots, whichever standard…

Small sheds are largely unregulated in unincorporated Nash County: any accessory building 12 feet or less in dimension needs no zoning permit under UDO § 4-2.1(B). Larger accessory…

Nash County's sign ordinance allows electronic message signs, but only if the display holds each message still for at least one second on roads posted 55 mph or faster, or two seconds…

Unincorporated Nash County's sign ordinance bans strings of light bulbs on commercial premises used for commercial purposes, but carves out an exception for traditional holiday…

Billboards in unincorporated Nash County that face federal-aid highways such as I-95, US 64, US 264 and US 301 are regulated as Type I advertising signs under the Unified Development…

Nash County limits a yard, attic, lawn or garage sale to two days in any one-year period under UDO § 2-4.203(a); a church, club or lodge sale gets three. Signs promoting the sale fall…

In unincorporated Nash County, the Unified Development Ordinance requires every illuminated sign, including billboards, to be shielded so its light does not shine directly on…

Every use in unincorporated Nash County, not just signs, has to keep its outdoor lighting off neighboring land. The Unified Development Ordinance's general development standards…

Any commercial, office or industrial building in unincorporated Nash County that needs off-street loading has to provide it on the same lot under the Unified Development Ordinance…

Unincorporated Nash County requires solid waste dumpsters on multi-family, commercial, institutional or industrial sites to be screened from view whenever they sit near a residence, a…

Nash County makes it unlawful to throw, dump or deposit solid waste on a street or highway, in a public park or recreation area, or on any other public or private property, and it is a…

Nash County requires anyone whose property has garbage stored on it to have it removed at least once every seven days, and any paid solid waste hauler must also pick up at least weekly…

Nash County defines yard waste as yard trash and land-clearing debris, including stumps, leaves, grass and untreated wood, and bans it outright from the county landfill under the state…

Nash County doesn't run curbside recycling; instead, residents using its solid waste convenience centers are encouraged to separate recyclable materials from household trash into…

Nash County's solid waste convenience centers, open to unincorporated-county households, refuse tires, bricks, large stumps, logs, concrete, shingles, animal carcasses and autos under…

Residents using Nash County's roadside solid waste containers, the drop boxes serving areas without a staffed convenience center, must bag household waste and flatten boxes before…

Nash County Code § 20-29 requires every unincorporated-county premises with stored garbage to have it removed at least once a week, and any paid solid waste collector must service its…

Nash County does not mandate recycling. Code § 20-31(c)(5) only encourages residents to separate recyclable materials from household trash and deposit them in the special collection…

Accessory solar panel arrays are allowed in every zoning district in unincorporated Nash County under the Unified Development Ordinance, but ground-mounted arrays face size, height and…

New homes and substantially improved residential structures in Nash County's mapped special flood hazard areas must sit with their lowest floor, including any basement, at least one…

Nash County's noise ordinance makes loud, disturbing sound a public nuisance countywide, but it carves out an exception for vehicle alarms. Noise from a burglar alarm or security…

Nash County's noise ordinance exempts sound coming from property used for bona fide farm purposes, so a working farm cannot be cited under the general nuisance ban for the noise of…

Nash County's Unified Development Ordinance does not apply to bona fide farms. Section 1-4 exempts farm development from zoning under NCGS 153A-340, and the county specifically…

Nash County bars leaving rusted, wrecked, junked, dismantled or inoperative furniture, appliances, machinery, equipment or building material outside a dwelling unless it is fully…

Nash County's Unified Development Ordinance defines a retaining wall as any masonry, metal or treated-wood structure built to keep soil, rock or fill from shifting sideways, § 2-4.141…