New Castle County, DE Ordinances (2026)

Restaurants that already hold a temporary outdoor seating limited use permit under Sec. 40.03.329 can make that seating permanent through a record plan modification, reviewed as a…

New Castle County requires a paid reservation permit for group picnic shelters and a free first-come permit for athletic fields, both issued by the Department of Public Works before…

Concerts, carnivals, circuses, outdoor religious meetings and other temporary public gatherings on private or commercial land need a County limited use permit, capped at six events a…

New Castle County runs a random rental inspection program, aiming to inspect 5% or more of registered rental units yearly on top of complaint-based inspections.

New Castle County inspects rental units on a complaint basis under Sec. 19.03.002. The Department of Land Use must give landlords and tenants 48-hour written notice before entry, and…

Fences on residential lots in New Castle County top out at 6 feet, drop to 4 feet in the street yard in the NC5-NC15 zoning districts, and must use approved materials.

New Castle County lets you build a retaining wall up to four feet exposed height without engineering review. Cross that line and the Department of Land Use requires an International…

New Castle County allows wood, brick, masonry, stone, wrought iron, vinyl, aluminum and PVC fencing but bans sheet or corrugated metal, plywood, CMU block, and barbed or razor wire on…

New Castle County exempts ordinary yard fences from building permits, but swimming pool barrier fences need one and fences built in a floodplain need a floodplain permit.

New Castle County requires new off-street parking areas, including apartment and multi-family lots, to include EV-capable or EV-ready spaces per the Building Code, and it exempts EV…

New Castle County bars noisy loading, unloading, or container handling in residential districts between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., and separately requires off-street loading bays for larger…

New Castle County code enforcement and police can order an inoperable, unregistered, or abandoned vehicle towed off private property under Property Maintenance Code section 302.8.4.

New Castle County requires RVs, boats, and trailers parked in residential yards to sit on a hardened surface, restricts large boats to the rear yard, and caps visitor RV stays at 14…

New Castle County requires every parked or stored vehicle, RV, or off-highway vehicle in a residential zoning district to sit on a hardened surface, brick, block, pavers, stone…

New Castle County bans parking any vehicle over 240 inches long, 84 inches wide or tall, or 8,000 pounds in residential zoning districts, with narrow acreage-based exemptions.

New Castle County does not ban retail pet sales or require adoption-only stores. It licenses "retail dog outlets" for $75 a year and requires humane-care inspections instead.

New Castle County lets a licensed dog wear a microchip or tattoo instead of a metal tag, as long as proof of the license and ID method is available for an animal control officer on…

The zoning code classifies pet grooming with veterinary services as one commercial use and requires 3.5 off-street parking spaces per 1,000 square feet of gross floor area in…

New Castle County doesn't license or leash cats, that's a dogs-only rule, but owners must stop excreta from piling up at home and immediately clean up any cat feces left on streets…

New Castle County bans keeping cattle, poultry, sheep, goats, pigs, and similar livestock on residentially zoned parcels under one acre, with exemptions for horses and school…

In County parks it's illegal to trap, shoot, poison, injure or disturb any wild bird or destroy its nest, though the County Executive may allow controlled deer hunts on DNREC's…

New Castle County treats veterinary offices and clinics as a special use requiring Board of Adjustment approval outside its regional commercial, business park, and industrial zoning…

New Castle County requires every dog to be kept under restraint at all times: on a leash or lead no longer than 20 feet, or confined to the owner's property or a vehicle.

New Castle County has no pit bull or other breed ban: dogs are declared "vicious" based on documented behavior, not breed, under Section 4.02.001.

New Castle County bars keeping exotic animals, wild animals, and livestock like cattle, goats, and poultry on residential lots under one acre in any residentially zoned district.

New data center projects over 20,000 square feet must keep noise at or below predevelopment levels and stay 1,000 feet from residential districts, backed by a mandatory noise study.

New Castle County requires data centers over 20,000 square feet to sit at least 1,000 feet from residential districts, with the buffer reduced to 500 feet only if a Department-approved…

New Castle County has no separate heritage-tree ordinance. Its closest protection is the specimen-tree rule in the Unified Development Code, triggered only when land is developed or…

New Castle County's development code protects "specimen trees", healthy, non-invasive trees above set size thresholds or comparable to the state champion, requiring preservation or…

New developments in unincorporated New Castle County must plant street trees along road rights-of-way at a set rate per linear foot, sized and spaced under Sec. 40.23.151 of the…

New Castle County closes all County parks during hours of darkness, with exceptions only for areas designated for extended-use activities or programs authorized in writing by the…

New Castle County caps garage and yard sales at four occasions a year, each running no more than three consecutive days, under the zoning code's residential accessory-use rules.

New Castle County's Unified Development Code bans balloons and other air- or gas-filled figures outright as signs in every zoning district of the unincorporated county, with no…

New Castle County limits digital billboards to the I-95, I-295, I-495 and US-13 corridors, caps their brightness, and requires an old static billboard to come down before a new digital…

Window signs are not "signs" under New Castle County's Unified Development Code: Section 40.06.020 excludes interior displays visible through glass from the definition, so no permit…

New Castle County caps noncommercial ideological, religious, and political signs at 32 square feet and allows them in every zoning district without site limitations, under the Unified…

New Castle County bans electronic off-premises billboards facing freeways everywhere except I-95, I-295, I-495 and a stretch of US-13, and even there imposes spacing, brightness and…

Anyone buying secondhand gold, silver, or platinum for resale in New Castle County must get a license from the Clerk of the Peace, hold purchased items 15 days, and report every…

New Castle County bars adult uses within 500 feet of homes, 2,800 feet of schools or churches, and 1,500 feet of another adult use parcel.

New Castle County has no massage-business license. Instead, the Unified Development Code defines 'massage parlors' staffed by non-association or non-graduate practitioners as an adult…

New Castle County treats small home-based auto repair shops as a 'cottage industry' use, capped at six non-family employees and allowed only through limited-use review in Suburban…

New Castle County requires leakproof, covered containers for household rubbish, garbage and recycling, with the dwelling owner responsible for supplying them.

New Castle County requires dwelling occupants to store rubbish, garbage and recycling in leakproof, covered containers, with owners supplying the containers and landlords ensuring…

Dwelling occupants must dispose of rubbish, garbage and recycling in covered, leakproof containers, and the owner must supply them.

New Castle County limits residential dumpster placement to 30 days, requires a 3-foot setback from property lines, and keeps dumpsters off sightlines to intersections and fire hydrants.

Property Maintenance Code section 7.01.002 requires occupants to dispose of rubbish, garbage, and recycling in leakproof, covered containers, with the dwelling owner responsible for…

New Castle County bans dumping earth, rubbish or debris in any county park without written permission from the Department of Public Works, backed by escalating fines and possible jail…

Retail marijuana stores in unincorporated New Castle County must sit at least 1,000 feet from schools, colleges, day cares, places of worship, government parkland, and libraries, plus…

Retail marijuana stores need Land Use Department siting approval, are barred within 1 mile of another store, and are excluded from most residential and rural zoning districts.

New Castle County caps noise from stationary sources like industrial and commercial equipment at 10 dBA above ambient levels, with a tighter 5 dBA limit for pure tones or repetitive…

New Castle County bans car stereos audible 50 feet or more from the vehicle and bans revving, racing, or repairing motor vehicles in residential areas between 9 p.m. and 8 a.m…

New Castle County outlaws loudspeakers, musical instruments, and other amplified sound between 9 p.m. and 8 a.m. if the music is plainly audible across a property line, and bans any…

New Castle County's noise ordinance covers aircraft in one line: aircraft and railroads only have to comply with existing federal and state noise restrictions. The County sets no…

New Castle County bars outdoor power equipment, including leaf blowers and garden tools, from creating noise disturbances in residential districts between 9:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m…

New Castle County bars construction equipment noise between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. on weekdays, 10 p.m. Friday/Saturday to 9 a.m. Saturday/Sunday, and 10 p.m. to 9 a.m. around legal…

Radios, TVs, stereos and similar sound devices can't be run loud enough to carry across a property line or through shared walls between 9 p.m. and 8 a.m. under the County's…

New Castle County can declare a chronically barking dog a 'public nuisance animal'; animal control may impound it, and an owner who refuses to surrender it commits a separate offense…

New Castle County requires owners to keep shrubbery off sidewalks and streets and trim tree branches to at least 7 feet above any sidewalk, enforced under the county's Property…

Removed specimen trees on development sites must be replaced under a size-based table, from 5 to 12 replacement trees per tree taken down.

Residents may compost or mulch yard and kitchen waste generated on their own property as a by-right accessory use, but bringing in material from elsewhere is not covered by this…

New Castle County exempts pollinator gardens, rain gardens, and wildflower meadows from its weed ordinance, but plants must come from DNREC and Delaware Department of Agriculture…

New Castle County caps weeds and grass at 8 inches on developed parcels, with a 20-foot buffer rule for larger lots and undeveloped land near developed parcels.

New Castle County lets home-occupation operators meet clients on site, but heavy client traffic between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. counts as evidence the business is violating the county's…

New Castle County permits family day care homes and large family day care homes as accessory residential uses if state licensing and zoning bulk standards are met.

New Castle County allows home occupations in unincorporated areas only if the business stays invisible from outside, caps at 25% of dwelling floor area, and bars outside employees…

Unincorporated New Castle County bans any sign that identifies or advertises a home occupation, including marked service vehicles parked to draw attention -- though family day cares…

New Castle County's Building Code amendment to IBC Section B1612.2 requires the lowest floor or crawlspace of new construction to sit at or above base flood elevation plus 18 inches of…

New Castle County's Unified Development Code blocks any new Heavy Industry (HI) zoning district from being created inside Delaware's Coastal Zone. Existing HI districts survive only…

New Castle County requires an approved sediment and stormwater management plan before any land disturbing activity begins, enforcing Delaware's DNREC erosion regulations through…

New Castle County requires an approved sediment and stormwater management plan, built to state DNREC standards, before any grading, clearing or other land disturbing activity can begin…

New Castle County requires a floodplain development permit from the Department of Land Use before any construction, fill, or land disturbance in a special flood hazard area.

New Castle County exempts rooftop solar panels installed to produce electricity from a building permit on one- and two-family homes, though ground-mounted systems and zoning setback…

New Castle County's Unified Development Code sets minimum front, side, and rear yard setbacks for every zoning district in Table 40.04.110, ranging from 50-foot yards in Suburban…

New Castle County caps impervious surface at 20 percent of the base site area inside Water Resource Protection Areas, the Cockeysville Formation, wellheads and recharge areas, without…

New Castle County's Unified Development Code sets building height by zoning district in Table 40.04.110: most single-family districts cap homes at 35 to 40 feet, with taller buildings…

New Castle County bans non-cutoff light fixtures and requires full-cutoff, downward-shielded luminaires on new or modified exterior lighting in unincorporated areas, capping…

New Castle County bans non-cutoff light fixtures, caps illumination near homes at 0.1 footcandle, and requires shielded, downward-aimed LED lighting on new or modified exterior…

New Castle County caps electronic billboard brightness at 7,500 nits by day and 1,000 nits at night, requiring manufacturer certification, password-protected settings, and automatic…

New Castle County requires carbon monoxide detectors in dwellings licensed for in-home child care, under a Building Code amendment to IBC Section B310.4.1: the code's only carbon…

New Castle County requires a permit before installing, altering, or replacing plumbing systems, but lets homeowners skip contractor licensing by pulling a homeowner's plumbing permit…

New Castle County's Building Code raises the day-care occupant threshold to 12 children and adds sprinkler-alternative safety conditions for home-based child care, layered on top of…

A building permit is required for most decks and patios, but small unattached decks and low hardscape patios are exempt if they stay under set size and height limits.

New Castle County has no mandatory green building code for private homes or businesses. Code § 2.05.301(A) only requires the Department of Public Works to adopt a Green Building SOP…

New Castle County has no standalone electrical permit or fee schedule line: electrical work is inspected during the building permit's rough-in review, and the County separately…

Landlords must hand every tenant the county's Tenants' Rights Guide at lease signing; its Lead Paint section flags pre-1978 units for the federal EPA pamphlet and disclosure form…

New Castle County requires a sequence of building-permit inspections, footing, foundation, framing, weather barrier, close-in, insulation, and final, before work can be covered up or…

New Castle County rewrote IRC Section R309 to swap 'shall' for 'may,' making automatic fire sprinklers optional in new townhouses and one- and two-family homes, while requiring them in…

New Castle County's Tenants' Rights Guide requires every exterior door in a rental unit to have a working lock that opens from inside without a key, enforced by the Department of Land…

New Castle County requires every elevator to pass inspection and testing before the Code Official issues a certificate of compliance, and operating one without that certificate is…

New Castle County property owners must keep shrubbery trimmed clear of the sidewalk line and prune tree branches to at least 7 feet above the sidewalk, under the county's Property…

County police can order groups blocking sidewalks, loitering at schools, or soliciting for begging or sex to disperse, then arrest those who ignore the warning under Chapter 22's…

New Castle County makes it unlawful for a homeowner, landlord, or occupant to allow a party or gathering that causes fighting, threatening behavior, unreasonable noise, or other public…

New Castle County bans drinking or possessing alcohol in county parks, with narrow carve-outs for the Delcastle clubhouse, Rockwood Museum, and other authorized county facilities.

New Castle County parks ban consuming or possessing intoxicating liquor and "dangerous or narcotic drugs", including marijuana, under Sec. 24.01.008, with fines starting at $100 per…

New Castle County allows one accessory dwelling unit per single-family detached lot, but the owner must live in the main house or the ADU, record a residency restriction with the…

New Castle County requires ADU owners to live in either the main house or the accessory unit, backed by a signed affidavit and a deed restriction recorded with the Recorder of Deeds…

New Castle County zones tiny homes as "small single-family detached dwellings," a defined use capped at under 750 square feet and allowed only as an ADU or inside a permitted pocket…

Carports count as freestanding accessory structures under the Unified Development Code: they're barred from front, street, and side yard setbacks, must clear rear and side lot lines by…

New Castle County caps ADU rentals at one unit per lot, requires owner-occupancy of the principal home or ADU, and makes rental ADUs register under Chapter 19 before occupancy.

New Castle County charges a 3% lodging tax on hotel, motel and tourist home rooms in unincorporated areas, collected by operators and remitted monthly to the County Office of Finance…

New Castle County requires subdivision developers to form a maintenance organization, a condominium, third-party conservancy, or non-stock corporation, before recording any plan, with…

New Castle County requires HOA maintenance corporation boards to transfer control from developer-appointed directors to homeowners by the time 75% of dwelling-unit permits are issued…

New Castle County's Unified Development Code draws a hard line between private deed restrictions and public zoning law. Section 40.20.410 states the County "shall not enforce or become…

New Castle County landlords must respond to emergency habitability conditions, no heat, water, or electricity, within four hours and fix them within twenty-four, or face escalating…

New Castle County landlords must register every rental unit with the Department of Land Use before renting it out and renew the registration every two years under Chapter 19 of the…

New Castle County's code has no red-light camera ordinance. Sec. 34.05.001 authorizes county police to run an electronic speed monitoring system in work zones and residential streets…

New Castle County caps weeds and grass on undeveloped parcels at 8 inches within 20 feet of any property line when they sit next to a developed parcel, under the county's Property…

New Castle County code officials can condemn, order repaired, or demolish any structure found unsafe, unfit for habitation, or unlawful, then bill or lien the owner for the cost of…

New Castle County's Tenants' Rights Guide, codified at County Code § 19.03.003, requires every rental unit's roof and plumbing to stay free of leaks. Tenants must stop any spill or…

Before New Castle County code enforcement gets involved, the Tenants' Rights Guide at County Code § 19.03.003 requires tenants to first file a written complaint with the landlord using…

New Castle County's code official issues civil-penalty citations for a fixed list of Property Maintenance Code violations once a violation notice has gone uncorrected for 10 days. The…

Every residential building owner in New Castle County must install and maintain working smoke detectors; tampering, disconnecting, or selling a unit without them is unlawful.

Consumer fireworks (Class C/1.4G) are legal in Delaware for persons 18+, and New Castle County does not have a blanket countywide ban for unincorporated areas. However, restrictions…

Pollinator and rain gardens are allowed in front yards but capped at 25% of the street-yard area, set back 10 feet, and barred from planting listed invasive species.

New Castle County's development code lists Ailanthus altissima (Tree of Heaven) as an invasive tree to avoid, and its property maintenance code forces owners to mow down any harmful…

New Castle County prohibits planting Phyllostachys, Pseudosasa, and Bambusa bamboo unless it's contained in an above-ground planter or set back 50 feet from every property line, under…

New Castle County outlaws running bamboo (Phyllostachys, Pseudosasa, Bambusa) on any parcel unless fully contained in an above-ground planter or planted at least 50 feet from the…

New Castle County bans loading and unloading noise between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. in residential districts. County Code § 22.02.008(B)(2)(e) makes it unlawful to load, unload, open…

New Castle County lets major subdivisions earn up to a 20% density bonus above base zoning capacity when developers voluntarily set aside Moderately Priced Dwelling Units, with MPDUs…

New Castle County designates buildings, sites and districts as cultural landmarks through Historic overlay zoning under UDC Section 40.15.110. A resource must be at least 50 years old…

New Castle County zoning shields farmland with a Suburban Reserve district and a one-time rural subdivision option, letting farm owners split off up to four house lots while keeping a…

New Castle County property maintenance rules make owners responsible for pest and rodent elimination and require rodent shields on openable basement windows, with code officials able…

New Castle County lets yard ornaments, fountains, flagpoles and clotheslines sit anywhere in a yard or setback, but any piece over six feet tall must sit at least six feet from every…

New Castle County's 3% lodging tax applies only to hotels, motels, and tourist homes in unincorporated areas, not typical Airbnb-style short-term rentals, which instead remain subject…

New Castle County adopts the 2024 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code as its pool barrier standard, with local amendments narrowing the self-latching gate and structure-wall…

New Castle County requires a building permit for any above-ground or portable swimming pool connected to a circulation system, under Sec. 6.03.012(A); work must start within 30 days…