Onslow County, NC Ordinances (2026)

Onslow County bans all open burning in the unincorporated county unless it falls into a specific exception under Code of Ordinances § 14-183. Garbage, lumber, tires and other synthetic…

Camp fires and other recreational fires are allowed on private property in unincorporated Onslow County without a burning permit under Code of Ordinances § 14-183(b)(2), as long as…

Onslow County requires anyone selling door-to-door or soliciting orders as an itinerant merchant, peddler or solicitor to get a permit from the Sheriff's Office first. Sales are…

Onslow County has no curbside recycling truck. Recyclables go to the county landfill or a convenience site, where Section 14-34(h) requires plastics, glass, aluminum and steel cans…

Grass clippings, shrubbery cuttings, vine trimmings, and dry leaf rakings count as yard trash and must be kept separate from other solid waste at the county landfill. Residents without…

Discarding solid waste on public property or someone else's private property is unlawful under Section 14-36, and unsightly litter or junk visible from a property must be cleared…

Onslow County requires nonresidential developments and multi-family or mobile-home park projects without individual trash pickup to provide a sized-to-fit solid waste collection area…

Anyone generating construction debris, business trash, garbage, household trash, or yard trash in unincorporated Onslow County must provide a suitable receptacle for it. Refuse must…

Onslow County lets oversized household trash go out next to the regular container only if securely bagged or bound, and requires white goods and yard trash to be separated and taken to…

Onslow County runs no residential curbside collection route in the unincorporated county. Section 14-31 puts the legal duty on each waste generator to store, collect, and dispose of…

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

Onslow County has no separate tobacco or vape retailer license. The zoning code's Permitted Use Table controls where a "Tobacco Shop" can operate: it is allowed by right only in the…

Onslow County requires anyone operating a massage business or working as a masseur, masseuse, or massagist to hold a privilege license issued by the county tax collector, backed by a…

Onslow County bars sounding a vehicle horn while parked except as a danger signal, and bars driving a vehicle so out of repair or overloaded that it creates loud grating, grinding or…

Onslow County bans playing a radio, phonograph or musical instrument loud enough to disturb the quiet, comfort or repose of any person in a dwelling, hotel or other residence, or in a…

Onslow County treats a dog or other animal whose frequent or long-continued noise disturbs a neighbor's comfort and repose as a noise violation. There is no numeric bark-count trigger…

Onslow County outlaws loud, boisterous shouting or language that disturbs a neighbor's quiet, comfort or repose, alongside the same standard for amplified music, under its general…

Onslow County bans soliciting money or business on public highways and streets from more than a dozen specific locations, including bus stops, crosswalks, school zones and county…

Onslow County lets its parks and recreation department ban smoking, vaping and other tobacco use in any structure or area of a county park, and requires it be confined to properly…

Onslow County bans selling, possessing, or drinking beer, wine, whiskey, or any other intoxicating beverage anywhere inside a county park, with a narrow carve-out for two specific tax…

Onslow County has no general street-corner loitering ordinance. The only loitering ban in the code sits inside the solid waste chapter: Section 14-34(j) makes it unlawful to loiter…

Onslow County requires a permit before anyone voluntarily flies or lands a drone, airplane, balloon, parachute, or rocket in or into a county park, with an exception only for a forced…

Onslow County's Master Sign Plan standard limits window signs to five per tenant, with total window signage capped at ten percent of a storefront's ground-floor window area. It is the…

Onslow County confines outdoor advertising billboards to the RA, HB, L-IN, and H-IN districts, capping them at 450 square feet and 50 feet tall. Digital or electronic changeable-copy…

Onslow County's rental housing code requires landlords to install at least one carbon monoxide alarm whenever a rented dwelling has an attached garage or a fossil-fuel heater…

Onslow County Code § 5-1(a)(5) adopts the North Carolina Plumbing Code, 2002 and 2006 editions, by reference to govern plumbing construction and installation across the county's…

Onslow County Code § 5-1(a)(7) adopts the North Carolina Electrical Code, 2005 edition, by reference to govern electrical construction and installation within the county's planning…

Onslow County Code § 5-1(a) adopts the North Carolina Building Code, Residential Code and related state construction codes by reference, word for word, to control every improvement…

Onslow County Code § 4-11 makes it unlawful for any person to let a dog run at-large on public property, streets, sidewalks, parks, or another person's private land without consent. A…

Onslow County has no breed-specific ordinance: sections 4-3 and 4-15 define "dangerous" and "potentially dangerous" dogs solely by documented behavior, such as an unprovoked severe…

Onslow County does not require spaying or neutering pets generally, but section 4-19(a)(5) mandates it for any dog Animal Services classifies as dangerous or potentially dangerous. The…

Onslow County treats all wildlife as under state and federal authority: section 4-28 bars anyone from possessing a wild animal without the proper North Carolina Wildlife Resources…

Onslow County treats yard sales and flea markets held more than six times a year at a home as a prohibited home occupation under its zoning code. Hold six or fewer in a calendar year…

Onslow County allows one accessory dwelling unit per lot with a single-family home in the unincorporated county. Its heated floor area is capped at 60 percent of the principal home's…

A detached shed in Onslow County is a residential accessory structure under Section 8.3. Enclosed accessory buildings cannot exceed 50 percent of the principal home's square footage…

Onslow County requires a Home Occupation permit whenever a resident runs a business from a single-family home in the unincorporated county. The activity must stay clearly secondary to…

A home occupation in Onslow County's unincorporated area may display exactly one sign advertising the business, and that sign cannot exceed four square feet. The limit sits inside the…

Onslow County's zoning ordinance exempts bona fide farms from nearly all of its regulation. Section 1.5(C) says the Ordinance "shall in no way regulate, restrict, prohibit, or…

Every residential zoning district in Onslow County caps principal structure height at 45 feet under Table 8-1, while land within 10,000 feet of Albert J. Ellis Airport faces a separate…

Onslow County sets minimum front, side, and rear setbacks by zoning district in Table 8-1 for residential districts and Table 8-4 for non-residential districts, measured from the…

Onslow County limits home occupations to one business vehicle with two axles and one trailer, and bars parking that vehicle in the right-of-way, access easement, or front or side lawn…

In unincorporated Onslow County, keeping an RV, boat, trailer or similar item in a yard counts as outdoor storage: Section 10.4 bans it within 50 feet of a street right-of-way or…

In unincorporated Onslow County, every off-street loading space must measure at least 12 feet wide and 25 feet long with 14 feet of vertical clearance. High-volume users like…

A vehicle is abandoned under county code if it sits on private property without the owner's consent for more than two hours, on county property more than 24 hours, or on public grounds…

Onslow County allows electric and barbed wire fencing on residential lots in the unincorporated county, but only under two conditions: any run within three feet of the property line…

Onslow County's housing code puts extermination duty on tenants for pests in their own unit, but shifts it to the landlord when two or more units are infested, shared areas are…

Onslow County requires organizers of a parade, picket line or group demonstration to give the sheriff at least 48 hours' notice, and bars starting before 9:00 a.m. or ending after 6:00…

Onslow County regulates weddings, festivals, and other special events as a temporary zoning use under Section 9.15(E). Commercial events need a zoning permit in a nonresidential…

Holding a meeting, exhibition, ceremony, speech or address inside an Onslow County park requires a written permit from the parks and recreation department, and that permit can be…

Onslow County treats a residential swimming pool as a detached accessory structure under Section 8.3. Pools cannot go in the front yard, and every pool must meet the same side and rear…

Onslow County's Minimum Housing Ordinance sets hard numbers for rented dwellings: 68-degree heat capacity, hot and cold water at every sink, a private bathroom, and safe wiring…

Onslow County's zoning code only names food trucks in one context: as an incidental use at a permitted micro-brewery, taproom, or tasting room. Those establishments are allowed in the…

Section 10.5(B)(1) of the Onslow County Zoning Ordinance makes shielding mandatory for any nonresidential outdoor light that could glare onto a neighbor: fixtures must be arranged so…

Outdoor lighting is optional in unincorporated Onslow County, but once installed for anything other than a single-family or two-family home, Section 10.5 requires it to be…

Onslow County's Minimum Housing Ordinance lets the public officer order repair or demolition of unfit dwellings in the unincorporated county. Deteriorated homes get up to 90 days to…

Onslow County requires new and substantially improved buildings in special flood hazard areas to be elevated to two feet above the base flood elevation, or two feet above the highest…

Onslow County requires a floodplain development permit before any development activity in a mapped special flood hazard area, covering everything from grading and fill to new…

Onslow County closes its parks to the public between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. every night, letting only department employees, officers, and permit holders remain, while otherwise…

Onslow County permits ground-mounted solar electricity systems by right in the Rural Agricultural, Light Industrial, and Heavy Industrial districts under Section 9.13(K). The systems…

Onslow County's Permitted Use Table allows a data center by right in four zoning districts: O-I, HB, L-IN, and H-IN. It is not permitted in any residential district, CON, RA, or CB…