St. Joseph County, IN Ordinances (2026)

In unincorporated St. Joseph County, front-yard weeds and rank vegetation over 9 inches violate the county's Weed and Rank Vegetation Control Ordinance, adopted in 2022 under the…

There are no cannabis dispensaries to zone in St. Joseph County. Indiana has no medical or recreational marijuana program, and selling marijuana is a crime. Under IC 35-48-4-10…

Growing marijuana at home is a crime everywhere in Indiana, including St. Joseph County. Indiana has no medical or recreational program. Under IC 35-48-4-11, knowingly growing or…

St. Joseph County's Solid Waste Management District, empowered by IC 13-21-3-12, runs countywide recycling but not garbage. South Bend's city Solid Waste division collects trash weekly…

Commercial and industrial properties in unincorporated St. Joseph County must screen any dumpster or trash container larger than 36 cubic feet on at least three sides with a wall or…

Bulk items go through your city, not the county. South Bend schedules large-item pickup and Mishawaka collects up to two bulk items each week. Dumping instead is littering under IC…

St. Joseph County's code flatly declares uncontrolled dumping of refuse on the ground a nuisance hazardous to public health. Violators face misdemeanor prosecution under § 50.99(C)…

Unincorporated St. Joseph County requires any trash container larger than 36 cubic feet to be screened on three sides by a wall or solid enclosure six to ten feet tall with an opaque…

Indiana's Home Based Vendor Law lets you make and sell approved non-hazardous foods from a St. Joseph County home with no license or health permit. Under IC 16-42-5.3-4 the food must…

St. Joseph County bars home occupations from using any exterior sign or display that identifies the property as anything but a dwelling. Zoning ordinance § 154.072(A)(2) strips…

A home occupation in unincorporated St. Joseph County can serve no more than two customers on the premises at once, counting anyone waiting for service. Section 154.072(A)(7) sets that…

St. Joseph County lets a licensed child care home operate as a permitted primary use in both the agricultural and single-family residential districts, but only when the operator lives…

Running a business from a house in unincorporated St. Joseph County is allowed as a home occupation, but the zoning ordinance bars outside storage, any visible change to the home's…

South Bend and Mishawaka require a peddler or solicitor permit to sell door-to-door within their limits; unincorporated St. Joseph County relies on trespass law. Statewide, IC 24-5-10…

St. Joseph County runs no county-wide no-knock registry, but a posted "No Soliciting" or "No Trespassing" sign carries legal force. Under IC 35-43-2-2, a solicitor who enters after…

Consumer fireworks are legal for adults across St. Joseph County, and under Indiana Code 22-11-14-10.5 no county or city ordinance may ban their use on the days around July 4 or on New…

St. Joseph County allows recreational campfires and cooking fires on residential property without a burn permit under Section 92.03, but only if the home has four units or fewer, only…

St. Joseph County bans open burning countywide unless the health officer grants written approval, and it prohibits leaf burning outright with no exception, under Chapter 91 of the Code…

A food truck in unincorporated St. Joseph County operates as a "mobile retail food establishment" under Chapter 117 of the county code. It is unlawful to operate one without a valid…

St. Joseph County outlaws selling food, produce or any other merchandise on or along public roadways and within public rights-of-way anywhere in the county under Section 110.20. That…

Once a mobile food vendor moves off the public right-of-way, as Section 110.20 requires, Section 110.21 sets the condition for selling from a truck or roadside stand on property next…

St. Joseph County zoning permits an accessory dwelling unit, capping a detached ADU at 1,200 square feet and requiring it to sit behind the front building line with an Improvement…

St. Joseph County's zoning ordinance sizes a residential storage shed by lot acreage, from a 19-foot, 960-square-foot cap under one acre to no limit at all on five or more agricultural…

South Bend requires every non-occupant landlord to register rentals annually by September 1. Indiana Code 36-1-20-5 caps the fee at five dollars. Unincorporated St. Joseph County has…

Indiana has no just-cause eviction. In St. Joseph County a landlord may end a tenancy without giving a reason. For unpaid rent, IC 32-31-1-6 requires at least a 10-day notice to pay…

Rent control is illegal in St. Joseph County. Indiana Code 32-31-1-20 bars any unit, including South Bend, Mishawaka, and the county, from regulating rental rates on privately owned…

St. Joseph County adopts the Indiana Plumbing Code and requires a building department permit before any plumbing installation or alteration, plus a licensed or county-registered…

St. Joseph County adopts the Indiana Electrical Code and requires a county permit before any electrical connection is made to equipment that needs one, plus a county Class A or B…

Any construction, alteration, repair, or demolition job in unincorporated St. Joseph County costing more than $500 needs a permit from the building commissioner before work starts…

St. Joseph County caps every window sign at 25 percent of the window's surface area under Zoning Ordinance § 154.377, measuring multi-pane windows by their combined pane area, and…

St. Joseph County allows electronic message center signs as part of a freestanding or building sign, capped at 40 percent of that sign's surface area, under Zoning Ordinance §…

Blasting a horn without a real danger, running a car without a working muffler, or driving a vehicle so out of repair it exceeds state decibel standards are each separate noise…

Unincorporated St. Joseph County caps industrial-zone noise at 64 dBA at any point on a complaining neighbor's property line, or by the octave-band table set out at Code Section…

Keeping a dog, cat or other animal that causes frequent, long-continued noise disturbing a neighbor's comfort or repose is a county noise violation under § 130.02(5). Sheriff's…

Erecting, demolishing, altering or repairing any building in unincorporated St. Joseph County outside 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. is a noise violation unless the building commissioner has…

Any sexually oriented business in unincorporated St. Joseph County needs a county auditor permit before opening, backed by a criminal-history check from the police department and a…

Running a secondhand store in unincorporated St. Joseph County requires a license from the county auditor, granted only after the county sheriff reviews the application and the county…

St. Joseph County doesn't run its own pawnbroker license; that's a state function under Indiana law. Instead, the county zoning code treats every pawnshop as a "controlled use,"…

Anyone who tattoos or pierces bodies for pay in unincorporated St. Joseph County, and any facility where the work happens, needs a separate annual permit from the county health officer…

Anyone operating a massage establishment or practicing massage therapy in unincorporated St. Joseph County needs a separate annual permit from the county health department under…

Fixing cars, other vehicles, lawn mowers, or large appliances for pay is banned as a home occupation anywhere in unincorporated St. Joseph County. Section 154.072(C) lists automobile…

St. Joseph County requires every commercial, mixed-use or industrial development needing an improvement location permit to provide off-street loading spaces at least 12 feet wide by 60…

St. Joseph County limits where a stored recreational vehicle, trailer or mobile home can sit on residential and agricultural lots and caps a visiting guest's RV stay at 72 hours in any…

Under Indiana Code 9-13-2-1 a vehicle is abandoned once it sits on public property for 24 hours, blocks traffic, or remains on private property without the owner's consent for more…

In unincorporated St. Joseph County it is illegal to park or stop on the traveled portion of any road except for traffic control, an officer's direction, a turn in progress or an…

St. Joseph County requires every off-street parking area and connecting driveway to be hard surfaced with asphalt, concrete, pervious pavement, pavers or an equivalent dust-free…

St. Joseph County bars parking any tractor, tow truck, dump truck, flatbed, semitrailer or similar vehicle of one and one-half tons or more, or with a bed longer than eight feet, in a…

In unincorporated St. Joseph County, a dog is legally "at large" if it is off its owner's property without a leash, or on a leash that does not adequately confine it or that isn't…

Any dog or cat adopted from a local humane society, animal care facility or welfare organization in St. Joseph County must be spayed or neutered within 60 days of adoption if the…

Backyard beekeepers in unincorporated St. Joseph County can only keep the domestic honey bee, Apis mellifera, in hives no larger than 17 cubic feet, set back at least four feet from…

St. Joseph County has no breed ban; it regulates dogs by behavior. A dog that attacks a person or another animal, or bites unprovoked, can be declared "dangerous," forcing the owner…

Raising chickens on residentially zoned land under five acres in unincorporated St. Joseph County requires an annual county chicken permit, caps flocks at six birds per half acre, bans…

No wild or exotic animal can be kept anywhere in unincorporated St. Joseph County without county, state and federal permits, issued one per animal. The code's "controlled/exotic…

A licensed pet shop in unincorporated St. Joseph County cannot sell, trade or barter dogs or cats for a fee: it may only place them through the animal control agency or a recognized…

Anyone operating a circus, sideshow, carnival or street fair for pay in unincorporated St. Joseph County needs a permit from the county auditor before opening the gate. Applications…

St. Joseph County's sheriff's office, not the county council, is the permitting authority for parades, holidays, concerts and other public or personal special events held in the…

Reserving a shelter, field or other facility in a St. Joseph County park runs through a permit governed by Code Section 131.35: it's valid only for what its written terms authorize…

Any construction, fill, grading or land-disturbing activity wholly or partly inside a mapped special flood hazard area in unincorporated St. Joseph County needs a floodplain…

Excavating, filling, or building over, along, or lakeward of the shoreline of a public freshwater lake in unincorporated St. Joseph County requires Indiana DNR approval under the Lakes…

St. Joseph County's sediment and erosion control chapter ties every construction site's erosion plan to Indiana's Rule 5 storm water program and the county's own Design Guide and…

New or substantially improved homes in St. Joseph County's Zone A and Zone AE flood areas must have their lowest floor, basement included, at or above the flood protection grade: two…

St. Joseph County requires a Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) before any land-disturbing construction of one acre or more breaks ground in the unincorporated county…

In unincorporated St. Joseph County, Code Section 54.03 gives the owner or occupant of every lot a 24-hour deadline to clear snow and ice from adjacent sidewalks after it falls, to the…

St. Joseph County enforces Indiana's unsafe building law through its building commissioner, who can padlock and post an unsafe structure as sealed while the county board of…

Inside the Indiana Enterprise Center overlay, unincorporated St. Joseph County lists a data center as a permitted industrial use requiring no conditional or special use hearing. Zoning…

Data centers are listed as a permitted industrial use in St. Joseph County's zoning ordinance, and once built they must meet the county's performance standards for noise under Section…

St. Joseph County puts sidewalk upkeep squarely on the abutting property owner or occupant. Section 54.02(B) requires them to keep sidewalks, curbs, tree lawns and private approaches…

St. Joseph County bans pushing or depositing snow and ice onto any sidewalk, street, roadway, transit loading area or fire hydrant under section 54.04, adopted by Ordinance 23-25 on…

Indiana Code 36-1-24 bars St. Joseph County and its cities from banning short-term rentals in residential zones; South Bend requires annual rental registration by September 1 and an…

St. Joseph County levies a 6% innkeeper's tax on lodging rented under 30 days under IC 6-9-1-5, on top of Indiana's 7% state sales tax, for a combined 13%.

A garage or yard sale on a residential lot in unincorporated St. Joseph County is capped at three sales per calendar year, each running no more than three consecutive days, and sales…

St. Joseph County limits floodlights and other outdoor fixtures so their beam cannot spill onto a neighbor's land or a public road. Under Zoning Ordinance § 154.351(K), a floodlight…

St. Joseph County's zoning code requires every outdoor light fixture serving a multi-family, commercial, industrial, planned-unit or special-use property in the unincorporated county…

Every solar energy system in unincorporated St. Joseph County, rooftop, facade or ground-mounted, needs a county building permit before installation. District rules, a 22-foot height…

A residential pool in St. Joseph County is an accessory structure that needs an Improvement Location Permit under Zoning Ordinance Section 154.596 before it is placed, plus a building…

St. Joseph County zones unincorporated land through the Area Plan Commission. The R: Single Family District sets a 35-foot front yard on most streets, 6- to 8-foot side yards, and a…

St. Joseph County zones unincorporated land. In the R: Single Family District, building height may not exceed two and one-half stories or 40 feet, whichever is lower, under Zoning…

St. Joseph County caps development intensity in the R: Single Family District with a floor area ratio of 0.4 and minimum lot sizes from 9,000 to 21,780 square feet, under Zoning…

Unincorporated land zoned A: Agricultural in St. Joseph County is set aside to preserve prime farmland and shield it from urban encroachment. Farms and single-family homes there need…

Barbed wire, electric, and razor wire fencing are locked out of residential yards across unincorporated St. Joseph County. Section 154.070(C)(2)(d)6 of the zoning ordinance limits…

Residential fence height in St. Joseph County depends on location and openness: 36 or 48 inches in front yards, six feet along a subdivision's perimeter street, and six or eight feet…

St. Joseph County exempts farm fences from its improvement location permit process entirely, so long as the fence still meets the clear sight area standard that protects visibility…

St. Joseph County bans smoking in all county, city, township and town parks and recreational areas under Section 96.03(L) of its smoking ordinance, and it separately bars smoking close…

St. Joseph County bans hard liquor entirely in its county parks and confines beer or wine to picnic, dining or concession areas the park board has designated for it under section…

St. Joseph County parks are not open around the clock: Code Section 131.29(C) makes it unlawful to remain in or use any county park facility once the park has closed for the day…

St. Joseph County bans minors from public places during set overnight hours. Code Section 132.01 keeps 15-to-17-year-olds off the street after 11:00 p.m. on school nights and from 1:00…

Every bed and breakfast, restaurant, mobile food unit, and temporary food stand in St. Joseph County that serves potentially hazardous food of animal origin must keep at least one…