St. Louis County, MO Ordinances (2026)

St. Louis County's zoning code does not specifically address short-term rentals as a distinct use category. Operators in unincorporated areas must obtain a re-occupancy permit…

STR guest parking falls under the same rules as all residential parking: paved driveway required (§1003.165), no front-yard parking (§1207.060), and on-street limits (§1207.040)…

STR noise complaints in St. Louis County are handled under SLCRO §716.073 (Loud Noise), plainly audible at 50 feet is presumed a violation, plus the host's Chapter 825 license is at…

STR occupancy in unincorporated St. Louis County is effectively governed by the family definition in SLCRO §1003.020: an individual or related persons, or up to 3 unrelated persons…

St. Louis County does not require pet owners countywide to microchip their animals, but its Animal Control Code puts a chip-check duty on the County Shelter itself: every dog, cat…

St. Louis County requires every dog, cat, or other pet to be leashed, caged, or confined on its owner's property at all times; Section 611.200 defines "at large" as anything…

Inside any St. Louis County park, parkway, or recreational area, it's illegal to molest a bird or bird's nest, or to pursue, catch, kill, feed, touch, tease, or otherwise disturb any…

Grooming, boarding, or kenneling four or more dogs, cats, or other household pets in unincorporated St. Louis County makes the site a "pet care facility" or "pet day care facility"…

A veterinary clinic is a permitted, by-right use in St. Louis County's "C-2" and "C-3" Shopping Districts, but sits on the Conditional Use Permit list alongside riding stables and…

St. Louis County declares dogs, cats, or other animals dangerous by behavior, not breed, then locks in fencing, signage, and chip mandates.

Every dog, cat, puppy, and kitten leaving the St. Louis County Animal Shelter through adoption must be spayed or neutered first, with a health/age exception for animals a vet certifies…

Lions, primates, bears, wolves, coyotes, foxes and venomous reptiles are legal in St. Louis County only under a Director-issued nondomestic animal license, not as free-roaming pets.

St. Louis County requires every cat over four months old to be vaccinated for rabies and registered with a tag through the Department of Health, with registration fees running $8 to…

SLCRO §611.210 declares any animal that defaces public property, causes unsanitary conditions, or attracts pests a public nuisance. Stagnant water collecting on private property is…

St. Louis County prosecutes animal hoarding as cruelty to animals: failing to give every animal sanitary conditions, food, water, or shelter violates Section 611.180 regardless of how…

St. Louis County's R-1 residential zoning district allows farming and domestic animals as a permitted use, with private stables allowed as an accessory use to a home.

St. Louis County will not license a wildlife rehabilitator, breeder, or collector under its Nondomestic Animal Code until the applicant first produces a valid Missouri wildlife permit…

St. Louis County bars commercial motor vehicles over 12,000 pounds from parking on residential-district roadways between midnight and 11 a.m., and bans tractor-trailer rigs from…

When the county Director declares a snow emergency, parking anywhere on the road that would block plowing crews is illegal outright: Section 1207.040(1)(p) bans parking that obstructs…

No one may leave a vehicle parked on a St. Louis County roadway for more than 24 uninterrupted hours, except during a standing weekend exemption running from 5 p.m. Friday to 9 a.m…

St. Louis County's zoning code requires off-street loading docks sized 10 by 40 feet for commercial and industrial buildings, with the exact count tied to gross floor area under…

A junked trailer or junked motor vehicle left on private property in unincorporated St. Louis County for more than 72 hours is a declared public nuisance under Section 1216.080…

Residential property owners in St. Louis County cannot park a vehicle in the front yard unless it sits on a paved driveway or a paved designated parking area located outside the…

Under SLCRO §1003.165, all vehicles in unincorporated St. Louis County residential districts, including RVs, campers, and boats, must be parked on a paved driveway. Front-yard parking…

New construction, major remodels, and parking-lot alterations in unincorporated St. Louis County that create more than 30 parking spaces for offices, stores, factories, institutions…

St. Louis County bans stopping or parking in specific danger and access zones on any roadway, from sidewalks and crosswalks to a 15-foot buffer around fire hydrants and an 8-foot…

St. Louis County does not set fixed quiet hours; instead SLCRO §716.073 makes it unlawful at any time to play any radio, instrument, TV, or audio device at a volume that disturbs…

St. Louis County outlaws a dog that 'habitually barks' enough to disturb the peace of an ordinary, reasonable neighbor, declaring such a dog a public nuisance under Code §716.075. The…

St. Louis County's Noise Control Code exempts an aircraft's actual flight and pre-takeoff engine run-up from its decibel limits, but Section 625.070(7) pulls ground maintenance and…

St. Louis County's noise rule for ATVs is a location ban, not a decibel limit: Section 716.078 makes it a disturbance of the peace to operate an all-terrain vehicle within 100 feet of…

Construction equipment is exempt from the county's noise limits only when run during daytime hours, 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

County code caps stationary sound sources, including amplified music equipment, at fixed decibel levels measured at the property line, with lower nighttime limits.

St. Louis County caps stationary noise sources at set dB(A) levels by land-use zone and time of day, with lower nighttime and residential thresholds.

Before St. Louis County will license a hauler under Section 607.170, Section 607.183 requires the company to file a written recovered-materials collection plan with the Director naming…

St. Louis County Code Section 607.182 has required every hauler licensed to collect residential municipal waste in the county to also make curbside yard by-product collection available…

St. Louis County Code §607.181 defines a minimum level of service with three components: once-per-week trash collection, once-per-week recycling collection, and twice-yearly bulky…

St. Louis County treats a trash container as something that lives behind the house. SLCRO §607.120 requires containers to be stored on the premises where the trash was generated and at…

Trash haulers licensed to serve one- and two-family homes in unincorporated St. Louis County must file a recovered materials (recycling) plan with the Director of Public Health before…

St. Louis County writes its dumping ban around a licensing test rather than a list of banned materials. Under SLCRO §607.310 it is illegal to deposit waste, or to allow waste to be…

St. Louis County requires waste haulers to collect residential municipal waste and recyclables from every serviced property at least once a week, year-round.

Bulky household items in St. Louis County fall under SLCRO §607.120, which requires them to be stored at least 3 feet behind the main residential structure while they wait for…

New residential fences in unincorporated St. Louis County cannot be electrified or topped with barbed wire. The county's building code bans both outright for any new fence…

Fences 6 feet in height or less may be installed in unincorporated St. Louis County without a building permit, so a standard privacy fence goes up without county permitting. Anything…

St. Louis County requires a building permit for a retaining wall that meets any one of four tests in §1115.105.2: it exceeds 3 feet in height, it exceeds 2 feet and supports a…

St. Louis County exempts fences up to 7 feet from a building permit, but pool enclosures and any electrified or barbed-wire fence need one regardless of height.

Chapter 1008 of the St. Louis County Code bars any development in the county's mapped A, AE, AO, and AH flood zones without a floodplain development permit from the Director of…

Where the County has mapped a base flood elevation on a numbered A, AE, or AH zone, Section 1008.050 requires new construction and substantial improvements to elevate the lowest floor…

Non-commercial boat docks are a permitted, by-right use in St. Louis County's "FP" Flood Plain District, and marinas, boat docks, and ramps are permitted outright in the "PS" Park and…

Before grading or disturbing land anywhere in unincorporated St. Louis County, from a single subdivision lot to a commercial site, the owner needs a land disturbance permit from the…

St. Louis County's Land Disturbance Code sets hard deadlines for stabilizing bare soil on active construction sites, plus sediment-trapping design standards.

St. Louis County bans letting a vehicle engine idle for more than three consecutive minutes while parked, standing, or stopped, under the county's air pollution nuisance code…

St. Louis County Parks prohibit drone operation in all parks except Buder Park and a portion of Antire Valley, where designated model-aviation areas operated by the Lafayette…

Residences in unincorporated St. Louis County may hold a maximum of 3 yard or garage sales per year. No permit is required, but signs may not be placed in any public right-of-way.

SLCRO §1005.095 recognizes subdivision trust indentures, private agreements between trustees and homeowners, as the primary tool for enforcing subdivision-level standards beyond county…

St. Louis County's Property Maintenance Code does not require removal of tree stumps after a tree is cut, so leaving a stump is not a code violation. However, limbs and other cut tree…

St. Louis County caps unmanaged grass, weeds and brush at 8 inches on most improved lots. Section 619.005(l) defines "unmanaged vegetation growth" as vegetation over that height "as a…

St. Louis County Code §607.1005 lets residents compost organic material at home, with one placement rule and one performance rule. The pile must sit at least three feet behind the main…

New trees may not be planted on a St. Louis County right-of-way between the sidewalk and the curb (SLCRO §1218.140). Existing right-of-way trees are owned by the adjacent property…

Developments that must file a landscape plan with St. Louis County have to make at least half of it native or drought-tolerant plant material. Section 1003.162.5 also caps any single…

Missouri's Constitution lets any adult twenty-one or older register with the Department of Health and Senior Services to grow marijuana at home, including in unincorporated St. Louis…

St. Louis County has not opted out of marijuana dispensaries: its zoning code lists them as a by-right permitted use in the C-2 and C-3 commercial districts. A site that clears both…

A marijuana dispensary in unincorporated St. Louis County must clear two hard buffers to open as a permitted use: 1,000 feet from any existing school, childcare center, or place of…

Vacancy alone does not put a St. Louis County property on an inspection schedule. Two things have to be true together: the property has been vacant for 90 days, and there is a public…

St. Louis County does not impose a private snow-removal mandate on homeowners. County plows clear arterial and collector roads first; subdivision roads should be addressed within 24…

Chapter 1110, the St. Louis County Property Maintenance Code, sets the exterior condition standard for houses in unincorporated St. Louis County. Section 1110.303.2 requires that…

St. Louis County sets curfew hours for unsupervised minors under 17 in SLCRO §705.010. On week nights, Sunday through Thursday, the curfew runs from 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. On Friday…

A St. Louis County license is required for any person using their home to care for more than 4 children other than the children living on the premises. A licensed day care home may…

Unincorporated St. Louis County lets residents run a home-based business as a permitted use, but only if it carries zero exterior advertising. Section 1003.111.2(10) of the zoning code…

St. Louis County bars home occupations from offering services to the general public on the premises, so client and customer visits to a home-based business are not allowed.

The St. Louis County Zoning Ordinance defines home occupation at §1003.020.59, and the definition is a list of conditions a home business must satisfy in unincorporated St. Louis…

St. Louis County requires periodic Code Official inspections of every elevator, freight lift, moving stairway and chairlift under the county's Mechanical Code. Passenger and freight…

St. Louis County requires a permit before any plumbing, drainlaying, sewer connection, backflow-device work, or fire-suppression water main tie-in begins on unincorporated property…

St. Louis County adopts the 2014 National Electrical Code and requires a written permit application at the Office of Electrical Inspection at least 24 hours before any electrical or…

St. Louis County's Property Maintenance Code bars owners from locking a means-of-egress door in a way that traps occupants inside. Section 702.3 requires every exit door to open from…

St. Louis County requires a building permit before almost any construction, alteration, demolition, or occupancy change under Section 105.1 of the Building Code, whether the work…

St. Louis County does not mandate fire sprinklers in new one- and two-family homes or townhouses. Instead, under Residential Code R313.1 and R313.2, builders must offer every buyer the…

St. Louis County bans applying lead-based coating to any chewable or exposed surface, but lets pre-1978 homes sell if the seller discloses known or suspected lead paint in writing and…

Every building permit issued in unincorporated St. Louis County comes with a fixed sequence of inspections the county's building official has to perform before work can proceed to the…

St. Louis County's Building Code splits child day care by size and setting. A home caring for up to ten children, including the provider's own, is a Child Day Care Home that can be…

Anyone operating a massage establishment or outcall service in unincorporated St. Louis County needs a permit from the Director of Licenses under County Code §626.041, backed by a $500…

Unincorporated St. Louis County requires anyone selling tobacco products or electronic smoking devices, including vapes and e-cigarettes, to hold a license issued by the Department of…

Anyone running a pawnshop in unincorporated St. Louis County must hold a Director of Revenue pawnbroker license, capped at one for every 30,000 unincorporated residents. New applicants…

Every tow truck operating in unincorporated St. Louis County needs a $35 annual license from the Director of Licenses, plus a filed price schedule and proof of insurance.

St. Louis County requires a $100 annual permit from the Director of Health before any establishment can tattoo or pierce skin in the unincorporated county, per County Code §621.030…

St. Louis County keeps adult businesses 1,000 feet from churches, schools, libraries, parks, and other adult uses, and 300 feet from residential zoning.

St. Louis County requires every junk dealer, scrap-metal processor, auto parts dealer and person dealing in secondhand goods in the unincorporated county to log each purchase, per Code…

St. Louis County levies a 3% convention and tourism tax on room charges paid by transient guests at hotels and motels countywide. Operators collect it from guests, file quarterly…

St. Louis County Code Section 607.897 lets a resident throw a used needle or other sharp object out with ordinary household trash instead of treating it as regulated infectious waste…

St. Louis County's public health nuisance code makes it illegal to maintain or allow a rat or mouse infestation on any property. The Director of Health can inspect, declare the…

St. Louis County restaurants must post a Health Department placard grading them A, B or C based on their inspection score. A score of 90 or above earns a Grade A, 80-89 is Grade B, and…

St. Louis County bars restaurants, cafeterias, day cares and other food establishments from employing anyone as a food handler for more than 30 days without written proof of hepatitis…

St. Louis County's loitering law, §713.075, applies only once a person refuses a police order to move on from a park, street, sidewalk or business district while intending to breach…

St. Louis County treats skateboards like foot traffic, not vehicles: Section 1210.107 bars anyone on roller skates, roller blades or a skateboard from going onto any county road except…

In unincorporated St. Louis County, pedestrians cannot cross a street anywhere between two intersections that have working traffic signals unless they use a marked crosswalk. County…

Smoking marijuana counts as "smoking" under the County's Indoor Clean Air Code, so it's banned everywhere cigarette smoking is banned: enclosed public places, county buildings, and…

St. Louis County Code Section 716.405 makes it unlawful to consume any alcoholic beverage while riding in a moving motor vehicle on a highway, roadway or alleyway in the unincorporated…

St. Louis County makes it a crime to urinate or defecate in public view anywhere in the unincorporated county. Section 713.070 of the Vice and Morality Code lists it alongside public…

A property owner or resident in unincorporated St. Louis County who lets a loud party get out of hand can be cited personally under §716.070, even if they aren't the one making noise…

St. Louis County exempts barbecuing from its countywide open-burning ban as long as the fire is either contained in built cooking equipment, like a grill, rotisserie, or outdoor…

St. Louis County's Peddlers and Solicitors Code applies only outside incorporated cities and on every county arterial road. The county repealed its door-to-door license requirement in…

Owners can post a sign barring peddlers and solicitors from a property or limiting entry to certain hours, and entry against that sign is a county offense.

St. Louis County bans leaving personal property on sidewalks, roadways, or any part of a county road's right-of-way. The only exceptions are trash set out for collection and, after an…

St. Louis County's Plumbing Code bars anyone from excavating or encroaching on a street, alley, easement, or highway right-of-way to lay, locate, maintain, or remove mains, pipes…

New subdivisions in unincorporated St. Louis County must plant at least one street tree per lot, and two on corner lots, under Section 1005.340 of the Subdivision Ordinance. Common…

St. Louis County's traffic code classifies e-bikes as "motorized bicycles," not ordinary bicycles, splitting them into three types under Section 1202.010: pedal-assist and…

St. Louis County lets cyclists leave the right-most travel lane and ride in a dedicated bike lane, cycle track or contra-flow lane whenever one exists: Section 1210.055 lists…

St. Louis County treats sidewalk pushcarts as their own category of mobile food establishment under Section 807.110. Carts can sell only limited items like popcorn, nuts, pretzels…

Every mobile food truck in St. Louis County needs an annual permit from the Health Department Director, plus a fee and inspection, before it can operate under Section 807.110. Trucks…

St. Louis County's street vendor code, Chapter 812, only governs unincorporated areas outside incorporated cities, towns and villages. A licensed food or beverage vending vehicle…

Landlords in unincorporated St. Louis County must keep rented dwellings, rooming units and guest rooms at 68 degrees Fahrenheit from October 1 through May 15 under Property Maintenance…

Before renting or selling residential property in unincorporated St. Louis County, owners, agents, brokers, attorneys, and property managers must give written notice that the unit is…

St. Louis County's Property Maintenance Code puts every violation, from graffiti to structural neglect, through the same track: a written notice of violation, a correction order, and…

Structure setbacks in unincorporated St. Louis County shrink as zoning density rises. The county's largest-lot residential district, R-1, holds buildings 30 feet off any road…

Height limits climb with zoning density in unincorporated St. Louis County. The R-1 Residence District caps dwellings at three stories or 45 feet, whichever is less, and non-dwelling…

St. Louis County does not cap the total footprint of a single-family house on its lot, but it does cap everything else built around it. Detached accessory structures like sheds…

St. Louis County's traffic code doesn't wait for a decibel meter to stop a loud delivery truck: Section 1217.010 bans muffler cutouts on any vehicle, requires every motor to run on a…

St. Louis County's Noise Control Code bans vibration, not just audible sound, from crossing onto a neighbor's property. Section 625.060 makes it unlawful to cause any operation or…

Anyone building, enlarging, or altering a residential swimming pool in unincorporated St. Louis County must first obtain a permit from the Department of Transportation and Public Works…

Every swimming pool and spa in unincorporated St. Louis County needs a code-compliant barrier under Chapter 1118, the county's 2015 International Swimming Pool and Spa Code as amended…

St. Louis County zoning caps outdoor light spillover at one-tenth of a footcandle onto neighboring "NU," "PS," and "R" district property lines and requires fixtures to hold an…

St. Louis County Code §1005.320.1 makes street lights a condition of subdivision approval for anything platted since 1968, and puts the cost squarely on residents. The section states…

St. Louis County bans all open burning countywide, in both unincorporated areas and incorporated cities, unless the fire fits one of the narrow exceptions the Air Pollution Control…

St. Louis County bans the sale, possession, use, discharge or explosion of fireworks anywhere the ordinance reaches, and separately bans storing fireworks on any property. The only…

St. Louis County allows backyard recreational fire pits without a permit, but only if the fire burns pure untreated, seasoned dry firewood, its base area stays at nine square feet or…

Even where St. Louis County lets a property owner grow a managed natural landscape taller than the normal 8-inch mowing limit, Section 620.115 draws a hard line at species: noxious…

Garage and yard sale signs are prohibited in the public right-of-way under SLCRO §1003.168 and §710.010. Signs may only be placed on private property with the owner's permission…

St. Louis County Code §1003.168 allows political campaign signs for candidates seeking office and other pertinent data, capped at eight square feet for any one sign and sixteen square…

St. Louis County's zoning lighting rules exempt temporary decorative seasonal lighting entirely, including its ban on flickering or flashing fixtures.

St. Louis County has no separate digital-billboard category: LED and static advertising signs share the same 800-square-foot, 35-foot-high cap under Section 1003.168B, spaced at least…

St. Louis County lets its County Executive sign no-cost contracts with municipalities and private companies to install and run license plate recognition cameras in county…

A detached, one-story storage shed, tool shed, or playhouse in unincorporated St. Louis County needs no building permit as long as its floor area stays at or under 120 square feet…

The St. Louis County Zoning Ordinance controls second dwellings through its definition of family in §1003.020. A family is one individual, or two or more persons related by blood or…

St. Louis County can suspend a residential rental license the moment the Director of Transportation and Public Works finds the property out of compliance with the Property Maintenance…

St. Louis County can designate a building, site, structure, monument, or neighborhood as a Landmark and Preservation Area (LPA) under Section 1003.191 when it holds historic…

Reserving a St. Louis County park shelter, field or facility for a gathering requires a permit obtained in advance from the Parks and Recreation Commissioner under Section 616.170…

Any parade or procession of 25 or more people or 25 or more vehicles on a St. Louis County road needs a permit first: Section 1218.060 requires organizers to get sign-off from the St…

St. Louis County regulates solar energy system installations by adopting the 2015 Uniform Solar Energy Code into its Plumbing Code, and it separately requires solar equipment regulated…

St. Louis County does not charge amusement businesses one flat license fee; it classifies them by type under Section 803.010 and taxes each class separately. Theaters, circuses, dance…

St. Louis County's "NU" Non-Urban District exists for areas where rough terrain or distance from infrastructure limits development, and it permits farming, dairy farming, and…