Surry County, NC Ordinances (2026)

Surry County, North Carolina does not license cats, but its Animal Control and Animal Welfare Chapter bars a female cat in heat from roaming at large under § 90.052 and requires every…

In unincorporated Surry County, North Carolina, a pet grooming business is classified under the zoning code as "pet care without kennels" (NAICS 81291) and is permitted by right in…

Surry County has no blanket pet microchipping law. Code § 90.067(B) requires only that a dog redeemed after a potentially dangerous dog determination be spayed or neutered and fitted…

In unincorporated Surry County, North Carolina, any dog or cat adopted out of the Surry County Animal Shelter must be spayed or neutered within a timeframe the Animal Control Officer…

Surry County has no breed-specific ban. Under Code § 90.066, the Public Health Director decides whether a dog is a dangerous dog or potentially dangerous dog based on documented…

In unincorporated Surry County, a dog is at large under Code § 90.002 whenever it is off its owner's property and not under a competent person's restraint, and § 90.097 sets numeric…

Surry County Code § 90.132(A) makes it unlawful to own, possess, keep, harbor, or bring into the county any inherently dangerous exotic animal, a list that spans big cats, bears…

In unincorporated Surry County, North Carolina, an animal hospital or veterinary clinic is defined at § 154.003-02 to include grooming, boarding, and pet-supply sales incidental to…

Surry County Code § 154.008(C)(42) governs livestock production and sales, including livestock sale barns, on land that does not qualify as a bona fide farm: a 75-foot setback from…

Unincorporated Surry County's noise ordinance bans unreasonably loud, disturbing sound county-wide, but Chapter 132 carves out lawful fireworks: noise from lawful fireworks or noise…

Surry County adopts the North Carolina State Building Codes for all construction in unincorporated Surry County, and its zoning ordinance requires a valid zoning permit before any…

A stand-alone childcare center, as opposed to an in-home day care, must give each attendee at least 25 square feet of indoor activity space under Surry County Code § 154.008(C)(18)…

Unincorporated Surry County zones home and commercial solar arrays as a "Solar Energy System, Level 2" use under Board of Commissioners ordinance § 154.008(C)(62), setting a minimum…

In unincorporated Surry County, North Carolina, property owners must remove all solid waste from their property at least once every 30 days, or weekly if needed for health and…

In unincorporated Surry County, North Carolina, residents cannot just leave bulky items curbside or in a county receptacle. Under Code § 110.04(H), bulky waste such as furniture and…

Unincorporated Surry County bans burying or submerging solid waste as a disposal method. Code § 110.08(A) makes it unlawful to bury waste in the ground or submerge it in a body of…

Surry County does not have residential curbside garbage carts; instead, County Code § 110.10 governs the metal solid waste receptacles the county provides at its collection points…

In unincorporated Surry County, North Carolina, tree limbs, branches and stumps are classified as BULKY WASTE under County Code § 110.03, and § 110.09 bars dumping them at a county…

In unincorporated Surry County, North Carolina, County Code § 110.04 bars letting solid waste accumulate on your property outside the manner the chapter prescribes and requires an…

Unincorporated Surry County, North Carolina requires every manufactured home park to install a dumpster on a concrete pad that is accessible and available to residents, backed by a…

Surry County bars erecting, excavating, demolishing, altering or repairing a building between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. in residential areas, or between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. everywhere else…

Playing a radio, TV, instrument or amplifier loudly enough to disturb a neighbor, especially between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., violates § 132.01(B)(2). Commercial loud speakers or amplifiers…

Surry County's noise chapter bans operating any automobile, motorcycle or other vehicle so out of repair, overloaded or driven in a way that creates loud, unreasonable grating…

Surry County treats a dog, other animal or bird that howls, yelps or barks frequently or habitually as a loud and disturbing noise violation under § 132.01(B)(1) if it seriously…

Surry County's noise ordinance exempts lawn mowers and landscape maintenance equipment, including leaf blowers, from its general noise ban only when used between daybreak and 9:00 p.m…

Surry County's noise ordinance expressly exempts noises from ventilation equipment, alongside safety signals, warning devices, church bells and clock chimes, under § 132.02(B). That…

Surry County bars adult live entertainment businesses anywhere in unincorporated Surry County unless the act is fully enclosed at least 2,000 feet from a school, church, park, day…

In unincorporated Surry County, North Carolina, a vacant or unimproved lot that violates the county's zoning code, County Code Chapter 154, can be brought before the District Court…

In unincorporated Surry County, North Carolina, the Abatement of Health and Safety Nuisance Ordinance, County Code Chapter 92, lets the Planning Department order an owner to remove…

Surry County's loitering law, Chapter 131, only bans remaining or wandering in a public place to further a drug-law violation under G.S. Chapter 90, Article 5, such as repeatedly…

Surry County's zoning ordinance exempts land used for a bona fide farm from zoning regulation entirely: under §154.002-04, the county cannot apply its zoning rules to farm production…

In unincorporated Surry County, North Carolina, a bona fide farm is exempt from the county's zoning ordinance entirely under § 154.002-04, covering crop, livestock, poultry, dairy, and…

In unincorporated Surry County, North Carolina, anyone can report a suspected health or safety nuisance to the Planning Department under County Code § 92.20(A) by written complaint, an…

In unincorporated Surry County, North Carolina, County Code § 92.20(B) requires the Planning Department to begin investigating a reported health or safety nuisance within 96 hours of…

Surry County requires a Development Services Director permit before anyone holds an open-air gathering of 1,000 to 5,000 people lasting 12 hours or more, per Code § 91.03, and §…

In unincorporated Surry County, North Carolina, a home occupation cannot use more than 25% of a structure's floor area, must sell no merchandise on-site, and may post only one sign of…

In unincorporated Surry County, North Carolina, a home-based child day care counts as an accessory zoning use only if it serves 12 or fewer attendees, including after-school children…

A home-based business in unincorporated Surry County may post exactly one identification sign, no larger than eight square feet and no taller than five feet, set back at least 15 feet…

Surry County Code § 154.003-02 defines lot coverage as the percent of a lot covered by impervious surface, but the base RA, RE, RR, RL and RG districts set no separate coverage…

Surry County regulates yard setbacks district by district under § 154.006-15's dimensional table, but the Village of Rockford (VR) District, the county's historic form-based zone…

In Surry County's core residential zoning districts, RA, RE, RR, RL and RG, the Dimensional Table at § 154.006-15 caps building height at 50 feet, measured to the roof deck or the…

In unincorporated Surry County, North Carolina, County Code Chapter 110 makes it unlawful to create or allow a public health nuisance, defined to include accumulated junk, tires…

In unincorporated Surry County, North Carolina, no structure or land within a FEMA-mapped special flood hazard area may be built, altered, or developed without a floodplain development…

In unincorporated Surry County, North Carolina, new construction in a special flood hazard area must be elevated to the regulatory flood protection elevation, defined at § 154.003-02…

Unincorporated Surry County, North Carolina requires anyone subdividing land inside a designated public water supply watershed to describe how the project will handle storm water…

In unincorporated Surry County, North Carolina, county zoning does not interfere with, abrogate, or annul private easements, covenants, or homeowner association agreements under §…

Surry County's Board of Commissioners created a Historic Preservation Commission under G.S. §§ 160D-940-949, with the county Planning Board sitting as that commission, but its reach…

Unincorporated Surry County does not require a zoning permit to build a fence. The county's own zoning definition of STRUCTURE expressly excludes walls and fences, so the…

Inside the Village of Rockford Historic District, Surry County's zoning code bans chain-link fencing, with or without any type of insert, along with razor wire and barbed wire, for…

In unincorporated Surry County, North Carolina, a retaining wall built in a regulated floodway or non-encroachment area that involves placing fill has to meet the floodway limitations…

In unincorporated Surry County, North Carolina, yard sales are a temporary permitted use in every residential zoning district under Surry County Code § 154.007-02(D). Each sale may run…

A backyard swimming pool in unincorporated Surry County has to meet the same lot-line setbacks as an accessory structure under the Dimensional Table's note (1), on top of the North…

A detached shed in Surry County's RA rural agricultural district, the county's default residential zoning, has to sit at least 12 feet off the side line and 15 feet off the rear line…

Surry County Code § 154.008(C)(1) allows a second dwelling on a residential lot only in two narrow cases: a watchman or caretaker's home tied to a non-residential use, or a…

Removing a tree on a pivotal or contributing structure's property inside the Village of Rockford Historic District counts as a 'minor work' under Surry County's…

Before Surry County will permit an electronic-messaging billboard, the applicant must submit proposed brightness settings and message-change intervals to the Board of Adjustment, which…

Surry County's zoning code does not set countywide light-trespass limits for houses, but it does write a light-trespass standard into the use-specific conditions attached to…

For amusement parks, arcades, circuses, carnivals and fairs approved under Surry County Code § 154.008(C)(9), outdoor lighting "shall be shielded to prevent light from directly hitting…

In unincorporated Surry County, North Carolina, no more than one junked or inoperative motor vehicle per acre, up to five on larger lots, may sit in rural agricultural, residential and…

Unincorporated Surry County requires dedicated off-street loading spaces sized to a building's floor area: at least 15 by 30 feet for uses under 20,000 square feet, larger for bigger…

Unincorporated Surry County allows yard and garage sale signs as a permitted temporary sign under § 154.016-07, alongside real estate and construction signs, but every temporary sign…

Unincorporated Surry County confines billboards to nine named highways and only the CB, HB and MI zoning districts as a special use, capping size at 600 square feet on the interstates…

In special flood hazard areas of unincorporated Surry County, new construction and substantial improvements, including manufactured homes, must have their lowest floor built no lower…

A temporary structure placed in a Surry County special flood hazard area needs a Floodplain Administrator-approved removal plan before a hurricane, flash flood or flood warning…