Lee County, NC Home Business: Customer Traffic Restrictions (2026)

Table 5.16-2 of the Lee County Unified Development Ordinance sets the performance standards every home occupation must meet in both the RA district and all other zoning districts. Client visits are capped at six per day, with only one visit per client permitted in that period, and visiting hours run from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Music, art, craft or similar lesson businesses get a separate allowance of up to 12 clients a day rather than the standard six. The same table restricts deliveries and pickups to those normally associated with residential services, bars them from blocking traffic circulation, and confines them to the same 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. window, Monday through Saturday.

Electronically amplified sound cannot be audible from adjacent properties or public streets, and no dust, odor, noise, vibration or electrical interference may be perceptible beyond the property line. Parking generated by client visits has to stay in the driveway; the ordinance does not allow home-occupation clients to park on the street or elsewhere on the lot. Community Development enforces these standards alongside the rest of UDO § 5.16, and a home occupation that draws more traffic than the table allows is treated the same as any other zoning violation, correctable through the process in UDO § 1.6.