Pitt County, NC Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Pitt County's Zoning Ordinance treats a family childcare home differently from a licensed day care center. Section 15, Definitions, defines a "Day Care Facility, Residential" as a child care facility located in a residence that provides child care where, at any one time, more than two children but fewer than nine children receive care; operations serving nine or more children fall under the broader "Day Care Center, Child or Adult" classification instead. Section 8(Z) of the Zoning Ordinance, "Development Standards for Individual Uses," fixes where a residential facility may operate: only the RA, RR, R40, SR and MFR districts allow it, one district narrower than the list for full day care centers, which also reach into the OI and GC districts.

Any outdoor activity area serving the children must be enclosed by a security fence at least 6 feet high, and that fence must sit outside the road setback rather than encroach on the required yard along the street. The ordinance also controls when the use can run: in residential districts it cannot operate on a 24-hour basis, and outdoor activities are limited to daylight hours only, a rule aimed at containing noise and activity once the sun goes down. These local development standards apply on top of, not instead of, North Carolina's state licensing requirements for family child care homes; a Pitt County zoning clearance and a state child care license are both required before a home-based operation of this kind can legally open.

Because the standards in Section 8 apply use-by-use rather than through one general commercial permit, the Zoning Administrator reviews each application for district eligibility, the fencing plan and hours-of-operation compliance before any building or occupancy permit tied to the use is issued.