Bartow County, GA Home Business: Signage Rules (2026)

2(D), titled "External display and storage of products prohibited," states that there shall be no external display of products or storage of equipment or any other externally visible evidence of the occupation, business, or profession. That language sweeps in more than a lit sign; it also bars outdoor product displays, equipment left outside, vehicles marked up for the business parked where visible, and any other exterior clue that a household is running a commercial operation. 2, which requires a home occupation to be clearly incidental and secondary to residential use and not to reveal from the road or adjoining properties that the property is being used for non-residential use purposes.

Subsection A separately requires the dwelling to maintain its residential appearance. Read together, these provisions function as a complete ban on home-business signage in a residential or A-1 district: there is no size or lighting allowance carved out for a small identification sign the way some cities allow, because any externally visible evidence of the business is prohibited outright. A home business that wants a sign therefore needs a use classification other than the residential home-occupation exception, typically meaning a commercially zoned location where the county's general sign ordinance in Article XI would apply instead.