Benton County, WA Home Business: Signage Rules (2026)

BCC 11.49.030(d) is the only sign standard specific to a home-based business in unincorporated Benton County, and it attaches to the home occupation permit issued by the Planning Department under BCC 11.49.020, not to a stand-alone sign permit. The rule allows exactly one sign, capped at four square feet of area and six feet of height above grade, and it cannot be illuminated. The sign has to be posted on the same parcel where the home occupation operates: it cannot be placed on a neighboring lot, in the county right-of-way along the road, or anywhere it would interfere with the sightlines drivers need at a road intersection.

The sign standard sits inside the chapter's general criteria alongside the dwelling-residency, employee-count and floor-area limits, and it is folded into a single subsection with no separate sign-permit track. Because of that, exceeding it (a second sign, an oversized or illuminated sign, or one that migrates into the right-of-way) puts the whole home occupation out of compliance with BCC 11.49.030, not just the sign. The Planning Administrator can deny or revoke the underlying permit under BCC 11.49.060, with 14 days to appeal that decision to the Hearings Examiner under BCC 11.49.070 and BCC 11.53.080. The chapter, adopted by Ordinance 611 in 2018, governs only the unincorporated county: Kennewick, Richland, West Richland and Prosser set their own home business sign rules inside city limits.