Grays Harbor County, WA Home Business: Signage Rules (2026)

Section 17.60.050 permits exactly one sign for a home occupation in a residential zone, addressed at the end of subsection A.6. The sign must be unlighted, no more than four square feet in area, and either attached flat to the main building or, if freestanding, less than three and one-half feet tall from ground level; the subsection specifies that not more than one sign is permitted. In a general development or agricultural zone, subsection B.4 allows a larger sign for the same use: still unlighted and still under three and one-half feet tall if freestanding, but the area cap doubles to eight square feet, and the sign may be attached flat to either the main building or an accessory building rather than the main structure only.

Both versions require the sign allowance to be read alongside the broader condition that a home occupation shall in no way affect the appearance of the building as a residence, so the sign is the sole exception the county carves out of that residential-appearance rule. The size and height limits track the county's general sign chapter at Section 17.60.070, which caps a residential nameplate at two square feet and sets similar unlighted, low-profile standards for other sign categories allowed outside specific zoning districts, showing the home-occupation sign sits deliberately between a bare nameplate and the county's larger commercial sign allowances.

Because the sign limit is written into the same subsections as the underlying home-occupation permission, a sign that exceeds the four- or eight-square-foot cap, is illuminated, or is taller than three and one-half feet when freestanding puts the whole home occupation out of compliance, not just the sign.