Johnston County, NC Home Business: Signage Rules (2026)

Sec. 14-508 governs signage in residential districts and planned development-housing developments, and item (2) sets the rule for a home occupation sign specifically: it must identify the home occupation, cannot be illuminated, and is limited to one wall sign per zoning lot with a maximum display surface area of four square feet. The sign must also sit back at least 20 feet from the property line. That is markedly tighter than the development identification signs allowed for a subdivision entrance under Sec. 14-508(1), which can run up to 60 square feet on a monument or ground sign at six feet tall, underscoring that home occupation signage in a residential district is meant to be minimal and unobtrusive rather than commercial-scale.

Because the home occupation sign sits inside the residential-district sign article rather than the general permit-exempt list in Sec. 14-504, it is still bound by the general limitations of Sec. 14-506, including the ban on animated or moving signs and on illumination visible from a residential zoning district, and by the traffic-safety rules of Sec. 14-505 that keep any sign clear of intersection sight triangles.