Lakewood, NJ Home Business: Signage Rules (2026)

Township of Lakewood UDO § 18-901 defines a NAMEPLATE as a sign indicating the name, address and/or profession or occupation of a person, which is the sign type a home occupation would use to identify itself. Under the Schedule of Sign Use Regulations at § 18-812A10a, Permitted Signs in Residential Districts, a nameplate sign may be ground-mounted, projecting, or wall-mounted, but its size cannot exceed one and one-half square feet and it cannot stand taller than four feet, and the schedule limits any one residential lot to only one of the listed sign types at a time (identification, nameplate, or no-solicitation).

Separately, § 18-903 sets substantive limits on the home occupation use itself: it cannot employ more than two people who aren't household members, generally serves one client at a time, cannot occupy more than 25% of the dwelling's floor area, cannot store or display materials outdoors, and must preserve the residential character of the structure's exterior appearance. Read together, a home business owner may identify the enterprise with a small nameplate sign but cannot advertise it more aggressively than the four-square-foot identification sign or one-square-foot no-solicitation sign that are the only other options allowed on a residential lot under the same schedule.