Lee's Summit, MO Home Business: Signage Rules (2026)

Sec. 3 of the Unified Development Ordinance sits inside a longer list of conditions home occupations must satisfy: the occupation must be clearly incidental and secondary to the residential use, must not change the outside appearance of the dwelling, and exterior signage for the home occupation is prohibited, full stop, with no size or wording carve-out written into the text. That sits alongside other home occupation limits, including a 25-percent cap on the gross floor area used for the business, a ban on outside storage, an employee cap of self or family plus one additional person, and a limit of one commercial vehicle up to one-ton capacity that must be garaged when not in use.

The prohibition is reinforced citywide: the sign article's prohibited-signs list at Sec. F separately bans a 'home occupation sign,' defined elsewhere in that article as any sign that identifies, advertises, or attracts attention to a home occupation. Enforcement runs through the same office that approves the business in the first place: Sec. C makes the Director responsible for approving home occupations, and if a home occupation is denied, including for violating the no-signage condition, the applicant receives the reasons in writing and has 14 days from the date of that letter to appeal the decision to the City Council.