Montgomery, AL Home Business: Signage Rules (2026)

The Montgomery Zoning Ordinance folds its home occupation sign limit directly into the definition of "home occupation" in Article VI: any sign advertising the home occupation is limited to one sign, and that sign cannot exceed two square feet in area. This applies citywide wherever a conventional zoning district (the R, B, and O districts of Appendix C) governs the property, and it travels with the same definition that caps the use at 25 percent of floor area and bars public display of goods. Property owners in the city's SmartCode transect zones face a stricter rule.

8 of the SmartCode, which governs "Sub-Urban Zones (T3)," states plainly that there shall be no signage permitted for home occupations, a flat ban rather than a size cap. The SmartCode was adopted as an alternative, opt-in form-based code for specific community plan areas rather than a blanket citywide replacement of Appendix C, so which rule applies turns on whether the parcel sits in a conventional district or inside an adopted SmartCode transect. A home business owner should confirm with the city's Land Use Controls Division which zoning system covers the specific lot before posting any sign, since the two systems reach opposite results: a small two-square-foot sign is allowed under the conventional definition but is barred outright in a T3 transect.