New Brunswick, NJ Home Business: Signage Rules (2026)

Chapter 17.06 of the New Brunswick Municipal Code sets the sign rules that the Planning, Community and Economic Development office enforces through the zoning officer. Section 17.06.020 lists the signs that are declared exempt from the chapter's standards, and two entries in that list are the ones a home-based business uses. The first covers a professional sign giving the name and profession of the person living in the dwelling, limited to two square feet on any one side. The second covers the residential nameplate, which has to sit within the property lines and cannot exceed seventy-two square inches.

The code says a permitted home occupation or professional office can be included with the name of the occupant, so the business name shares that small plate rather than getting its own sign. Only one nameplate is permitted per principal dwelling unit, and it cannot be lit. The sign table in Section 17.06.060 repeats the point for the R-1 through R-5 districts: residential nameplates, including home based and home professional businesses, are limited to 72 square inches and must be non-illuminated. The table adds that nameplates are exempt signs that need no sign permit if they comply, and that a non-conforming nameplate requires a sign variance.

Anything bigger than these limits falls outside the exemption and must go through the regular sign permit process in Section 17.06.010, which carries a printed sign permit fee of $100.00 and requires a permit under the city's Uniform Construction Code. Section 17.06.030 also prohibits signs tacked, pasted, painted or attached to poles, posts, trees or fences, so a home business cannot substitute those for a compliant nameplate.