North Charleston, SC Home Business: Signage Rules (2026)

Section 8-10(a)(1) sets the actual limit: each single-family residence, regardless of zone, may display 'a maximum of eight (8) square feet of sign message area,' shared across four allowed subjects: noncommercial messages, home occupation signs 'not exceeding two (2) square feet,' real estate signs, and garage sale signs. A home business sign can never top two square feet on its own, and if the owner also runs a real estate or garage-sale sign at the same time, everything still has to fit inside the eight-square-foot ceiling. General advertising and off-site commercial messages are flatly prohibited under the same subsection. Address numbers, resident-identification signs, and flags are carved out and don't count toward the cap at all.

Section 8-10(a)(2) limits the physical form a home occupation sign can take: yard signs, signs mounted on fences or doors, wall signs, or window signs. Multi-family properties get the identical eight-square-foot/two-square-foot split under Section 8-10(b)(1)-(2), plus a separate allowance under Section 8-10(b)(3) for one 32-square-foot master sign at each entrance from a public right-of-way, set back at least five feet from any street.

Section 8-10(c) layers on a house-number requirement: every dwelling unit must display numbers at least three inches tall, mounted to be 'easily visible from the nearest street,' regardless of how much of the eight-square-foot allowance is used elsewhere.

Any sign work runs through the permit process in Section 8-4, administered by the city's director; an application isn't complete until the council-set fee is paid, and a denied or delayed decision can be appealed to the Board of Zoning Appeals within 30 calendar days.