Novato, CA Home Business: Signage Rules (2026)

Section 19.34.080, subsection C.4 of the Novato Municipal Code, headed Display, Signs, is the sign rule for every home occupation approved by the Director in the City of Novato. It allows one thing: one name plate not exceeding one square foot in area. Beyond that plate, there shall be no window display and no advertising signs. The same subsection bars any display of merchandise, equipment, stock-in-trade, or other identification of the home occupation activity on the premises, so the business cannot be identified from the outside in any other way.

The sign rule works alongside the visibility standard in subsection C.3. The use shall not require any modification not customarily found in a dwelling, and the home occupation activity shall not be visible from the adjoining public right-of-way or from neighboring residential properties. Subsection C.5 adds that the use shall not negatively impact on-street parking in the neighborhood, and subsection C.10 limits vehicles used or kept on the premises to residents' passenger vehicles or a pickup truck not exceeding one-ton carrying capacity.

Citywide sign law in Division 19.32 adds its own prohibitions. Section 19.32.040 specifically prohibits banners, balloons and other inflatable devices, pennants, and pole signs and other freestanding signs over six feet in height. Those bans apply on top of the one-square-foot name plate limit, so a home business cannot substitute a banner or a balloon for the plate. The home occupation approval is issued by the Director together with a City Business License, and the Director is the official who determines compliance with the permit when a complaint arrives, so the sign limit is part of the conditions that decide whether the permit stays in force.