Ramapo, NY Home Business: Signage Rules (2026)

Ramapo's sign rules single out the home occupation sign as its own defined category. Section 376-5 defines a 'SIGN, ANNOUNCEMENT' as any sign used to announce the use of the lot, or the direction or location of buildings and structures on it, for an office, home occupation, religious, charitable or other institutional use, and specifies it may be indirectly illuminated. That same definitions section, in defining 'HOME OCCUPATION,' makes clear a permitted announcement sign is the only exterior evidence a home-based business may show at all.

Putting one up still requires going through Article VIII of the zoning chapter. Section 376-81 bars erecting, re-erecting, constructing, enlarging or altering any sign without a sign permit, and no permit issues unless the sign already appears on an approved site development plan or sign plan; only swapping the sign's display panel, without touching the structure, skips that requirement. Because the zoning code does not fix a specific square-footage cap for an announcement sign, § 376-84 instead directs the Planning Board to set size, illumination and placement limits through its site development plan rules, applying criteria that the sign be clearly accessory to the use, the minimum size and content needed for legibility, free of any hawking or peddling language, and not confusable with a traffic signal. Section 376-82's blanket prohibitions also reach an announcement sign: no flashing, animated or noise-emitting elements, no illuminated outlining of a building's roofline or corners, and no cardboard or similarly impermanent construction.