Kent County, DE Home Business: Signage Rules (2026)

Home occupation signage in Kent County is governed by Section 205-232, the article covering signs permitted in the County's agricultural and residential districts (AC, AR, RS1, RS5, RM, and RMH). Subsection B lists the signs allowed for an individual lot, structure, or unit, and clause (3) singles out home occupations: a permitted professional office or studio operating from a residence may display exactly one identification sign, capped at 6 square feet in area and 5 feet in height above grade. B(1), which can reach 4 square feet at up to 6 feet of height for giving a property's name, occupant, or address, and far smaller than the signage available to a genuinely nonresidential use, which must instead comply with the business-district standards in Section 205-234.

The distinction matters because Kent County treats a home occupation as fundamentally a residential use with a limited commercial accommodation, not a business use, so the sign allowance stays modest and the sign must identify the occupation rather than advertise products or services generally. No separate permit procedure is described for this specific sign type in Section 205-232, but the County's general sign-permit requirement in Section 205-229 still applies to any sign not on the exempt list in Section 205-228, and a 6-square-foot home occupation sign does not appear among those permit exemptions.