Southampton, NY Home Business: Signage Rules (2026)

The Town Code defines a PROFESSIONAL SIGN at Section 330-201 as a sign directing attention to a resident's home, home occupation, home professional office or other permitted nonresidential use within a residential zoning district, bearing only the resident's name and profession or occupation. Section 330-206G governs residential districts and limits them, apart from a short exempt-sign list and permitted real estate signs, to only professional signs, residential development identification signs or announcement signs. Subsection G(1) sets the professional-sign standard directly: a residence may have no more than one, capped at a maximum area of two square feet, and it must sit either on the wall of the residence (no more than six feet above natural grade) or in the front yard (no more than three feet above natural grade), with a minimum 10-foot setback from all property lines in either placement.

Because a home-business sign qualifies as a professional sign, it must go through the same Building Department permit process required for other signs under Section 330-208A unless it separately meets an exemption, and it is not eligible for the exempt-sign list in Section 330-203A, which covers items like nameplates and directional signs rather than business-identification signage. If the sign is illuminated, it must additionally satisfy the light-source and wattage limits of Section 330-207 and be dark by 11:00 p.m. under Section 330-207C. A homeowner running more than one home occupation from the same residence still gets only the single two-square-foot allowance; the code does not scale the count or size with the number of businesses operated on the property.