Toms River, NJ Home Business: Signage Rules (2026)

Toms River Township's Land Use and Development Regulations chapter treats a home-based business differently depending on whether it announces itself to the street. Township Code § 348-2.3, in the definition of 'HOME OCCUPATION,' provides that 'a business conducted from the dwelling by the resident household shall be permitted in all zoning districts and shall not be regulated as a home occupation if it meets the following criteria,' a nine-part list running A through I. Criterion D is the sign rule: 'no sign indicating that the dwelling is used for business purposes.' Put up a sign on the mailbox, porch, fence or lawn, and the exemption is gone regardless of how small the business is. The same nine criteria bar outside employees, more than one commercial vehicle over four tons, any change to the dwelling's residential appearance, tractor-trailer deliveries, outside storage, customers or clients visiting the site, and noise, glare, fumes, odors or electrical interference; the business must be conducted entirely inside the dwelling or an accessory building.

Once a resident's business trips any of those nine bars, most commonly by adding a sign, it converts into a regulated 'home occupation' under § 348-9.12, which requires conditional-use approval and layers on its own limits: no more than two non-resident employees, use capped at 50% of the dwelling's first-floor area, no sound audible outside the building, and the lot must front on and have driveway access and sign location on a street classified as at least a minor collector. Enforcement of the exempt-status rule runs through Chapter 348's general violations provision at § 348-3.11.