Granville County, NC Home Business: Zoning & Home Occupation Permits (2026)

Section 32-198, "Home business," is part of the Land Development Code's individual use standards and applies countywide to residential lots of one acre or larger. The use must be an office or service business; the code states flatly that "no retail sales shall be permitted." Staffing is limited to four persons beyond the people who live in the dwelling. The workspace itself cannot exceed 50 percent of the dwelling's total actual floor area or 800 square feet, whichever figure is smaller, though the county allows one accessory building of up to 1,000 square feet to house commercial vehicles, store nonhazardous materials, or hold the business operations themselves, provided that structure still meets every lot coverage, dimensional, and other requirement in the chapter.

Outdoor sales and outdoor storage tied to the business are both prohibited. Home business sits next to, but is distinct from, Section 32-200's "home occupations," which caps staff at two people and floor area at 25 percent or 500 square feet, and Section 32-197's cottage industry standard for five-acre-plus lots employing up to five outside workers. Because Granville County has no minimum-acreage exemption for a smaller home business, an applicant on a sub-acre residential lot must instead qualify under the tighter home-occupation standard, and Development Services checks lot size, floor-area math, and the no-retail rule when it issues the zoning permit that home businesses require before opening.