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

040 of the Union County Unified Development Ordinance regulates home occupations by performance standards rather than a fixed list of allowed businesses, splitting them into suburban and rural home occupations depending on lot setting. A suburban home occupation must be clearly incidental to the residential use, and at least one person running it must live in the dwelling as their primary residence; it can add up to 2 nonresident employees, but resident and nonresident workers on-site together cannot exceed 3. The business space, whether inside the house or an accessory building, is capped at the lesser of 1,000 square feet or 25 percent of the principal dwelling's gross floor area, and only one home occupation is allowed per dwelling unit.

Only licensed passenger vehicles may be used for the business, no goods may be displayed outside an enclosed structure, and no retail sale of goods not produced on-site is allowed. Equipment must be operated or soundproofed so it cannot be heard past the lot line, and expressly prohibited uses include vehicle or appliance repair, dispatch centers, equipment rental, taxi and tow services, taxidermy, restaurants, funeral services, and animal boarding or grooming.