Johnston County, NC Parking Rules: Commercial & Oversized Vehicles (2026)

Section 14-75(b)(11) of the Johnston County Code regulates commercial vehicles housed at a residence in the agricultural-residential (AR) district and driven by an occupant as their primary transportation to an off-site business. If that off-site business already provides reasonable storage and after-hours parking for its commercial vehicles, no commercial vehicle at all is allowed on the residential property. Where the business does not provide that off-site parking, the rule turns on the street: on internal subdivision streets, public or private, and on dead-end public or private roads, only one commercial vehicle is allowed, and it must be set back 70 feet from the front property line and 50 feet from interior property lines, unless restrictive covenants control the issue instead.

On all other streets and roads, keeping more than three commercial vehicles requires a special use permit, and those vehicles must sit back 250 feet from the front property line and 200 feet from interior property lines. The section carves out ordinary loading and unloading, which is never prohibited within a reasonable time in any residential district, and it separately bars any commercial vehicle used, manufactured, or designed for hazardous waste from residential districts outright, along with on-site maintenance such as changing hazardous fluids or washing contamination onto the ground.

A commercial vehicle tied to a business not otherwise listed as a permitted use in Section 14-75, and that is not a legally grandfathered nonconforming use, is not allowed at all unless the county grants a special use rezoning.