Cabarrus County, NC Sign Regulations: Freeway-Facing Signs (2026)

Section 11-10 of the Cabarrus County Development Ordinance lists the signs prohibited countywide in the unincorporated area, and off-premise signs, meaning signs advertising a business, product, or activity not conducted on the parcel where the sign sits, are on that list without exception. Practically, that bans the classic highway billboard: a freestanding sign built solely to catch the eye of drivers passing on a state highway or county road rather than to identify the business on whose lot it stands. C. Gen. § 136-32, and it bans indirect illumination such as floodlights erected so as to cause glare that impairs driver vision on streets or roadways, pilot vision approaching or departing Concord Regional Airport runways, or that creates a nuisance for adjoining property.

Section 11-10 also prohibits roof signs, wrap-around signs that extend around building corners, pavement markings used for anything other than traffic control, and signs that mimic official highway or regulatory signage, all reinforcing the same freeway-adjacent safety goal of keeping large advertising displays from competing with traffic control devices. The Table of Permitted Uses at the front of the Ordinance likewise lists 'Signs, Off-Premise' with no zoning district marked as permitted, confirming there is no district in the unincorporated county where a standalone billboard can be approved. A landowner along a highway frontage in the county is limited to on-premise signage sized under Chapter 11's tables for that parcel's zoning district.