Concord, NC Sign Regulations: Window Signs (2026)

The Concord Development Ordinance regulates window signs under CDO Section 12.4.7.B, part of the Incidental Signs section of Article 12. Any use permitted to display a wall sign may also display window signs, but only on windows and doors on the first floor of a building frontage; upper-floor glazing does not qualify. Address, open/closed and hours-of-operation notices posted in windows are exempt and do not count toward the window sign area calculation, while signage applied to the glazing of a recessed storefront entrance does count toward it.

The dimensional standard splits by zoning district. In the Center City district, property owners may display multiple window signs, but must obtain a sign permit and are capped at 30% of the glazed area of the first-floor building frontage. That area is measured as the smallest polygon enclosing the extreme limits of the writing, emblem or display. Center City window signs must also preserve transparency between four and eight feet above ground level, so signage cannot form a solid band across that zone. In every other zoning district, window signage may occupy an area equal to whatever wall-sign area is permitted on that same building frontage under the Article 12 wall sign standards, and if a business displays both window and wall signs on one frontage, their combined area still cannot exceed the ordinance's 8% wall-sign square footage limit. Concord's Planning and Neighborhood Development Department administers sign permits and enforces these frontage-by-frontage limits.