Cabarrus County, NC Trash & Recycling: Dumpster Rules (2026)

Cabarrus County's Development Ordinance imposes an identical outside-storage rule for dumpsters across dozens of listed commercial and industrial uses in Chapter 7, Section 7-3's Performance Based Standards. The clause first appears at Item 3, Auction House, and Item 4, Automobile Rental, and recurs with the same wording through later items covering vehicle dealers, contractor storage yards, and many other PBS uses. The standard requires that all outside storage areas, including dumpsters, be sited to the rear of the building, kept within the setbacks required of the building's underlying zone, and made unnoticeable from both adjacent residential properties and public rights-of-way, achieved through fencing or vegetative screening.

A separate, tighter variant applies to Rural Home Occupations conducted in an accessory building: Chapter 7's Home Occupation, Rural standard carries the same rear-siting and screening rule but adds a flat prohibition on any outside storage in the Medium Density Residential district. Manufactured home parks fall under a different, more specific standard in Chapter 4: park operators must provide adequate solid waste refuse and recycling containers, and any dumpster serving the park must sit at least 40 feet from any manufactured home unit and at least 10 feet from internal residential streets, with recycling containers emptied on a regular schedule as the park operator's responsibility.

These are development-standards requirements tied to a business or park's zoning approval, not a general municipal solid-waste code; roll-off or dumpster placement for uses not listed as a PBS use in Chapter 7 is not addressed in this ordinance.