Greensboro zoning codes
LI and HI are Greensboro's industrial districts. C-N, C-L, C-M and C-H are commercial, from neighborhood shops up to big retail on the highway, and CB is downtown. O is office. CD- in front of a code means the rezoning came with conditions.
Checked against the city's Land Development Ordinance in October 2026. The city's zoning map is the legal record.
Click any property to see its zoning code.
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This data is for information purposes only and may not reflect recent changes. Verification or certification of information in this record can only be obtained through the North Carolina Department of the Secretary of State.
The districts
| Code | What it is | Our filter |
|---|---|---|
| Industrial | ||
| LI | Light Industrial. Light manufacturing, warehousing, wholesale and R&D with little effect on neighbors. | Industrial |
| HI | Heavy Industrial. Fabricating and manufacturing, including uses with real environmental impact. | Industrial |
| LIM | Light Industrial Mixed. LI uses in a planned mix that can include housing, for redeveloping old industrial land. | Not yet |
| BP | Business Park. Office, warehouse, R&D and assembly on large landscaped sites. | Office |
| Commercial and office | ||
| C-N | Commercial-Neighborhood. Small shops, offices and services inside or beside neighborhoods. | Commercial |
| C-L | Commercial-Low. Low-key shopping near neighborhoods, usually at a main intersection. | Commercial |
| C-M | Commercial-Medium. Retail, service, office and apartments along the main roads. | Commercial |
| C-H | Commercial-High. Big regional retail on large sites along thoroughfares. | Commercial |
| CB | Central Business. Downtown only. Dense office, retail and housing, often in one building. | Commercial |
| O | Office. Offices and institutional uses. | Office |
| Mixed use | ||
| UMU | University Mixed Use. Walkable shops, offices and housing near a campus. | Mixed use |
| AO | Auto Oriented. Car-oriented retail, hotels, entertainment and sports along planned corridors. The county map writes it A-O. | Other |
| NS | Neighborhood Support. Small walkable lots that step down from a busy corridor to a neighborhood. | Other |
| MU-L, MU-M, MU-H | Mixed Use, Low to High. Office, retail and housing together, getting denser from L to H. | Not yet |
| Housing | ||
| RM-5 to RM-40 | Multifamily. The number is about how many units an acre. RM-5 and RM-8 are duplexes and townhomes. RM-40 goes only in activity centers, corridors and along major roads. | Multifamily |
| R-3, R-5, R-7 | Single-family. Up to about 3, 5 or 7 homes an acre. | Residential |
| Special | ||
| PI | Public and Institutional. Public and institutional uses on sites over 5 acres. | Other |
| PNR | Parkland and Natural Resource. Parks and conservation land over 10 acres. | Other |
| PUD | Planned Unit Development. One project built under its own plan. | Other |
| TN | Traditional Neighborhood. Walkable homes, shops and civic uses on a street grid. | Other |
| AG | Agricultural. Farms and homes on big tracts until city services reach them. | Other |
Two things to watch in our filter. BP sits under Office, so check Industrial and Office together to catch business parks. LIM and the MU districts don't have a box yet, so type LIM in the Zoning box in Find to list those parcels.
Older codes
The current ordinance took effect July 1, 2010 and renamed many districts. You'll still see the old names in older deeds and listings, and a few, like CP, are still on the map.
| Old code | Now | Our filter |
|---|---|---|
| CP (Corporate Park) | BP | Office |
| NB (Neighborhood Business) | C-N | Commercial |
| LB (Limited Business) | C-L | Commercial |
| GB, HB (General and Highway Business) | C-M | Commercial |
| SC (Shopping Center) | C-H | Commercial |
| LO, GO-M, GO-H (Office) | O | Office |
| TN-1 | TN | Not yet |
| RS-12 to RS-40 | R-3 | Residential |
| RS-7, RS-9 | R-5 | Residential |
| RS-5 | R-7 | Residential |
CD- and overlays
CD- means a conditional district. It allows the same kind of uses as the plain district, limited by whatever the city approved with the rezoning. Read the rezoning case before you assume what a CD- parcel allows.
Overlays are written after the code and add rules on top of it. They include -ACO (activity center), -AO (airport), -CBO (central business), -HDO (historic), -NCO (neighborhood conservation), -PSO (pedestrian scale) and the watershed overlays -GWA, -WCA and -OWAO.
Watch for AO. At the front, it's the Auto Oriented district. As a suffix, -AO is the airport overlay around Piedmont Triad International, which limits height and housing density.
Checking a parcel yourself
- Find the parcel on Guilford County's GIS. It has one zoning layer for Greensboro, High Point, the towns and the county. The viewers are linked in our Guilford County guide.
- Note the full code, including any CD- or overlay.
- Look it up in LDO Article 6. Article 8 has the allowed uses.
For anything you'll rely on, confirm with the City of Greensboro Planning Department. High Point, Jamestown and the other Guilford towns have their own codes.
On NC CRE Map
Click a parcel and the card shows its full code, like CD-LI. In Find, pick Guilford, check Industrial under Zoning category, and you get every commercial parcel zoned LI or HI, with or without CD-, plus industrial land in High Point and the towns. Parcels with no zoning on record don't show up when that filter is on. The map shows commercial parcels and developable land, not single-family homes, so Residential here means commercial buildings on land zoned residential.
See Greensboro's zoning on one map
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Open the mapQuestions
What is LI zoning in Greensboro?
Light Industrial. Light manufacturing, warehousing, wholesale and R&D that has little effect on the neighbors.
What's the difference between LI and HI?
LI is lighter industry that sits quietly next to other uses. HI covers heavier fabricating and manufacturing, including uses with real environmental impact.
What is C-M zoning in Greensboro?
Commercial-Medium. Retail, service, office and apartments along the main roads. It replaced the old GB and HB districts.
What does CD- mean before a Greensboro zoning code?
The rezoning came with conditions. The parcel allows the same kind of uses as the plain district, limited by those conditions.
Sources: City of Greensboro Land Development Ordinance, Article 1, Article 6 (districts, the former-district table in 30-6-1.1, conditional districts in 30-6-1.2, overlays in 30-6-9) and Article 8. This page is a guide, not legal advice.