Winston-Salem zoning codes
LI, GI and CI are Winston-Salem's industrial districts. HB, GB, PB, CB, LB, NSB and NB are business, from highway retail to neighborhood storefronts. GO, CPO, LO and NO are office. A -S or -L after a code means the rezoning came with conditions.
Checked against the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County UDO, edition of October 1, 2026. The official zoning maps are 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
The county map drops the hyphen on housing codes, so RS-9 shows as RS9 and RM-U as RMU.
| Code | What it is | Our filter |
|---|---|---|
| Industrial | ||
| LI | Limited Industrial. Light manufacturing, warehousing, wholesale and R&D with little effect on neighbors. | Industrial |
| GI | General Industrial. Fabricating and manufacturing, including uses with real environmental impact. | Industrial |
| CI | Central Industrial. Research and tech uses in the city center, with the offices, shops and light manufacturing around them. | Industrial |
| Business | ||
| HB | Highway Business. Retail and service that needs visibility and road access, with deep setbacks. | Commercial |
| GB | General Business. Retail, service, office and apartments along the main roads, including destination retail. | Commercial |
| PB | Pedestrian Business. Walkable shops and offices in small-town centers and around downtown. | Commercial |
| CB | Central Business. Dense city and town centers. Office, retail and housing, often in one building. | Commercial |
| LB | Limited Business. Neighborhood shopping centers near homes. | Commercial |
| NSB | Neighborhood Shopping Center Business. Planned centers for everyday shopping. | Commercial |
| NB | Neighborhood Business. Small offices, shops and services with a storefront look, in or beside neighborhoods. | Commercial |
| MRB-S | Major Retail and Business. Big destination retail or large shopping centers. Winston-Salem only. | Other |
| E | Entertainment. Retail, office, homes and entertainment together. Winston-Salem only. | Other |
| Office | ||
| GO | General Office. Busy office areas, plus some housing. | Office |
| CPO | Corporate Park Office. Office and R&D campuses. Assembly and warehousing can be part of the project. | Office |
| LO | Limited Office. Medical, professional and government offices on suburban sites. | Office |
| NO | Neighborhood Office. Offices in converted houses at the edge of neighborhoods. | Office |
| Mixed use and institutional | ||
| MU-S | Mixed Use. A planned project with homes and at least one other use, approved with a site plan. | Mixed use |
| IP | Institutional and Public. Smaller public uses near homes, or large low-key sites in the country. | Other |
| C | Campus. Large institutions with a big traffic footprint. | Other |
| Housing | ||
| RM-5 to RM-18 | Multifamily. The number is the most units an acre. RM-5 and RM-8 are duplexes and townhomes. | Multifamily |
| RM-U | Multifamily, unlimited density. No cap on units an acre. | Multifamily |
| RS-40 to RS-7 | Single-family. The number is the minimum lot in thousands of square feet, so RS-9 needs 9,000. | Residential |
| RSQ | Single-family Quadraplex. Houses with duplexes up to quadraplexes mixed in. | Residential |
| MH | Manufactured Housing. Up to 5 units an acre. | Residential |
| Rural and special | ||
| AG | Agricultural. Farms and homes on large tracts. | Other |
| YR | Yadkin River Conservation. The strictest district, protecting the river and water supply. | Other |
| H | Historic. Areas of national historic or architectural value. | Other |
One thing to watch in our filter: MRB-S and E sit under Other, not Commercial. Type MRB in the Zoning box in Find to list the MRB-S parcels.
-S, -L and overlays
-S is a special use district. Only the uses listed in the rezoning, at that location, under a site plan the elected board accepted and any conditions the owner agreed to. MU-S and MRB-S only come in this form.
-L is special use limited. Same idea, but the conditions are written out in words with no site plan.
Overlays follow the code and add rules on top, so "HB HO" is still HB. They're NCO (neighborhood conservation), TO (thoroughfare), AO (airport), HO (historic), and in Winston-Salem only, WO (downtown) and MLKO (Martin Luther King corridor).
Checking a parcel yourself
- Open the city and county's Planning and Development Viewer.
- Search the address, turn on the Zoning layer and click the parcel. There's also a Zoning History layer.
- Look the code up in Chapter 4 of UDO ClearCode. Table 5.1.1 has the allowed uses.
For UDO questions, Land Use Administration is at 336-747-7064. Kernersville, Clemmons, Lewisville and Walkertown use the same codes, though Kernersville and Lewisville add a few of their own (BI, MBP, LD1, LD2). Check those with the town.
On NC CRE Map
Click a parcel and the card shows its full code, like GI-S. In Find, pick Forsyth, check Industrial under Zoning category, and you get every commercial parcel zoned LI, GI or CI, with or without -S or -L, across Winston-Salem, the towns and the county. 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 Winston-Salem's zoning on one map
The county record is free. Sign in with Google or an emailed code, no card, and you get 10 LLC owner lookups and 5 owner contact lookups to see who's behind it.
Open the mapQuestions
What is GI zoning in Winston-Salem?
General Industrial. Fabricating and manufacturing, including heavier uses with real environmental impact.
What's the difference between LI and GI?
LI is lighter industry, warehousing and R&D that sits quietly next to other uses. GI is the heavier industrial district.
What is HB zoning in Winston-Salem?
Highway Business. Retail and service on sites that need visibility and road access, usually set back from the road.
What does -S mean after a Winston-Salem zoning code?
A special use district. Only the uses listed in the rezoning, at that location, under an approved site plan and any agreed conditions. -L is the same with written conditions and no site plan.
Sources: Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Unified Development Ordinances in UDO ClearCode (Table 4.4, Sections 4.1.2 and 4.5 to 4.9, Table 5.1.1), and the City of Winston-Salem's UDO and Maps and GIS Data pages. This page is a guide, not legal advice.