Winter Haven, FL Accessory Structures: ADU Rules (2026)

Sec. 21-211 governs home occupations in residential zoning districts, defining a home occupation as an accessory use carried on entirely within a dwelling by members of the immediate family, with no outward evidence, excess traffic or commercial vehicles. Subsection (b) lists the minimum performance standards a home occupation must meet, and item (5) is the code's only reference to accessory dwelling units: a home occupation must ordinarily be conducted in the principal residence, but it may instead be run out of an accessory dwelling unit such as a garage apartment on the condition that the apartment is not occupied as a living unit while the business operates there, and no other activity takes place in the accessory unit.

That means Winter Haven treats a garage apartment used for a home occupation as functionally a workspace rather than a second residence for as long as the business runs there. The same subsection caps every home occupation, wherever it is conducted, at no more than twenty percent of the dwelling's living area, bars any goods display or sale visible from outside the property, limits a nameplate sign to two square feet, caps motor equipment at one horsepower total, or one-third horsepower per motor, and limits traffic generated by the business to fifteen vehicle trips per twenty-four-hour day.