Bulloch County, GA Business Licensing & Operations: Auto Repair on Residential Property (2026)

Section 1426 of the Zoning Ordinance (Appendix C) sets out which businesses qualify as a 'home occupation, residential' and which do not. Subsection (a) lists the accepted trades, things like accountants, insurance agents, dressmakers, notaries and photographers, and subsection (b) covers accessory-building uses such as a clock repair shop or a potter's studio. Subsection (c) draws the opposite line: auto sales or auto repair is named outright as a prohibited home occupation, in the same list as restaurants, animal hospitals, veterinary clinics, funeral homes, retail or wholesale shops, and machine shops or manufacturing.

The distinction matters because the rest of Section 1426 sets standards, resident operation, a two-employee cap, a 25 percent floor-area limit, that only apply to a use that qualifies as a home occupation in the first place; auto repair never reaches that stage because it is barred by name. A resident who wants to work on vehicles commercially from a residential lot in unincorporated Bulloch County has to look instead to the county's commercial and industrial zoning districts, where a use like 'contractor' under Section 1417 requires a minimum one-acre lot, enclosed maintenance bays and screened outdoor storage, standards written for a business use rather than a residence.

There is no variance path around Section 1426(c) itself: the ban is written as an absolute list of prohibited uses, not a conditional or discretionary standard the zoning administrator can waive.