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

UDC Section 5.02.02(B)(1)(d) puts auto repair on Catoosa County's short list of uses that can never qualify as a home occupation, stating flatly that 'Auto repair (with or without a garage)' is prohibited, regardless of scale. The same subsection bars towing or wrecker service, auto detailing, private clubs, veterinarian practices, flea markets, junkyards, indoor and outdoor kennels, sawmills, and tree services including log-splitting, placing auto repair in the company of uses the county treats as inherently incompatible with a residential neighborhood no matter how the operator tries to structure it.

Because the prohibition sits in the home-occupation article rather than the general use table, it applies on top of, not instead of, the district's own zoning: even in a district where a repair shop is a listed commercial use with its own additional standards under Section 4.09.05, that permission only runs to a property zoned and developed for the commercial use, never to a residential lot operated as a home business. A resident cannot use the home-occupation route to get around that distinction by keeping the shop small, working alone, or fitting it inside a garage; the 'with or without a garage' language in Section 5.02.02(B)(1)(d) closes that exact loophole.

A resident wanting to work on vehicles commercially from a residential lot has no path to a home occupation business license for it and would instead need the property rezoned and permitted for the commercial automobile repair and service use, sited under the standards in Section 4.09.05 and Table 2-3.