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

Section 27-168(d) lists ten categories of work that can never qualify as a home occupation in Dunwoody, no matter how small-scale, because the city considers them incompatible with a residential setting. The first and most direct bar covers 'any type of assembly, cleaning, maintenance or repair of vehicles or equipment with internal combustion engines,' which rules out a home-based auto detailing, oil-change, or repair operation entirely, along with repair of large appliances like washing machines and dryers. The same subsection separately bans tow truck services, taxi and limo dispatching, equipment rental businesses, and any use that stores vehicles, parts, or machinery outdoors.

The prohibition does not leave vehicle repair unregulated citywide; it simply pushes it out of residential home occupations entirely. Sections 27-152 and 27-153 allow major and minor vehicle repair as a standalone commercial use, but only in nonresidential zoning districts, and only when every service and repair activity is conducted entirely inside an enclosed building. Major repair uses also cannot sit within 300 feet of a school, park, playground, or hospital, or on a lot adjacent to or across the street from a residential district.

A Dunwoody homeowner who wants to run a repair shop therefore needs a commercially zoned property and a business license, not a home occupation permit; a garage-based repair side business is not an option the code allows at any scale.