Garland, TX Business Licensing & Operations: Auto Repair on Residential Property (2026)

61(D)(2) of the Garland Development Code targets vehicle repair work run out of a house as one of the expressly prohibited home-based activities, regardless of whether the operation otherwise qualifies as no-impact. Subsection (a) makes it an offense for anyone, within view from a public right-of-way in a residential zoning district, to conduct Major Automobile Repair, a term defined in Chapter 6 of the Development Code. Subsection (b) goes further and reaches repair work out of public view: it is an offense to perform Major or Minor Automobile Repair in a residential zoning district on a vehicle that is not registered to a person who owns the property, or who is named on the property's electric utility bill.

The code builds in one affirmative defense: prosecution fails if the vehicle being repaired is registered to a relative of the property owner, or the person on the electric bill, within two degrees of affinity or consanguinity by blood, adoption, or marriage. The rule sits alongside the section's separate ban on operating a vehicle-sales business from a residential lot, so a homeowner who tinkers with a family member's own car is protected, but a driveway business that repairs paying customers' vehicles, or repairs cars for people outside that close-relative circle, is not. The prohibition applies citywide in every residential zoning district and does not depend on whether the work generates noise, traffic, or on-street parking.