Gary, IN Business Licensing & Operations: Auto Repair on Residential Property (2026)

Gary Municipal Code § 123-1 defines 'home occupation' as work incidental to residential use that does not involve 'the conduct of a retail business, manufacturing business, or a repair shop of any kind on the premises.' The definition goes further with an explicit exclusion list: it states the term 'shall not be construed to include such uses as the following: medical clinic or hospital, beauty parlor or barber shop, tea room or restaurant, gift shop or millinery shop, machine shop or automobile repair shop, tourist homes, or commercial stable or kennel, unless hereafter provided as a specifically recognized exception.' Automobile repair is therefore named twice as incompatible with home-based operation: once through the general repair-shop exclusion and again through the specific reference to a 'machine shop or automobile repair shop.' No residence district, R1 through R7 under §§ 123-155 through 123-161, lists automobile repair as a permitted, transitional, or special use, so there is no residential zoning pathway for it at all in Gary.

The use only becomes lawful in the districts built for it: automotive-dependent uses such as service stations and repair are addressed as special or permitted uses in the B2 through B5 business and manufacturing districts, for example § 123-193(c)(4), subject to siting standards like street-frontage minimums and distance requirements from schools and residential buildings, not the home occupation rules.