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

Section 608.2 of the Glynn County Zoning Ordinance draws a hard line around what counts as a home occupation: 'Notwithstanding the above enumerated conditions, restaurants, rest homes, florist, tourist courts, pawn shops, convalescent homes serving more than six tenants and auto repair garages shall not be considered home occupations and are specifically excluded.' That means a resident can't rely on Section 608.1's home occupation allowance, which otherwise lets a business use up to 25 percent of the home's floor area, to operate a repair shop, body shop, or similar automotive business out of a residential garage or accessory building.

The exclusion tracks the ordinance's broader treatment of vehicle repair as a commercial or industrial use: a 'Garage, Repair' is separately defined in Section 302 as a building and premises used for automobile service station purposes or major commercial repairs, and that use is only listed as a permitted or conditional use in commercial and industrial districts such as GC General Commercial, where Section 712.3(3) allows an automobile service station as a conditional use with pump setbacks of at least 15 feet from any street right-of-way and screening from adjoining residential property. A homeowner who wants to run an auto repair business must locate it in one of those commercially or industrially zoned districts and go through the applicable permitted-use or conditional-use process there, not attempt to operate it as an accessory home occupation.