Douglas County, CO Business Licensing & Operations: Auto Repair on Residential Property (2026)

Section 1-2301 of the Zoning Resolution lists motor vehicle repair or body shop work by name, alongside medical clinics, hospitals, bed-and-breakfasts, animal clinics and general retail, as uses that generate more than occasional or minimal vehicular traffic and therefore are not considered a home occupation at all under Part 23. That exclusion applies whether the work would otherwise qualify as a Class 1 home occupation, permitted outright in any residential or agricultural district under § 1-2303, or a Class 2 home occupation, permitted by administrative permit in the A-1, LRR and RR districts under § 1-2305.

Because auto repair cannot meet the definition of a home occupation in the first place, no accessory-use or home-occupation permit application will be approved for it; a resident who wants to fix cars for pay has to locate the business on land zoned for commercial or light-industrial use, where auto repair is reviewed as its own permitted or conditional use rather than as a home occupation. Planning Services staff who receive a home-occupation application describing repair, painting, or bodywork on vehicles will deny it under § 1-2301 without proceeding to the § 1-2303 or § 1-2305 criteria review, since the use never qualifies as a home occupation to begin with.

This reflects the intent stated in § 1-2301: home occupations must stay clearly secondary and incidental to the residence and must not generate the traffic, noise or outside storage that auto and body shop work routinely produce.