Kootenai County, ID Business Licensing & Operations: Auto Repair on Residential Property (2026)

The standard bars any commercial retail or wholesale sale of automotive parts or supplies on site. A resident may sell only vehicles they personally own that they've restored, maintained, repaired, or preserved through their own hobby activity; performing commercial restoration, repair, preservation, or maintenance work for other people's vehicles is not covered by this standard at all. The site itself must stay orderly enough to avoid creating a public nuisance or health hazard. On visibility, no more than two inoperable, dismantled, or unregistered motor vehicles can be seen from ground level from any adjacent property; every other such vehicle has to be covered, hidden behind a fully sight-obscuring fence or hedge at least six feet tall, or stored inside a completely enclosed building.

Vehicles and parts kept on site for the hobby must remain necessary and wanted for it; once they're no longer needed, they have to be removed for proper disposal rather than accumulate. This keeps a hobbyist's yard from turning into either a residential junkyard or an unlicensed repair shop. 504, which permits up to five employees but comes with its own site and setback standards.