St. Tammany Parish, LA: Auto Repair on Residential Property (2026)

The parish's Unified Development Code allows a home office or home occupation as an accessory use in residential districts under Sec. 600-6.2(4), but subsection (l) carves out a list of activities that cannot operate as a home occupation no matter how small the operation is. Engine repairs, defined to include, but not limited to, auto and auto body repairs, boat repairs and equipment repairs, sit on that list in subsection (l)(iii) alongside bulk storage or manufacturing of alcohol, flammable liquids, chemical agents, firearms and fireworks, and massage parlors, tattoo parlors, fortunetellers and faith healers.

The ban applies regardless of the home occupation's other limits: it is not a matter of staying under the 600-square-foot/15-percent size cap in subsection (b) or keeping to 3 or fewer vehicles under subsection (d). An auto repair operation is excluded outright, so a resident working on cars for pay at a residence in unincorporated St. Tammany Parish is operating outside the UDC's accessory-use standards even if the work happens entirely inside a garage. Anyone wanting to run an auto repair business has to locate it in a zoning district that permits the use as a principal use, such as the I-1 Light Industrial and Warehouse District, which lists 'Auto repair and service' among its permitted uses subject to development plan review by the Department of Planning and Development.