Lodi, CA Business Licensing & Operations: Auto Repair on Residential Property (2026)

060, the home occupations chapter of the Lodi Development Code, which lists activities the director cannot approve no matter how a resident frames the request. Subsection (B)(2)(c) names automotive and other vehicle repair and service, whether body work or mechanical work, painting, storage or upholstery, and extends the ban to the repair, reconditioning, servicing or manufacture of any internal combustion or diesel engine or of any motor vehicle, including automobiles, boats, motorcycles or trucks. A second clause, (B)(2)(i), closes an obvious workaround: a resident cannot park or dispatch from the site any vehicle used with an automobile wrecking or towing service, or with a taxi or similar delivery service, whether the vehicle is based there or elsewhere.

120(G)(1) bars outdoor vehicle repair activity of any kind in a residential zone. The operating standards in subsection (C) reinforce the point for any home business that is allowed: subsection (C)(10) caps the vehicles a resident can keep on site to residents' own passenger vehicles plus, at most, one pickup truck, van or similar vehicle up to one and one-half tons capacity, and forbids using commercial vehicles to move materials to or from the home in a manner different from normal residential deliveries. Because a home occupation first requires a city business license under subsection (A), the practical effect is that Lodi's code enforcement division and the Community Development Department can deny or revoke that license the moment an application or a complaint reveals vehicle repair work, rather than treating it as a use that merely needs a conditional permit.