Meriden, CT Business Licensing & Operations: Auto Repair on Residential Property (2026)

Even though Meriden lets a family run a limited home occupation from a residence with Zoning Board of Appeals approval under § 213-18B(2)(e), that same subsection carves out a list of uses the code will never recognize as a qualifying home occupation regardless of scale or hours: animal hospitals, kennels, barbershops, beauty parlors, clinics or hospitals, dancing schools, mortuaries, auto repair shops, restaurants, tourist homes, rooming houses, boardinghouses, 'and uses similar to those listed above.' Auto repair shops sit squarely on that list, so a resident cannot obtain ZBA approval to operate vehicle repair, bodywork or similar service work out of a house, garage or driveway in the R-1 Single-Family District or in the R-2, R-3, S-R and other residential districts that cross-reference this same subsection (for example § 213-19B(2)(f) in R-2).

Because the exclusion is written into the definition of 'home occupation' itself rather than as a condition that could be varied, no special exception, variance or site plan can cure it; the only path to a legal auto repair use is locating the business in a commercial or industrial district where it is separately listed in the § 213-12 use schedule. Operating one from a residence is treated the same as any other unpermitted zoning use, not merely as a home occupation that exceeded its conditions.