Benton County, AR Business Licensing & Operations: Auto Repair on Residential Property (2026)

6 of the Planning and Development Regulations sorts home-based businesses in the unincorporated county into exempt and non-exempt categories, and it treats vehicle-repair uses differently depending on how the operation is described. On rural lots of two acres or more, the regulations list 'small repair or welding shop' among the uses that can qualify as an exempt Home and Rural Family Occupation, alongside cabinet making, septic tank repair services, and other farm-related commercial services. To keep that exempt status, the operation still has to satisfy the section's general criteria: it must stay within 25% of the gross floor area of the home or an accessory building, be run primarily by the resident owner, avoid noise, glare, or traffic impacts on neighbors, and not require upgrading the property's building code or septic system from residential to commercial standards.

The regulations then draw a bright line the small-shop exemption cannot cross. The non-exempt list separately and specifically names 'towing services; auto wreckers; junkyards' as uses that are never treated as exempt home occupations, regardless of lot size or acreage, because they fall outside what the section considers a small, incidental repair operation. A rural repair shop that starts storing wrecked or junked vehicles for salvage, or that operates as a towing dispatch, crosses from an exempt small repair shop into a use that must go through the county's commercial site plan review process under Chapter VI instead of qualifying under the home-occupation exemption.