Royal Oak Township, MI: Auto Repair on Residential Property (2026)

Section 32-622 of the zoning chapter lists 14 uses that are strictly prohibited as home occupations unless otherwise permitted subject to special approval. Two reach car work directly: repair shops and service establishments (item 10) and vehicle and engine repair businesses (item 14). Vehicle or trailer rental (item 13), snow plowing and removal businesses (item 12) and landscape installation and maintenance businesses (item 6) sit on the same list, which the code calls a partial listing. A home occupation that is not on the list must still meet every standard in the section.

Those standards decide whether any customer-facing work at a home passes. The building official issues a permit before the occupation starts. The occupation must be clearly incidental to the use of the dwelling as a residence, only current residents of the dwelling unit can engage in it, and outdoor display or outdoor storage of materials, goods, supplies or equipment is strictly prohibited. Traffic and parking can rise by no more than one additional vehicle at a time, no more than ten customers or clients can come to the dwelling in any 24-hour period, and parking must be off the street and other than in the required front yard. Signs are limited to one nonilluminated nameplate of not more than one square foot. Subsection (k) bars noise, dust, vibration, smell, smoke, glare, electrical interference, fire hazard or other nuisance to any greater extent than would normally be generated in a similarly zoned residential district.

Repairing your own vehicle is a separate question under § 8-80(b) of the environment chapter. No repairing, redesigning, modifying or dismantling work is allowed on any vehicle or trailer on a public right-of-way, street or public property, or on any property, except inside a fully enclosed building. If the premises has no fully enclosed building, the work can be done on the premises for a period not to exceed one week, and not at all where it would constitute a nuisance or annoyance to adjacent property owners or occupants. Occasional minor repair work needed to keep a vehicle in normal operating condition is allowed if it can be completed within a twenty-four-hour period.