Salem, OR Business Licensing & Operations: Auto Repair on Residential Property (2026)

UDC Sec. 125(b) defines home occupations as any business conducted by a resident inside a dwelling or its accessory structure that stays clearly subordinate to the home's residential character and gives no outward appearance of a business. Subsection (3)(A) carves automotive repair, body work, painting, and other motor vehicle services out of that definition entirely, folding them instead into the separate 'motor vehicle services' use classification defined at Sec. 055(b), alongside auto body shops, automotive paint shops, and vehicle engine, transmission and muffler repair shops.

That reclassification matters because the residential zone use tables list 'Motor vehicle services' as a prohibited (N) use in every residential zone this code was checked against, including RA (Residential Agriculture, Table 510-1), RS (Single Family Residential, Table 511-1), RM-I, RM-II, and RM-III (Multiple Family Residential, Tables 513-1, 514-1, and 515-1), and even in the EFU (Exclusive Farm Use) zone, Table 500-1. Because automotive repair is excluded from the home-occupation category and the underlying use is prohibited in every residential zone, a resident cannot obtain a home-occupation approval, a conditional use permit, or any other UDC approval to legally repair, paint, or perform body work on vehicles for customers at a residence.

Simple non-commercial maintenance of a resident's own household vehicles isn't a 'use' under the UDC and isn't affected; the restriction targets repair conducted as a business for other people's vehicles. A resident who wants to operate a repair business must instead locate it in a zone where 'motor vehicle services' is a permitted or conditional use, such as Salem's commercial or industrial zones.