Sherman, TX Business Licensing & Operations: Auto Repair on Residential Property (2026)

The home occupation rules in the City of Sherman, Texas sit in note [2] to the use chart in Sherman Code of Ordinances § 14.10.001, adopted by the Sherman City Council in Grayson County. The chart allows a home occupation only as an accessory use to a detached single-family dwelling, and subsection (K) then names the businesses that cannot qualify. The list includes auto repairing or painting, along with carpenter shops, electrical shops, plumber shops, heating and air conditioning shops, radio shops, furniture repairing and sign painting. Because auto repairing is named outright, a resident cannot treat a car repair side business as a permitted home occupation.

The other conditions in the same note close off the usual workarounds. Subsection (C) requires the home occupation to be conducted wholly within the main building and not in any accessory building, so a detached shop or garage building is out, and the floor area used cannot exceed 20 percent of the main building, garages included. Subsection (E) bans exterior storage of materials, goods, supplies, vehicles or equipment, which rules out customer cars waiting in the yard or driveway. Subsection (B) allows no external evidence of the business at any lot line, including signs, smoke, dust, noise, fumes, glare or vibration, and subsection (I) bars hazardous materials stored for business purposes. Subsection (D) caps outside employees at one, and subsection (F) caps patrons at four on the premises at one time.

Two other parts of the City of Sherman code reach car work at a residence. Under § 8.07.003(b)(8)(A), repairing, rebuilding, modifying or testing any motor vehicle within a residential district, or within 500 feet of any residence, in a way that causes a noise disturbance is prohibited, and the activity is a noise disturbance per se between 9:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. Under § 8.08.006(c), no inoperative or unlicensed motor vehicle may be parked, kept or stored on any premises, no vehicle may sit in a state of major disassembly, and painting vehicles is prohibited unless done inside an approved spray booth. Section 8.08.003(a) does allow a major overhaul, including bodywork, when it is performed inside a structure designed and approved for that purpose.