McLean County, IL Business Licensing & Operations: Auto Repair on Residential Property (2026)

R(1): subsection (j) approves categories like appliance and electronics repair, tailoring, and professional offices for a home setting, while subsection (k) excludes categories in any event, meaning no variance, waiver or scale exception softens the ban within this subsection. Automobile and other motor vehicle repair services is the sixth item on that exclusion list, grouped with grocery sales, secondhand retail, equipment rental, physician and dental clinics, and veterinary clinics, uses the county treats as inherently too intensive, noisy or traffic-heavy for a residential home occupation regardless of how the operator structures it.

R(1)(g), which bars equipment creating noise, vibration, smoke, odor or fumes, and the outdoor-storage ban in subsection (f), which would keep vehicles, parts and tools from sitting in a driveway or yard. A resident who wants to run a repair shop must instead locate it in a district where the § 350-42 use table allows automotive repair as a principal or special use, not as a home occupation. Chapter 350 covers only the unincorporated county under § 350-4; repair shops inside Bloomington or Normal are licensed and zoned under those cities' own codes.