Stonecrest, GA Business Licensing & Operations: Auto Repair on Residential Property (2026)

Stonecrest's home occupation rules, codified at Zoning Ordinance § 4.2.31, split home businesses into Type I (no customer contact, approved administratively by the director of planning and zoning) and Type II (customer contact allowed, requiring a special land use permit from the city council). Neither track opens the door to automobile repair: subsection C, which applies to every home occupation regardless of type, states outright that a home occupation shall not include the use of a dwelling unit for operating any automobile repair establishment or car wash.

The same subsection layers on general limits that make the point doubly clear: no exterior evidence of the business is allowed, no noise, dust, vibration, odor, smoke, glare or electrical interference may be detectable beyond the dwelling, the activity must occur entirely inside the unit using only residents as employees, and floor area is capped at 25 percent of the home or 500 square feet, whichever is smaller. Only one business vehicle per home occupation is permitted. Mobile or dispatch-only businesses get a narrow exception: an operator may run a dispatch service from home if the business vehicle complies with section 6.1.3 and is limited to one vehicle, but that exception covers dispatching, not performing repair work at the residence.

Up to two residents of the same dwelling may run separate home occupations, and the director of planning weighs parking impact and hours of operation before approving a Type I application. Because the repair ban sits inside the mandatory 'C' standards rather than the discretionary SLUP criteria, no variance path or special land use permit can override it.