Surprise, AZ Business Licensing & Operations: Auto Repair on Residential Property (2026)

23(C) singles out a list of business types the city has found have a pronounced tendency, once started, to rapidly increase beyond the limits permitted for home occupations and thereby impair the use and value of a residentially zoned area for residential purposes. Item 4 on that list bars motor vehicle repair or paint shops, storage, restoration or conversion, engine repair or similar uses from operating as a home occupation anywhere in a residential zoning district. The subsection carves out a single, narrow exception: the ban does not apply to work performed on a vehicle personally owned by the resident.

That means a homeowner can still do their own wrenching in a home garage, but cannot advertise, accept customer vehicles, or charge for repair, paint, restoration, conversion, or engine work as a business. The same subsection lists other uses treated the same way, including animal clinics and kennels, dance and gymnastic instruction, medical and dental offices, machine shops and furniture refinishing, restaurants, contractor yards, and banks or payday lenders, underscoring that the vehicle-repair ban sits within a broader policy against home businesses whose scale, noise, traffic, or storage needs are incompatible with a residential street.

Because the prohibited-use list in Sec. 23(C) is separate from the general home-occupation standards in subsection A, a would-be home-based mechanic cannot cure the problem by shrinking the business to fit the fifty percent floor-area cap or the two-employee limit; the use itself is disqualified regardless of size.