Wicomico County, MD Business Licensing & Operations: Auto Repair on Residential Property (2026)

Wicomico County's home-based business rules single out vehicle work for different treatment depending on the business type. Subsection C bars motor vehicle/small engine repair, vehicle body work, and gasoline stations outright from Type I home-based businesses, which have no employees or customers on site, and Type II home-based businesses, which allow one non-resident employee, alongside other prohibited uses such as medical clinics, restaurants and funeral parlors. Subsection E then treats Type III home-based businesses, which may have up to two non-resident employees, differently: it lists trucking operations and small automotive repair among the uses a Type III home-based business may run, subject to the operational standards in Subsection B that already apply to every home-based business, including the 25% gross-floor-space cap, the ban on outdoor storage or display, and the noise, vibration and hazardous-materials limits.

A Type III automotive repair operation also needs Board of Appeals or Planning Commission conditions of approval fixing its hours of operation and its maximum daily and simultaneous customer counts under Subsection E(2)(a), so a shop cannot simply set up under the Type III label without that approval in hand. Vehicle body work and gasoline stations are not listed among the permitted Type III uses in Subsection E, so those two remain barred at every home-based business type regardless of employee count, unlike small automotive repair itself, which is the one vehicle-related activity Wicomico County allows as a home occupation at the Type III level.