McLean County, IL Business Licensing & Operations: Secondhand Dealers (2026)

The county's home occupation standards split business types into two lists. Section 350-43.R(1)(j) names occupations the county pre-approves for residential districts, art and music instruction, barber and beauty shops, professional offices, watch and electronics repair, tailoring and the like, while § 350-43.R(1)(k) names occupations permitted home occupations shall not in any event include, and secondhand merchandise retail sits fourth on that list. The exclusion is categorical: unlike the traffic and sign rules in the rest of subsection R, there is no size or scale threshold that lets a small resale operation qualify, and no variance path is written into this subsection itself.

A resident who wants to run a secondhand goods business, consignment, thrift, or used-merchandise resale, therefore cannot locate it in a home under the home occupation provisions and instead needs a commercial or appropriate mixed-use zoning district in the unincorporated county, subject to whatever use-table standards and special use process apply there under § 350-42. Because the exclusion lives inside Chapter 350's Use Standards, it binds only land in the unincorporated county under § 350-4; secondhand dealers inside Bloomington or Normal answer to those cities' own zoning and licensing codes rather than this county provision.