Home Business in Montgomery, AL (2026)
3 verified home business rules for Montgomery, Alabama, sourced directly from the municipal code and official government pages.
Verified from official government sources
Zoning & Home Occupation Permits
Montgomery, Alabama allows a home occupation in any dwelling, but only as a use conducted entirely inside the home, run solely by the resident, using no more than 25 percent of the total floor area. The zoning ordinance lists home occupations as a permitted use in every district under Article VII.
Montgomery, AL Home Occupation Zoning Rules
Some RestrictionsMontgomery Zoning Ordinance (City Code App. C), Art. VI, Sec. 11 (Definitions)
Home occupation. A use conducted entirely within a dwelling and carried on solely by the inhabitant thereof, using no more than 25 percent of total floor area, and which use is clearly incidental and secondary to the use of the dwelling purposes, and does not change the character thereof... Examples of home occupations are: dressmaking, the taking of boarders and the leasing or renting of rooms...
Signage Rules
Montgomery, Alabama caps home occupation signage at one sign no larger than two square feet under the conventional zoning ordinance's definition. In the city's SmartCode transect T3 sub-urban zones, home occupations may carry no sign at all.
Montgomery, AL Home Business Sign Limits
Significant RestrictionsMontgomery Zoning Ordinance (City Code App. C), Art. VI, Sec. 11 (home occupation sign limit); Montgomery SmartCode Art. 5.4.8(T3)(c) (T3 sign ban)
...in which any signs advertising said home occupation are limited to one sign, not over two square feet in area, and also in which there is no public display of goods. || 5.4.8(T3) Signage Standards ... c. There shall be no signage permitted for home occupations. Commercial entities within a T3 Transect are not allowed any additional signs.
Home Daycare
Montgomery, Alabama allows a day care facility for five or fewer people of any age to operate inside a single-family dwelling under the Residential Code rather than commercial building standards, one of only five listed exceptions to the code's normal dwelling-only scope.
Montgomery, Alabama Home Daycare Building Rules
Some RestrictionsMontgomery City Code § 5-71(e), Subsection R101.2 (IRC 2024, as amended)
R101.2 Scope... Exception: The following shall be permitted to be constructed in accordance with this code: 1. Live/work units... 2. Owner-occupied lodging houses with five or fewer guestrooms. 3. A care facility with five or fewer persons receiving custodial care within a dwelling unit. 4. A care facility with five or fewer persons receiving medical care within a dwelling unit. 5. A day care f...