Home Business in Waco, TX (2026)
4 verified home business rules for Waco, Texas, sourced directly from the municipal code and official government pages.
Verified from official government sources
Zoning & Home Occupation Permits
Waco allows a home occupation in any residential district only as a secondary use invisible from the street, one that alters nothing about the house's residential look, keeps deliveries to passenger vehicles or step-up vans, and stays within every other building and state permitting code, per Sec. 28-928 of the zoning ordinance.
Waco Home Occupation Zoning Operating Standards
Some RestrictionsWaco, Tex., Code of Ordinances § 28-928(1), (3), (4), (6), (9), (10)
Home occupations are permitted in residential districts, provided that: (1)The occupation shall be conducted as a secondary use to the residential dwelling and in a manner in which none of its activities are visible from a street.... (3)No alteration of any kind shall be made to the principal building which changes its residential character as a dwelling unit.(4)No open storage shall be allowed...
Signage Rules
Waco generally prohibits exterior signage for home-based businesses in residential areas. The home must maintain its residential appearance with no visible commercial indicators.
Waco Home Business Signage Rules
Light RestrictionsTex. Transp. Code Sec. 394.0201, 394.001 (Off-Premise Sign Licensing on Rural Roads; On-Premise Sign Definition)
Sec. 394.0201. ERECTING OFF-PREMISE SIGN WITHOUT LICENSE; OFFENSE. (a) A person commits an offense if the person wilfully erects or maintains an off-premise sign on a rural road without a license under this subchapter. (b) An offense under this section is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than $500 or more than $1,000. Each day of the proscribed conduct is a separate offense. (c) A...
Customer Traffic Restrictions
A Waco home business can't host more patrons or employees at once than the International Residential Code's occupancy limit for the dwelling allows, and it can't push traffic more than 50 percent above a typical home's 9.57 daily trips, the two numeric caps set in Sec. 28-928(2) and (8) of the zoning code.
Waco Home Occupation Patron and Traffic Caps
Some RestrictionsWaco, Tex., Code of Ordinances § 28-928(2), (8)
(2)The home occupation may not at any time be operated by a total number of the employees or patrons in excess of the occupancy limit as permitted by the International Residential Code for a residential dwelling unit as adopted in section 6-26, article II, chapter 6 of the code of ordinances.... (8)The home occupation shall be conducted in such a manner that it does not generate on-street parki...
Home Daycare
Waco's zoning code treats a small home daycare, a 'registered family home' caring for up to six children (12 counting the caretaker's own and after-school siblings), as a home occupation rather than a regulated 'child care facility.' That distinction, drawn in the Chapter 28 definitions section, exempts qualifying home daycares from the special-use permit, arterial-frontage, and driveway-spacing rules larger child care facilities must meet.
Waco Registered Family Home Daycare Zoning Rules
Some RestrictionsWaco, Tex., Code of Ordinances § 28-1 (definition of "Registered family home")
Registered family home shall mean a facility that regularly provides care in the caretaker's own residence for not more than six children under 14 years of age, excluding the caretaker's children, and that provides care after school hours for not more than six additional elementary school siblings of the other children given care, but the total number of children, including the caretaker's own,...