Ada County, ID Home Business: Customer Traffic Restrictions (2026)

Ada County Code Section 8-4-33 governs home occupations across unincorporated Ada County outside the planned-community articles. Subsection C, 'Standards For Small Home Occupations,' needs only a zoning certificate: the resident owner runs the business alone, no non-resident employees are allowed, and Subsection C(4) is explicit that no client, customer, and/or student visits are allowed at all, with pick-ups and deliveries capped at two per day. Anyone who wants foot traffic must instead qualify under Subsection D, 'Standards For Large Home Occupations,' which requires administrative approval from the Director rather than a simple certificate.

m. on weekends. Group instruction is capped at five students per session and two classes per day. The property must provide one paved off-street parking space for the employee plus up to three more for clients, built to the Section 8-3-10 parking standard, and overnight parking of client or employee vehicles is banned outright. Subsection D(8) sets a hard ceiling of twenty additional vehicle trips per day generated by the home occupation, and D(9) bars client-serving large home occupations on private roads unless the road serves no other property or an existing easement agreement authorizes the nonresidential use. Certain uses, including vehicle repair, commercial kennels, and contractor's yards, cannot become home occupations at either tier regardless of visitor volume.