Alpharetta, GA Home Business: Customer Traffic Restrictions (2026)

The City of Alpharetta regulates client and visitor traffic to home-based businesses through UDC Section 2.3.3.A, the Home Occupations standards. A home occupation is defined as 'an occupation, profession or trade customarily carried on by an occupant in a dwelling unit as a secondary use which is clearly incidental to the dwelling unit for residential purposes,' and subsection 6 sets a hard numeric cap: 'a home occupation may not generate more than six non-residential trips per day to the home, excluding occupant trips.' That means deliveries, clients, customers and any other non-resident visitors connected to the business are counted together against the six-trip ceiling, while trips made by the resident who runs the business do not count toward the limit.

The trip cap works alongside the Code's other home occupation conditions, including a ban on business signage beyond one small unlighted sign, a restriction on business vehicles parked on site, and a prohibition on outside employees, all aimed at keeping the home occupation clearly secondary to the residential use of the property. Because the cap is a flat daily number rather than a percentage of floor area or a time-of-day restriction, it applies the same way to every home occupation in every residential zoning district in the city, from a home bakery to a tutoring business to a small consulting practice.