Bristol, PA Home Business: Customer Traffic Restrictions (2026)

Bristol Borough Code § 27-320, Use 7J governs the no-impact home-based business, and its definition is the traffic rule. The business must involve no customer, client or patient traffic, whether vehicular or pedestrian, pickup, delivery or removal functions to or from the premises, in excess of those normally associated with residential use. Use 7J prints no daily visit count. The test is whether the activity adds traffic beyond what an ordinary household produces.

Several companion standards in Use 7J back that test up. There shall be no display or sale of retail goods and no stockpiling or inventory of a substantial nature. There shall be no outside appearance of a business use including, but not limited to, parking, signs or lights. No home business can be located in an area needed to meet the off-street parking requirements of the principal residence, so customers cannot be accommodated by giving up the household's own spaces. The business must employ no employees other than family members residing in the dwelling, and it must be conducted only within the dwelling, occupying no more than 25% of the habitable floor area of the principal residential structure.

A business that needs real client flow belongs under Use 7G, the Home Occupation. That use allows the owner-inhabitants plus not more than one additional employee, requires adequate off-street parking in accordance with § 27-701, Subsection 1A, and Table 27-7-A, and bars trucks or similar vehicles for pickup or delivery. Use 7G also limits the sign to one on-premises sign of 200 square inches. In Bristol Borough, Borough Council wrote these two uses side by side, so the choice between them turns on how many people come and go.