Chapel Hill, NC Home Business: Customer Traffic Restrictions (2026)

LUMO Sec. 6.24 regulates a 'Major Home Occupation,' the category that covers a home business drawing regular client or customer visits, and its subsection on 'Vehicles and Traffic Generation' sets the specific numeric limits on that traffic. Every business-associated vehicle, whether business-owned, a fleet vehicle, an employee's car, or a visitor's car, must be parked off-street. No more than three such vehicles may be parked anywhere visible from a roadway or an adjacent lot; any additional business-associated vehicles beyond that count must be fully screened using a Type 'C' landscape buffer described in the Town of Chapel Hill Public Works Engineering Design Manual, or hidden behind a fully opaque fence or wall at least six feet tall.

Vehicles associated with the business are also limited to those allowed under a Class C driver's license, ruling out larger commercial trucks. The business as a whole is capped at a maximum of 50 trips per day to or from the property, a limit that covers deliveries, client visits, and employee arrivals and departures together. These traffic standards sit inside Sec. 6.24's broader 'Mitigation of Impacts' requirements, which also require major home occupations in the HR-L, HR-M, and HR-X subdistricts to comply with the Town Code's noise control standards, and they apply on top of the underlying permit requirement: a Zoning Compliance Permit must be obtained before a major home occupation, including any client-visit component, can legally operate.