Chattanooga, TN Home Business: Customer Traffic Restrictions (2026)

Sec. 38-43(e) treats a Home Occupation as an accessory use only when it stays clearly incidental and secondary to the primary use of the dwelling for residential purposes and does not change the residential character of the property. Subsection (9) targets traffic directly: the home occupation cannot create greater vehicular or pedestrian traffic than is average for a residential area, and the home occupation and any related activity must not create any traffic hazards or nuisances in public rights-of-way.

The traffic limit works alongside several related caps in the same subsection. Sec. 38-43(e)(3) limits staffing to only a full-time resident of the dwelling and no more than two persons employed who is not a resident, present at any one time, which caps the number of cars a business can bring to the property. Sec. 38-43(e)(5) bars receiving or delivering merchandise, goods or equipment except by passenger vehicle or standard parcel and letter carriers, ruling out box trucks and freight deliveries. Sec. 38-43(e)(13) prohibits rental services where customers visit to pick up or return rented items, and Sec. 38-43(e)(14) bars dispatching services where workers report to the home, both of which are common generators of repeat customer trips.

Because the traffic standard uses the word average rather than a numeric trip count, the Land Development Office applies it case by case when a complaint is filed or a home occupation is reviewed, comparing the activity at the property to typical residential traffic on the same street.