De Pere, WI Home Business: Customer Traffic Restrictions (2026)
Key Facts
- Trade-off
- 1 employee OR customers, not both
- Applies to
- Type B home occupations only
- Nonresident employee
- Includes partners and co-owners
- Tutoring exception
- Up to 4 students allowed by right
- Household limit
- Only 1 Type B use per household
Summary
A Type B home occupation in De Pere can have either customers or a nonresident employee, never both. Section 14-78(8)8.b bars a nonresident employee entirely once any client, customer or student visits the site at any time, and Type B use also needs conditional-use approval before it can accept walk-in traffic at all.
8. Supplemental Regulations for Type B Home Occupations a. Type B home occupations are allowed only if reviewed and approved in accordance with the conditional use procedures of 14-123, provided that instruction, teaching or tutoring of no more than 4 students at one time is permitted as or right. ... b. One nonresident employee is allowed with a Type B home occupation if no customers come to the site at any time. Home occupations that have clients, customers or students coming to the site at any time may not have nonresident employees.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: the cited page had not changed since it was quoted.
Full Breakdown
Section 14-78(8)(b)2 already frames Type B as a home occupation with either one nonresident employee or customer visits, not necessarily both. b spells out the trade-off: one nonresident employee is allowed with a Type B home occupation only if no customers come to the site at any time, and any home occupation that has clients, customers or students visiting at any time may not have a nonresident employee at all. The ordinance defines nonresident employee broadly, covering an employee, business partner, co-owner or any other person affiliated with the home occupation who does not live at the site but visits as part of it.
a carves out one exception on the customer side: instruction, teaching or tutoring of no more than 4 students at a time is permitted as of right even though those students are visiting customers, but that carve-out does not lift the ban on also having a nonresident employee. b further limits the structure by prohibiting multiple Type B home occupations at one household and barring a Type A occupation from running alongside a Type B one.
Violations & Fines
A home occupation that keeps a nonresident employee while also serving on-site customers, clients or students violates Section 14-78(8)8.b and is an unlawful land use under Section 14-151(1)(a). The development services director enforces the rule under Section 14-150, the city may issue a municipal citation under Section 1-11 of the municipal code per Section 14-152(3), and each day the violation continues after notice is a separate offense under Section 14-151(2).
Frequently Asked Questions
Can my home-based business have both an employee and walk-in customers in De Pere?
Who counts as a nonresident employee under this rule?
Does tutoring my neighbor's kids count as customer traffic that blocks having an employee?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in De Pere
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Customer Traffic Restrictions in Nearby Cities
How other cities in Brown County handle customer traffic restrictions.