Harlingen, TX Home Business: Customer Traffic Restrictions (2026)

Section 111-330 defines a home occupation by what it may not do, and the conditions stack: failing any one of them takes the activity outside the definition, so it is no longer a permitted accessory use of the house.

The first condition is about who runs it. The occupation must be customarily carried on in the home by a member of the occupant's family, so the operator lives at the address; a business run from a house by someone who lives elsewhere does not qualify. The second is about staff: without the employment of additional persons. That rules out an assistant reporting to the house, and it is also what keeps employee vehicles from adding to the trips the driveway and street have to absorb.

The third and fourth conditions are the ones that shape customer traffic directly. No on-premises sign may advertise the occupation, so there is nothing at the curb telling passing drivers to stop, and no goods may be offered for sale on the premises. Together they cut out walk-in retail: a Harlingen home occupation can take orders, but it is not set up as a place customers come to buy from a counter.

The closing clause is the catch-all. The occupation must not create obnoxious noise or other obnoxious conditions to abutting residential property, and the code names the conditions it has in mind: odor, increased traffic congestion, light and smoke. Two things follow. The standard is qualitative rather than a visit count, so there is no number of clients per day written into § 111-330. And the reference point is abutting residential property, meaning the effect is judged at the neighboring homes rather than across the neighborhood as a whole.

A day care run as a home occupation is capped at six children or adults.