Long Branch, NJ Home Business: Customer Traffic Restrictions (2026)

Section 345-3 defines HOME OCCUPATION as an accessory use of a service character, customarily conducted within a dwelling solely by the residents, which occupies not more than 35% of the gross floor area of the dwelling and does not change the character or any exterior evidence of such secondary use, other than a permitted identification sign, and involves no keeping of stock-in-trade. The definition specifically names dressmaker, tailor, milliner, typist and instructors in violin, piano or another individual musical instrument offering direct personal instruction or services on an individual basis as qualifying home occupations.

Long Branch caps client traffic explicitly: the code states this shall mean the accommodation of one individual at any one time on the premises, so a home-based tutor, seamstress or similar service provider may only have a single client present at once, ruling out group lessons or simultaneous appointments. A related but separate category, HOME PROFESSIONAL OFFICE, covers doctors, lawyers, architects, engineers and similar learned professions and instead caps the practice at two non-resident employees and 40% of the first floor's area, but does not carry the same one-person accommodation limit; studios for group dance, band or voice instruction, tearooms, beauty parlors and real estate offices are expressly excluded from both categories.

A one-family dwelling with a qualifying home occupation or home professional office may post one illuminated identification sign of up to three square feet per side, no taller than two feet above ground, per the sign provisions of Chapter 345. Off-street parking for a home occupation is separately required at one space per 150 square feet of the space used for the occupation.