Macon County, IL Home Business: Customer Traffic Restrictions (2026)

008 defines HOME OCCUPATION as any occupation run by a member of the immediate family residing on the premises, not involving a wholesale, retail or manufacturing business, and conditions that status on eight requirements. Clause (6) is the traffic standard: no traffic may be generated by the home occupation in greater volumes than would normally be expected in a residential neighborhood, and any parking the occupation creates has to be met off the street and outside a required front yard. That traffic cap works alongside the other clauses: only immediate family members residing on the premises may work in the business, no exterior display may reveal the home is used for anything but a dwelling, products must be produced on the premises, no more than 25% of the dwelling's floor area may be used, and no accessory building may house the occupation.

A business drawing regular customer or delivery traffic beyond ordinary residential levels falls outside the zoning definition altogether and is not a permitted home occupation. Because HOME OCCUPATION is listed as a permitted use in the county's residential and A1 agricultural districts, an operation that stays within the traffic and parking limits does not need a special use permit, but one that exceeds them is a use the zoning ordinance does not recognize and is therefore unauthorized in that district.