Medford, MA Home Business: Customer Traffic Restrictions (2026)

Section 94-3.4.1 governs home occupations that operate without any permit, and item 7 draws a hard line: the use 'does not produce any customer or client trips to the location and has no nonresident employees.' That means an as-of-right home business in Medford, such as bookkeeping or consulting done entirely by phone or online, cannot have clients come to the house at all, not even occasionally. Anyone whose business model depends on customers visiting, such as a tutor, hairstylist or small retail seller, must instead apply to the board of appeals for a special permit under § 94-3.4.2.

Item 4 of that section lets the board grant the permit subject to conditions including restriction of hours of operation, maximum floor area, off-street parking, and maximum number of daily customer or other vehicle trips, so the board sets the actual trip cap case by case rather than the ordinance fixing one citywide number. Because the special permit is tied to the specific applicant and property, § 94-3.4.2.5 provides that it terminates when the property is sold or the lease ends, so a buyer inheriting a home business with customer traffic must reapply.