Mobile, AL Home Business: Customer Traffic Restrictions (2026)

Sec. 64-4-2 of Mobile's Unified Development Code governs home occupations citywide, letting residents run a business from home only if it stays subordinate to the residential use. Subsection A requires the home occupation to be incidental to the residence, meaning the dwelling must still function primarily as a home, not a storefront. Subsection B lays out the operating conditions: nothing may be sold from the dwelling unless it is actually produced inside the home by the people who live there; the business cannot occupy more than 25 percent of the dwelling's floor area; only occupants of the home may perform the services, so no outside employees are permitted on site; and, most directly limiting customer traffic, no more than one customer visit is allowed on the property at any time, whether that visit is a client meeting, a pickup, or a delivery to the operator.

The section also lets a home business park one standard-sized commercial vehicle (car, van, or pickup) and one trailer up to 26 feet long overnight, and both may carry business advertising or be used for equipment storage, but no freestanding storage building or garage may be added just to support the home occupation. Because the section sits in article 4, use-specific standards, of chapter 64, it applies on top of whatever the underlying zoning district otherwise allows for the property, and it applies the same way in every residential and mixed-use district where a home occupation is permitted.