Oyster Bay, NY Home Business: Customer Traffic Restrictions (2026)

Town Code § 246-5.5.14.3.5 caps visitor traffic for any home business approved under § 246-5.5.14.3: 'The maximum number of visits by patients, students, clients or other visitors shall be two per hour.' This sits alongside the section's other traffic-related conditions: at least two additional off-street parking spaces beyond what the residence itself requires, buffered from neighboring properties and streets with fencing or landscaping under § 246-5.5.14.3.6, and a bar on any exterior display or evidence of the business beyond permitted signage under § 246-5.5.14.3.3. The two-visit-per-hour cap reflects the Town Board's stated purpose in § 246-5.5.14.1: allowing residents (including licensed professionals such as physicians, therapists, dentists, lawyers, accountants, engineers and architects) to work from home while preventing the traffic, noise and parking impacts that an unrestricted home-based practice would create in a residential neighborhood.

A plain home office under § 246-5.5.14.2, by contrast, is not entitled to any client visits at all; § 246-5.5.14.2.4 requires that a by-right home office 'involves no business-related visits by patients, students, clients or others.' Exceeding the two-per-hour cap, or accepting visits under an as-of-right home office classification, converts the use into an unpermitted home business subject to zoning enforcement.