Roswell, GA Home Business: Customer Traffic Restrictions (2026)

Roswell defines a home occupation as an occupation providing a service or product conducted wholly within a residential dwelling (UDC § 9.7.11(A)). No more than two home occupations may operate from the same dwelling, and each must stay clearly incidental and secondary to the home's residential use (§ 9.7.11(B)(1)). The business is capped at 750 square feet of floor area or 25% of the dwelling's gross floor area, whichever is smaller (§ 9.7.11(B)(2)), and it cannot alter the dwelling's exterior residential appearance (§ 9.7.11(B)(3)). Customer and vehicle traffic gets its own set of limits.

Vehicles kept on site for the business must belong to residents and be primarily passenger vehicles; incoming customer vehicles must park off-street in the driveway or other permitted on-site parking, and trucking goods in or out is prohibited outright (§ 9.7.11(B)(4)). Separately, no home occupation may generate traffic, sound, smell, vibration, light or dust that is offensive or creates a nuisance (§ 9.7.11(B)(5)(a)), which the City applies alongside the direct visitation cap: client visits are limited to 5 per week (§ 9.7.11(B)(6)(a)). Two narrow carve-outs exist for public goals in education and childcare: tutoring or instruction in subjects like music, dance, fitness or arts and crafts, capped at 2 students in the home at a time, and a licensed family day care home, which is regulated separately (§ 9.7.11(B)(6)(a)(i)-(ii)).

Signs advertising the home occupation are banned outright (§ 9.7.11(B)(7)). Staffing is limited to the dwelling's occupants plus one additional employee, consultant, agent or subcontractor, and any required state, county or City occupational license or business registration must be on file with the City before a business registration issues (§ 9.7.11(B)(8)).