Royal Oak, MI Home Business: Customer Traffic Restrictions (2026)

Home occupations across every residential zone in Royal Oak are governed by City Code Chapter 770, Article IV, § 770-25, which lists eleven standards a home-based business must satisfy. Subsection E is the traffic rule: it permits no vehicular traffic for the home occupation other than domestic trips and routine deliveries normally expected for a single dwelling in a residential area. In practice that forecloses an at-home consulting practice, salon, tutoring service or retail operation that draws a stream of visiting customers, because any traffic beyond the household's own comings and goings and ordinary package deliveries exceeds what the section allows.

The traffic cap works together with the section's other limits: the business must be clearly incidental to residential use and occupy no more than 10% of the dwelling's floor area (§ 770-25A), must be carried on wholly within the enclosed dwelling with no exterior operations or signage (§ 770-25F), and cannot require any additional off-street parking or loading space (§ 770-25K). Only a resident of the dwelling may work in the business (§ 770-25D). The City's Community Development Department and Zoning Administrator treat customer traffic at a home occupation as a zoning compliance matter, triggered when a neighbor complaint about parked cars or repeated visitors reaches the department.