San Rafael, CA Home Business: Customer Traffic Restrictions (2026)

220 sets the performance standards a home occupation must meet to operate without special permission in any district that allows single-family, duplex or multi-family residential use. 5 targets the traffic and parking impact directly: only one client may be on-site at a time, and appointments must be scheduled at reasonable intervals so clients are not left waiting in the neighborhood, which the code frames as necessary to keep the use low-intensity. The home occupation may increase vehicular traffic and parking demand by no more than one additional vehicle at a time.

One business vehicle may be kept on-site in a designated parking area, but it cannot exceed two and one-half gross tons unladen weight, and its business license number must be listed on the home occupation's certificate of use and occupancy permit. 220's standards: the business must be run solely by resident occupants (except a cottage food operation may add one full-time-equivalent employee), can use no more than 25% of the home's gross floor area, cannot use an accessory structure or a recreational vehicle or garage, and cannot generate outside storage, noise, dust, smell or other nuisance beyond what an ordinary home experiences.

Subsection F separately bans certain business types outright as home occupations, including commercial animal boarding or training, auto repair or sales, dental or medical offices, taxi or vehicle-tow dispatch, and any cannabis-related business.