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

Smyrna's home occupation rule is built to keep customers and clients away from residential streets. Sec. 505.5 allows only vehicles used primarily as passenger vehicles in connection with the home occupation and says no parking of customer vehicles shall be permitted. Sec. 505.6 goes further: no use shall involve general public contact on the property other than by telephone or internet. In practice, in the City of Smyrna, Georgia, a home business runs by phone, email and online orders, and clients do not come to the door.

Several neighboring conditions close the remaining traffic gaps. Sec. 505.9 says no commodity shall be stocked or sold on the premises, which removes walk-in retail. Sec. 505.10 requires the use to be conducted entirely within the dwelling unit and limits employment to persons living in the dwelling unit, so no outside staff arrive each day. Sec. 505.11 states there shall be no group instruction, assembly or activity, which rules out classes, lessons, meetings and similar gatherings.

The definition in Sec. 402.30 reinforces the point. It covers salesmen, manufacturer's agents, insurance agents or representatives and contractors only when they carry no inventory for sale or warehousing beyond hand-carried samples, and only when the residence is not used as a place where prospective clients would call in the normal course of business.

The fast-track certificate under Sec. 505.18 is stricter still. To get it from the occupation tax certificate office, without appearing before the mayor and council, the applicant must certify that there will not be any on-site retail sales, any inventory on the premises, any outside storage of business related items, any signs or advertisement of any kind at the location, or any traffic generated by the business of any kind, with vehicles or people given as the examples. The certificate holder must be the only person working from the location. A violation of the stated conditions makes the certificate null and void.

The certificate can also be revoked under Sec. 505.15 for a nuisance, a violation of any law or ordinance other than minor traffic offenses, a false statement, or unpaid fees and taxes.