Taunton, MA Home Business: Customer Traffic Restrictions (2026)

Section 440-502(B) of the Taunton Code creates a narrow path for accessory business use in a residential structure, available in every zoning district for a $25 application fee, but limited to professional offices and storage of materials for other businesses; the primary use of the building must stay residential. Item (4) of that subsection is unambiguous: the general public, meaning customers and clients, shall not be invited to, come to, or frequent the location to benefit from or use the business use. There's no square-footage exception or appointment-only carve-out in the text, so a home-based hair salon, tutoring practice, retail shop or any other operation that depends on clients physically visiting doesn't qualify for this accessory-use pathway at all, no matter how small the client volume.

The same subsection layers on other limits that reinforce the no-visitor rule: no signs may be displayed at the location, no more than one vehicle may be used for the business and none over 7,500 pounds may park there, the business can't be advertised using the property's street address, and no employee may work there unless they also live at the location. Applicants register the accessory business use with, and get it approved by, the City Planner's office before starting; the entire framework assumes an operation that generates paperwork, phone calls or deliveries at most, never a stream of visiting customers.