Wilmington, NC Home Business: Customer Traffic Restrictions (2026)

City Code Section 18-279(e) sets the baseline: a home occupation may not generate traffic in greater volume than would normally be expected in a residential neighborhood, and any parking the business creates must be met off the street and outside any required yard. Only passenger-type vehicles, pickup trucks, and step-type vans qualify for use in the occupation, and the business cannot eliminate the dwelling's required off-street parking. Subsection (e) caps patron vehicles at two, whether parked on-site or off-site, at any given time. Subsection (h) adds a hard daily cap: except for bed and breakfast uses, a home occupation is limited to no more than five patrons per day.

These traffic and parking limits sit alongside the occupation's other conditions in Section 18-279, including the one-employee-outside-the-family rule and the 400-square-foot floor area cap, and they apply citywide wherever a home occupation is permitted as an accessory use to a dwelling. The Planning, Development & Transportation Department reviews home occupation compliance, and code enforcement responds to complaints about patron traffic or parking that exceeds these thresholds. Bed and breakfast establishments, a distinct home occupation category under subsection (k), are exempt from the five-patron cap because guest stays are lodging, not daily patron visits, but they carry their own parking and guest-room limits.