Apple Valley, CA Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Section 9.29.110 implements state day care and residential-care law and defines a Family Day Care Home as a home providing care to children for less than twenty-four hours a day while parents or guardians are away, split into a small category, eight or fewer children, and a large category, nine to fourteen children, each excluding children over ten who live at the home. Subsection C.1 states that the use of any home licensed for such use by the State of California as a small family day care home shall be considered a residential use of property, meaning it needs no Conditional Use Permit, Special Use Permit or Development Permit beyond the State license itself.

Table 9.28.030-A in the Residential Districts chapter separately lists large family day care homes, nine to fourteen children, as a permitted, P, use in the R-VLD, R-A, R-LD, R-E, R-E¾, R-EQ, R-SF, R-M and PRD districts, the same by-right treatment given to small homes. Only child day care centers serving fifteen or more children require extra review: Section 9.36.130 routes those larger, non-residential-scale operations through a Special Use Permit process in Commercial and Office districts, with a 75-square-foot-per-child outdoor play area and an 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. limit on outdoor activity, standards that do not apply to a small or large home-based day care.