Asheville, NC Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Section 7-2-5 defines a child day care home as a facility run by an individual or family that provides supervision or care on a regular basis in that person's or family's own home, for children who are not related by blood or marriage to, and are not the legal wards or foster children of, the supervising adult; the same definition caps maximum enrollment at eight children. Because the use sits on the city's Table of Permitted Uses (Section 7-8-1(d)) as a "use by right, subject to special requirements," an operator does not need a rezoning or conditional-use hearing, but must clear the approval procedure in Section 7-5-4 and meet every standard in Section 7-16-1(c)(16).

Those standards: the home daycare is allowed in all districts listed on the use table; enrollment cannot exceed eight children; any outdoor play space must be fenced or otherwise fully enclosed and cannot include driveways, parking areas, or land otherwise unsuited for children's play, and it may not sit within a required setback or bufferyard; client drop-off and pick-up cannot obstruct traffic flow on the adjacent public street; and parking for the use cannot be located in the front yard. Asheville draws a hard line between this small-scale home daycare and the larger "child day care centers" category, a separate use with its own, more elaborate standards, including a 30-child cap and specific play-space and square-footage limits when located in the Urban Residential district.

A homeowner planning a home daycare should confirm the property's zoning district against the Table of Permitted Uses before applying, since the special-requirements review checks compliance with every listed condition before the city issues zoning approval.