Benton County, AR Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

6 of the Planning and Development Regulations governs home-based businesses in Benton County's unincorporated area. A Home and Rural Family Occupation qualifies for exempt, by-right status only if it meets a list of criteria: it operates entirely within the dwelling or an accessory building using no more than 25% of the gross floor area, is run primarily by the resident owner, does not require upgrading residential building or septic standards to commercial standards, causes no noise, glare, odor, or traffic impact on neighbors, and carries no more than one small business sign.

Within that framework, the regulations give worked examples rather than leaving the line to guesswork. The exempt-use list explicitly names 'child care of no more than five children' alongside independent-consultant sales, home offices, one-chair beauty salons, and apparel alterations. The non-exempt list is equally explicit: it names 'commercial child care facilities' among uses that lose exempt status, alongside bed and breakfasts, kennels, and towing services. Crossing the five-child line, or requiring a septic or building-code upgrade to commercial standards, pushes the operation out of the exempt category and into the threshold for site plan review under the county's separate site plan review procedure.

A provider planning to serve six or more children in the unincorporated county should expect to file for that review rather than rely on the home-occupation exemption. The regulations do not set a separate licensing fee schedule for exempt home occupations; the trigger is purely the five-child ceiling and the other listed criteria, all administered by the Benton County Planning Board.