Bradenton, FL Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

The home daycare limit is a row in Schedule 5.1.1, Accessory Uses, Residential Buildings, of the Land Use Regulations. Under the entry Day care for children or adults, no more than ten children or six adults can be cared for at one residence unless a special use permit has been issued, and the row points to section 4.3.5 and schedule 3.2.1.1. The City of Bradenton, in Manatee County, treats caring for more people than that as a day care center, not a home accessory use.

Footnote (2) to schedule 3.2.1.1, the residential districts use table, carves out small operations. Adult and child day care centers with six or less clients and family day care homes as defined and licensed by the Florida Department of Children and Families are exempt from zoning requirements. The licensing definition comes from the state, but the exemption is written into the city schedule, so a licensed family day care home in a residential district does not go through the city's special use process.

Larger operations move to section 4.3.5, Day care centers, which can be permitted only in the districts indicated on schedules 3.2.1.1 and 3.2.1.2. To be eligible to apply for a special use permit in a residential district, a property proposed for a day care center with up to 30 children must have a minimum of 6,000 square feet of land area, and a center with more than 30 children needs 10,000 square feet of land area.

Section 4.3.5.2 adds site conditions. In residential districts, signs are limited to one sign of a maximum of six square feet in area per establishment unless the special use permit says otherwise. A landscaped buffer at least ten feet deep is required along all property lines and streets adjoining the property unless stipulated otherwise in the special use permit, planted with landscaping materials and a tree every 50 feet as defined in subsection 4.1.4.4.