Catoosa County, GA Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Catoosa County's UDC does not carve out a stand-alone zoning category for home-based child care. Instead, Section 5.02.02(A)(2)(f) lists 'family day care for six or fewer children' as one of the recognized home occupations, so it is allowed in any zoning district where a residential use is permitted, per Section 5.02.02(A)(1), but only up to that six-child cap. A larger operation is not a home occupation under this section: the UDC's separate land use table lists 'Group day care home (7-18 children)' and 'Child day care center (19 or more children)' as their own commercial or institutional uses with their own zoning-district permissions and Special Use Permit requirements under Section 4.09.08, so crossing six children moves the business out of the home-occupation track entirely and into that separate approval process.

While it stays at or under six children, a home daycare must meet every general home-occupation standard in Section 5.02.02(C): it has to run wholly inside the house, use no more than 30 percent of the home's floor area, avoid outdoor advertising displays, keep to one commercial vehicle parked in the driveway or garage, and add no more than one extra off-street parking space beyond what the house already needs. The operator also needs a Catoosa County business license under Section 5.02.02(C)(10) before caring for children for pay.

Section 5.02.02(A)(5) further makes clear that meeting the county's zoning standard never substitutes for whatever license or approval the State of Georgia requires of a childcare provider; the county's rule sits on top of, not instead of, state childcare regulation.