Chicopee, MA Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Section 275-35, Subjects not regulated or restricted, was added on 9-18-2003 by Ord. No. 03-35 and tracks MGL c. 40A, § 3. Its opening text lists subjects which zoning may not regulate, restrict, require special permits for, discriminate against, or exempt, while allowing reasonable regulations on the bulk and height of structures and rules determining yard sizes, lot area, setbacks, open space, parking and building coverage. Two subsections matter for child care.

Subsection H covers the child-care facility. No zoning ordinance can regulate or restrict the use of land or structures, or the expansion of existing structures, for the primary, accessory or incidental purpose of operating one, other than through those reasonable dimensional rules. The term means a day-care center or a school-age-child-care program as defined in § 275-4. That definition describes a day-care center as a facility operated on a regular basis, whether known as a day nursery, nursery school, kindergarten, child play school or any other name, that receives seven or more children not of common parentage during any one day.

Subsection J covers the home-based provider. A family day-care home and a large family day-care home, as those terms are defined in MGL c. 28A, § 9, shall be an allowable use unless prohibited or specifically regulated within any zoning district. Nothing in § 275-35(J) attaches a special permit to the use; the qualifier is a district provision that prohibits or specifically regulates it, and that district text controls.

Former § 275-41, Home occupation, was repealed on 9-5-2023 by Ord. No. 23-43 and now reads Reserved. The parking schedule in § 275-40 lists day-care centers and nursery schools at one space per two employees. The Building Department enforces Chapter 275 under § 275-5.