Gaithersburg, MD Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

1 of Chapter 24, splits family day care into two zoning classifications rather than treating it as a single use. Day care, small family carries the by-right symbol in the R-A, R-90, R-6 and RB zones, and a combined by-right-or-special-exception symbol in RP-T, R-20, R-18 and R-H, but footnote (5) narrows that permission: it is by-right only in single-family detached, duplex, townhouse and stacked dwellings, drops to a special exception in multifamily attached, triplex and quadplex dwellings, and is flatly prohibited in any live/work dwelling.

Day care, large family carries the special-exception symbol across all eight residential zones with no by-right path anywhere, and footnote (4) confirms it is an accessory use only and is prohibited outright in multifamily attached, triplex, quadplex and live/work dwellings regardless of the special-exception process. Both classifications are explicitly accessory uses, meaning the property must have an existing residential use, and both must be operated within a dwelling used as someone's home rather than as a standalone commercial facility. 5, including its one-sign, non-illuminated, dimension-limited format, rather than the larger commercial sign standards in article 8.

7, the same process used for a bed and breakfast or a material-impact home-based business, and the numeric capacity limits that distinguish a small family day care from a large family day care are set by the state's child-care licensing program rather than by this zoning chapter.