Grand Forks, ND Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Section 18-0204 of the Land Development Code defines a 'family child care home' as a private residence licensed to provide early childhood services for no more than seven children at any one time, plus up to two additional school-age children, and a 'group child care home' as a licensed residence serving up to twelve children under the same school-age add-on. Those definitions control how the use tables in each zoning district treat a home daycare. In the R-1 single-family district, Section 18-0208(2)(N) lists family child care homes as a use allowed only 'provided the following conditions are fulfilled': the operator must give the zoning administrator evidence of a family or group child care home application as required by N.D.

Century Code Chapter 50-11.1, comply with all other federal, state and local regulations, and follow the 1991 Life Safety Code and any later edition governing family child care homes. Because the ordinance ties the local zoning approval directly to the state child care license, a home daycare that loses its state license also loses its zoning basis to operate. A similar specific-conditions requirement appears for group child care homes and family child care homes in other residential districts of the Land Development Code, so an operator moving between residential districts should confirm that district's own conditions rather than assume the R-1 list applies everywhere in the city.