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

Houston County's Comprehensive Land Development Regulations define a "Day-Care Home" as any place operated by a person who receives, for pay, three to six children under seventeen for group care without transfer of custody, for more than four and less than twenty-four hours a day (Definitions, Section on District/Day-Care terms, item 22). That use is not listed among by-right permitted uses in any residential district. 3, governing the R-1 Single-Family Residential District, lists "Kindergartens, playschools, and day care centers and day care homes" under "Uses permitted by Special Exception," the same category used for churches, home occupations, and additional dwellings.

The ordinance attaches a physical standard directly to the approval: at least 100 square feet of outdoor play area per child, and that play area must be enclosed by a fence at least 4 feet in height. 3 allows "Any uses permitted by special exception in an R-1 district"), so the same fenced-play-area condition travels with the use into R-2. Approval runs through the Board of Zoning Appeals procedure set out in Section 114 rather than through staff sign-off, meaning a public hearing and a discretionary vote are part of opening a home daycare anywhere in unincorporated Houston County.

3(3), likewise lists day care centers and day care homes only under its Special Exception list, not its by-right permitted uses, confirming the pattern applies county-wide rather than to one zone.