Josephine County, OR Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Section 19.61.020 lists the uses permitted outright in the county's Rural Residential zone (RR-1, RR-2.5, RR-5), reviewed using ministerial procedures under Chapter 19.22 JCC rather than a public hearing, with a development permit under Chapter 19.41 JCC still required as final approval. Subsection (F) places a family day-care dwelling on that list so long as it serves fewer than 16 children, a count that explicitly includes any children of the care provider and applies whether the operation runs full-time or part-time. That places home daycare in the same ministerial-review category as the zone's other everyday permitted uses, such as a single-family dwelling, farm and forest products stands, and accessory buildings, rather than in the conditional-use list in § 19.61.030, which requires quasi-judicial review under Chapter 19.45 JCC and site plan review under Chapter 19.42 JCC for uses like Type III home occupations and indoor animal husbandry.

Because the daycare is a permitted use tied to the residential zone rather than a business classification, it does not carry the nuisance, sanitation, or acreage findings the code attaches to conditional uses such as kennels or animal husbandry. The 16-child ceiling is the dividing line: at or above that number, the ministerial permitted-use pathway in § 19.61.020(F) no longer applies.