Kirkwood, MO Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Family day-care homes are treated as a home-based use under Kirkwood's Zoning and Subdivision Code § 25-45(j), and the section sets several numeric limits rather than leaving the use to a general home-occupation standard. Subsection (j)(1) caps enrollment at not more than six children unrelated to the day-care operator. Subsection (j)(2) requires the home to be licensed by the Department of Public Health and Welfare, Division of Welfare, State of Missouri, before it can operate at all. Density is capped citywide: subsection (j)(3) allows not more than one such home on each block, defining a block as both sides of the street between intersecting streets or to a dead end, and adds a hard ceiling of no more than 30 family day-care homes citywide.

Subsection (j)(4) requires the home to meet the minimum setback requirements of its zoning district, and (j)(5) allows a day-care home in a business or industrial district only if it is accessory to a residential dwelling there. for children unrelated to the operator. Because the use runs on an occupancy permit rather than a one-time approval, subsection (j)(7) requires the operator to renew that permit every 12 months and demonstrate continued compliance to the Director of Public Services before the renewal is granted.