Mason County, WA Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Mason County Code § 17.06.010 defines a family child care center as an establishment providing regularly-scheduled care, supervision and protection of children for periods less than twenty-four hours, in a dwelling, where such care and supervision is provided by a resident of the dwelling, and where no nonresident is regularly employed, and states the use shall be subject to licensing and regulation requirements pursuant to WAC 388-150. That state license, not a county land-use permit, is what actually authorizes the business of caring for children; the county's role is limited to confirming the use fits the zoning district.

In the Shelton UGA's Neighborhood Residential (NR) district, § 17.07.120(F) lists 'Family Day Care Provider' directly among the district's permitted uses, alongside single-family dwellings and duplexes, with no special use permit required. In the Allyn UGA's R-1 single-family district, § 17.11.130(4) lists 'Family child care center' as an accessory use permitted alongside home occupations, accessory dwelling units, and group homes; the same accessory-use listing recurs in the Allyn UGA's other residential districts and the Belfair UGA's equivalent districts. By contrast, a commercial child care center, one not run out of a resident's home, is a special-permit use in most rural residential districts. Operators still need whatever building, fire, and business-license approvals the county requires of any home-based use.