Medina, OH Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Medina's Zoning Code draws a clear line between a small in-home day care and a commercial day care center, though it only regulates the larger operation directly. Section 1105.24 defines 'Child day care center or nursery' as any place providing child care for seven or more children at one time, or any non-residence providing publicly funded child care for seven to twelve children. That threshold-based use is listed as a conditionally permitted use, subject to Chapter 1153 conditional zoning certificate review, in districts such as the M-U Multi-Use District under Section 1129.04, alongside uses like assisted living facilities and religious places of worship; it does not appear on the principally permitted or accessory use lists for the R-1 Low Density Urban Residential District.

Below that seven-child threshold, the Zoning Code does not list a separate 'home day care' use category with its own permitted-use table entry or conditional-use standards. The only place the smaller in-home operation appears by name is the off-street parking schedule at Section 1145.04(a), which lists 'Day Care, Child (In-Home)' and directs that its parking requirement is the same as for a Single Family Detached Dwelling, two spaces per dwelling, rather than the per-square-foot formula the code applies to a full Child Day Care Center. That parking entry treats a small home-based day care as an incident of the residential use of the dwelling rather than as a separate commercial use requiring its own site plan or conditional zoning certificate.