McHenry County, IL Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

McHenry County's Unified Development Ordinance treats a home day care as an accessory use of a residence rather than a separate business location, so Table 16.32-1 lists it as permitted by right in every agricultural, estate and residential district the county has: A-1, A-2, E-5, E-3, E-2, E-1, R-1, R-2 and R-3. It is not permitted in the B-1, B-2, B-3, O, I-1 or I-2 commercial and industrial districts, where a stand-alone facility instead falls under the separate Day Care Center standard.

Section 16.56.030(M) sets nine operating conditions. The person running the day care must actually live in the dwelling; the county will not approve an absentee-operator arrangement. State law still governs the headcount, capping enrollment at twelve children unless the operator's state license sets a lower number, along with minimum outdoor play area, licensing, and health, safety and building-code requirements the state, not the county, administers. The county's own siting rule requires 300 feet of separation between any portion of the home used for the day care and a hazardous land use, gas stations, heavy industrial sites, flammable or high-pressure pipeline storage, and truck or rail freight terminals among the examples named.

Physical-site conditions follow: additions built to accommodate the day care must preserve the home's residential scale, bulk, height, roof pitch and materials and still need a building or zoning permit; unsafe features near an outdoor play area, open ditches, wells, heavy street traffic, must be fenced or otherwise physically barred; play equipment areas need a ten-foot setback from any abutting lot line and must themselves be fenced; signage is capped under the home-occupation standards of Chapter 16.72; and the home must display clear house numbers so it is identifiable to inspectors and emergency responders.