Port St. Lucie, FL Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Sec. 01 defines a family day care home as an occupied residence where child care is regularly provided for children from at least two unrelated families in exchange for a fee, payment, or grant, whether or not the operator runs it for profit; household children under 13 are counted toward the home's overall capacity whenever they are on the premises or on a field trip with the enrolled children. Before the city treats the use as lawful, the operator must be licensed or registered as required by the State of Florida.

The definition then sets four capacity tiers a home must pick from: up to four children from birth to 12 months; up to three infants under 12 months combined with other children for a maximum of six total; up to six preschoolers if all are older than 12 months; or up to 10 children if no more than five are preschool age and no more than two of those five are under 12 months. Zoning treats the use as a matter-of-right permitted principal use rather than a conditional or special exception use: Sec.

071(B)(4), governing the Estate Residential (RE) district, lists Family day care home directly alongside single-family dwellings and parks as a permitted principal use and structure, with no additional spacing or buffer requirement like the 1,000-foot separation Sec. 071(B)(3) imposes on community residential homes in the same district. The same permitted-use placement recurs across the city's other single-family residential zoning districts.