Saint Paul, MN Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Saint Paul's zoning code treats family day care as a residential use, not a commercial one, so long as the operator holds the required county license. Sec. 222 defines family day care as care for up to ten children at one time, licensed by the county as a family day care home; the ten-child cap counts every child of any caregiver present in the residence, including the provider's own kids. A larger tier, group family day care, allows up to fourteen children at once provided no more than ten are of school age, again licensed by the county as a group family day care home.

Neither tier is singled out for the site restrictions the code applies to child care centers: under standard (a), only a full child care center located in an RL-H1 residential district must occupy a nonresidential structure previously used by a church, school or community center, language that does not reach a licensed home-based family or group family day care operating out of a house. The one physical standard that does reach a home day care is the fencing rule in standard (b): any play area located in a front yard or adjacent to a public or private street must be enclosed by a fence at least three and one-half feet tall.

Beyond the county license and that fence requirement, the code imposes no separate city day care permit, hours-of-operation limit, or parking standard on a residential-scale family day care home, leaving licensing and inspection oversight to the county's child care licensing division rather than the city's Department of Safety and Inspections.