St. Peters, MO Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

St. Peters treats family day care and center-based day care differently in the Zoning Code. Section 405.100 defines a 'day care home' as a family home, occupied as the provider's permanent residence, that cares for fewer than five unrelated children or adults during the day; a 'day care center' is a separate facility other than the provider's living quarters. Section 405.350 sets the trigger point for both: any person or organization planning to offer day care to five or more children, or accepting more than four unrelated children in a home setting, must apply for a license and meet the licensing rules referenced in the Code before doing so.

Related children who don't live in the day care home still count toward the maximum permitted number of persons under Section 405.100, so a caregiver can't avoid the threshold by only counting non-relatives. The Zoning Code's off-street parking schedule at Section 405.555 also applies once a day care facility operates commercially, requiring one parking space per ten children plus one space per employee. Because the licensing threshold sits inside the Zoning Code rather than a separate day-care ordinance, the City's Planning, Community and Economic Development Department administers compliance alongside the State's day care licensing rules; crossing the four-unrelated-child line without the required license is a zoning violation, not merely a licensing gap.