Yakima County, WA Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

450, the Growth Management Act provision governing family day-care in county zoning, forbids Yakima County from enacting or enforcing any ordinance, development regulation, zoning regulation, or administrative practice that prohibits use of a residential dwelling in a residentially or commercially zoned area as a family day-care provider's home facility. The county is not powerless, though: it may require the home to comply with all building, fire, safety, health code, and business licensing requirements; conform to the lot size, building size, setback, and lot coverage standards that already apply to that zoning district (unless the structure is a legal nonconforming one); be certified by the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) licensor as providing a safe passenger loading area for drop-off and pickup; carry signage that meets the county's sign regulations; and operate within hours limited for neighborhood compatibility, while still accommodating parents who work nonstandard shifts.

Before state licensing, the county may also require the provider to give the immediately adjoining property owners written notice of intent to open the facility, and DCYF's licensor can offer a dispute-resolution forum if a neighbor objects. Any conditions the county sets cannot be more restrictive than what applies to other homes in the same zone, and cannot be used to preclude family day-care altogether. 010(1)(c): a provider who regularly cares for not more than 12 children at a time in the family living quarters of the provider's own home.

That statute also exempts from state licensing (and therefore from the zoning protections tied to a licensed facility) informal arrangements such as a neighbor or friend caring for a child without conducting it as an ongoing business, and parents who cooperatively exchange child care with one another.