Tonawanda, NY Home Business: Home Daycare (2026)

Section 215-24.10 of the Town of Tonawanda Zoning Law treats child and adult day care as a specific use, and Subsection E is the bridge that lets a resident operate a day care inside a home rather than a stand-alone building. Subsection A conditions any day care, home-based or not, on first securing the license and registration New York State and Erie County require of child-care operators; the Town will not issue a business registration without that state and county paperwork already in hand. Once licensed, a home day care must also meet every general home-occupation standard in § 215-24.13: the operator must be a full-time resident of the dwelling (D(3)), all activity must occur wholly inside an enclosed structure (D(4)), no more than one nonresident employee is permitted (D(5)), hours are limited to 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

(D(7)), and there can be no exterior storage or display of equipment (D(8)). Notably, § 215-24.13.D(6) carves home day cares out of the chapter's usual one-patron-at-a-time cap, since a licensed day care by definition serves multiple children. The wider day-care standards in § 215-24.10.B through D, a 10-foot building setback, a five-foot landscaped buffer or fence along residential lot lines, and a ban on outdoor speakers or public-address systems in residential districts, apply to any day-care site the Building Department reviews, including a converted home. Applicants work through the Code Enforcement Officer, and a home-occupation review doubles as the zoning sign-off referenced in the day-care licensing packet.