Tehama County, CA Home Business: Home Occupation Permits (2026)

In unincorporated Tehama County, a home occupation that meets the County's definition is a permitted use - listed by right in the RE, R-1, and AG-1 through AG-4 districts - rather than a use requiring a discretionary use-permit hearing. The qualifying conditions are built into the home occupation definition in Title 17: the use must be customarily carried on within the dwelling by its inhabitants and incidental to the residential use; it must be confined within the dwelling and occupy not more than twenty-five percent of the floor space; it must involve no on-site sales of merchandise other than goods produced on the premises or items directly incidental to the services offered; it must be carried on by family members occupying the dwelling, with no other person employed (with a narrow exception allowing a cottage food operation to have not more than one full-time-equivalent cottage food employee who is not a family or household member); and it must produce no evidence of its existence beyond the premises except a sign of not more than one square foot. Staying within all of these limits keeps the activity in the by-right home-occupation category. Operators who exceed these limits effectively step outside the home-occupation definition and would need to pursue the appropriate commercial zoning approval. Because requirements such as business tax certificates can vary, confirm any local registration and zoning-clearance steps with the Tehama County Planning Department.