Davis, CA Home Business: Signage Rules (2026)

150, lets residents run a business inside a residential dwelling only if it stays invisible from outside. Subsection (a)(6) is the signage rule: it bars any advertising sign for the business except one nameplate reading the name and occupation only, capped at one-half square foot, and that nameplate must sit flat against the building wall rather than in a yard, window, or on a post. The same section layers on other conditions that shape what a home business can look like from the street: no more than one full-time-equivalent outside employee plus one part-time worker, no direct retail sales from the house, no commercial delivery vehicles, and no more than twenty-five percent of one floor used for the occupation.

Subsection (b) bars certain uses outright as home occupations regardless of signage, including schools, gift shops, and auto repair shops. Applicants apply to the Community Development and Sustainability Department with the required fee; an approved home occupation is valid for two years and can be renewed on written request filed a month before expiration. A limited exception exists for cottage food operations licensed under Health and Safety Code Section 113758, which are permitted home occupations even though several of the other listed restrictions do not apply to them.

The signage cap itself is not waived for cottage food operations or any other type of home business; it applies uniformly to every home occupation approved under this section.