Austin, TX Home Business: Zoning & Home Occupation Permits (2026)

Section 25-2-900 sets the zoning standards that let a homeowner run a business out of a house without triggering commercial zoning. The use must happen entirely inside the dwelling unit or an accessory structure, per Sec. 25-2-900(B), and it cannot require altering the home to meet a nonresidential building code, other than accessibility upgrades, under Sec. 25-2-900(D). Participation is normally limited to people who live on-site, though Sec. 25-2-900(C) opens the door to non-resident participants for specific professional uses: a medical, professional, administrative, or business office, an art workshop or gallery, a music, dance, or photography studio, or handicraft or hobby instruction.

Equipment and materials tied to the business, apart from an art workshop's, must stay out of view from off the property, and the operation cannot produce noise, vibration, smoke, dust, odor, heat, glare, electrical interference, or waste run-off that reaches outside the dwelling or accessory structure, per Sec. 25-2-900(G). Signage advertising a home occupation on the premises is banned outright except for the narrow home-occupation sign allowance in Sec. 25-10-156, and advertising the home's street address through any medium, including newspapers, radio, or television, is prohibited under Sec.

25-2-900(I). Sec. 25-2-900(J) then flatly bans a long list of uses from qualifying as home occupations at all, including animal hospitals and breeding, clinics and hospitals, contractor's yards, scrap and salvage services, unlicensed massage services, restaurants, cocktail lounges, rental outlets, equipment sales, adult-oriented businesses, recycling centers, and automotive or engine repair. The zoning code text itself does not layer on a separate home-occupation permit or registration fee; it lists the standards a use has to meet to qualify as an accessory home occupation in the first place.