Bannock County, ID Home Business: Zoning & Home Occupation Permits (2026)

Section 17.52.270 of the Bannock County Code sets the conditions a home-based business must meet to operate lawfully in the RR, RS and REC zoning districts; home occupations are not permitted outright in the county's other zones. Subsection A requires the business to remain secondary to the dwelling's residential use and caps the space it may occupy at six hundred square feet or twenty percent of the home's gross floor area, whichever is less. Subsection B bars the activity from changing the character of the dwelling, and subsection C allows the business to operate from an accessory building only if it does not send noticeable odors, sounds, dust or debris onto neighboring property; that accessory building must still meet the residential accessory building standards elsewhere in the chapter.

All work must happen inside the dwelling or the accessory building (subsection D), and heavy equipment or business inventory used by an office-type home occupation cannot sit outside for more than twelve hours unless fully enclosed in a building or a solid fence the planning and zoning director approves; hazardous materials may never be stored on site (subsection E). The equipment used cannot be heavier than typical household equipment (subsection F), and no yard or window display may reveal that a business operates at the address (subsection G).

Operationally, only one home-occupation business vehicle, no larger than a one-ton nominal rating, may stay overnight (subsection I), hours are limited to eight a.m. through nine p.m. (subsection J), on-street parking must stay incidental (subsection K), and no more than one nonresident employee may work on site (subsection L).