Bartow County, GA Home Business: Zoning & Home Occupation Permits (2026)

2 opens with a blanket rule that no business or commercial enterprise may operate in a residentially-zoned district, including A-1 and any R district, unless it qualifies as a home occupation under the section's own standards. A home occupation must be clearly incidental and secondary to the use of the residentially-zoned property for residential uses and cannot change the residential character of the property or reveal from the road or neighboring lots that anything other than a household lives there. Subsection A caps the space used for the business at 30 percent of the residence, and the dwelling must keep its residential appearance.

Only full-time occupants of the home may run the business, plus a maximum of one additional employee under subsection C. Subsection B limits any accessory structure used for the occupation to storage only; commercial activity itself cannot occur inside a detached garage, shed or similar building. Subsection E bars any smoke, dust, odor, fumes, glare, noise, vibration or electrical disturbance detectable at the lot line, and subsection F prohibits chemical, mechanical or electrical equipment beyond what is normally found in a home. The ordinance lists allowed examples, including arts and crafts, attorneys, accountants, insurance and real estate agents, contractor offices without outside storage, counselors, home-marketing businesses, tutoring limited to four pupils at a time, and musicians' or artists' studios.

It separately lists prohibited uses, including animal grooming on lots under five acres, auto sales and repair, medical and dental practices, junk yards, manufacturing and massage therapy. 18 regardless of whether it otherwise qualifies as a home occupation.