Bergenfield, NJ Home Business: Zoning & Home Occupation Permits (2026)

Chapter 186, Land Development, defines two categories of home-based work that are treated as accessory to a residential use rather than a separate commercial use requiring a variance. A HOME OCCUPATION under § 186-3 must be a service-character use, conducted by the residents inside the dwelling, that stays clearly secondary to the home's residential purpose, leaves no exterior evidence beyond a permitted identification sign, and involves no stock in trade, meaning no goods kept or sold on site. The code names dressmakers, tailors, milliners, typists and individual instrument instructors as examples, and specifically limits any instructional home occupation to accommodating no more than one student at a time on the premises.

A HOME PROFESSIONAL OFFICE is a narrower, named category open only to a resident physician, dentist, lawyer, architect, professional engineer, accountant, podiatrist, optometrist or chiropractor. That office may employ no more than two people, must be part of the dwelling in which the professional actually resides, and cannot occupy more than half of one floor of the building. The definition expressly excludes anyone professionally engaged in buying or selling goods kept or displayed on the premises, and excludes biological or medical testing laboratories unless they are merely incidental to the resident's own practice.

Anything larger than these caps, such as retail with on-site inventory or a professional office with three or more employees, falls outside the accessory-use definition and needs separate zoning relief.