Skagit County, WA Home Business: Zoning & Home Occupation Permits (2026)

252 defines home-based business as a home occupation that remains incidental to the residential use of the dwelling and stays compatible with rural character, and it splits the use into three tiers rather than one blanket permit. Home-Based Business 1 is the lightest: it must be carried out exclusively by family members residing in the dwelling, and the floor area devoted to the business, whether in the home or in another building on the property, cannot exceed 25 percent of the dwelling's living area. Home-Based Business 2 loosens the family-labor requirement to allow the business to be carried out by a member or members of a family residing in the dwelling without requiring exclusivity, and raises the floor-area cap to 50 percent of the living area, again allowing the business to occupy a separate building on the property up to that share.

Home-Based Business 3 goes further still, permitting up to three additional employees beyond the resident family. Under subsection (2), a home-based business established after June 1, 1997 cannot be used to justify a Comprehensive Plan amendment or rezone request, and the code frames the tiers as a ladder: once a business outgrows the floor-area, employee or other limits of its current tier and any conditions attached to its County approval, the operator must apply to move up to a higher tier or relocate the business entirely to a zone that allows the activity outright.

All three tiers additionally share baseline standards against outside storage, excess noise, vibration, dust, odor, glare and traffic beyond what's normal to a residential area, detailed alongside the tier-specific criteria in the same section.