Bloomington, IN Home Business: Zoning & Home Occupation Permits (2026)

The Unified Development Ordinance treats a home occupation as a use that has to earn its way into a residential neighborhood, not one that is allowed by right. 030(g)(6)(B) requires a certificate of zoning compliance before anyone conducts a home occupation in a dwelling in any zoning district, and that certificate is personal and site-specific: it cannot transfer to a new operator, a new address, or a different home occupation. Subsection (C) adds a second, discretionary layer for homes in a Residential zoning district, where a Conditional Use approval has to be secured before the Planning and Transportation Department will even issue the certificate.

Once approved, a home occupation is bound by a set of operating standards folded into the same subsection: (E) requires the operator to actually live in the dwelling unit, (F) caps nonresident staff at one employee, and (G)i limits the business to no more than fifty percent of the dwelling's total interior floor area, a cap that applies cumulatively if more than one home occupation runs out of the same house. 030(g), whichever is less. Site plan review treats a compliant home occupation in a Residential district the same as an ordinary single-family dwelling, but a Mixed-Use district home occupation that fails to meet these standards gets pushed into full commercial site plan review instead.