Broomfield, CO Home Business: Zoning & Home Occupation Permits (2026)

Section 17-32-020(A) defines a home occupation as a trade, occupation, or profession conducted by any person within or from a dwelling unit. Subsection (B) records the city council's finding that home occupations are an important part of the city and benefit residents, while also recognizing neighborhoods' interest in protecting their residential character, which is why regulation is treated as necessary to keep home businesses and their neighbors on good terms. Subsection (C) then allows a home occupation as a permitted accessory use, subject to nine numbered conditions.

Clause (C)(1) requires the use to be conducted entirely within the dwelling unit or another building on the parcel, and only by the people who live there, not outside employees. Clause (C)(2) requires the use to stay clearly incidental and secondary to the dwelling's residential purpose and forbids it from changing the dwelling's character. Clause (C)(3) caps the area used for the business at one-half of the first floor area of the dwelling unit. The remaining clauses, covered elsewhere in this section, bar exterior signs, bar exterior storage, forbid offensive vibration, smoke, dust, odor, heat, or glare noticeable at the property line, and limit patron, business, and commercial vehicles parked at the site.

Because a home occupation is a permitted accessory use rather than a licensed use, there is no separate zoning application named in (A)-(C); the city treats the use as by-right so long as all nine conditions in (C) are met, and Community Development or Code Compliance investigates when a complaint suggests otherwise.