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

Home occupations are a listed use in Commerce City's land use table, allowed by right in the R-1, R-2, R-3, R-4, MHP, MU-1 and AG zone districts, with LDC § 21-5240 supplying the additional standards the table cross-references. Licensure comes first: subsection 1 requires a city business license before any home occupation can operate. Subsection 2 then requires the use to be clearly incidental and accessory to the use of the residence as a dwelling, the master test that everything else in the section supports.

Subsection 4, exterior evidence of use prohibited, is where the zoning-compatibility rules live: the home occupation must be conducted entirely within the principal dwelling, it cannot displace required parking in a usable garage, it cannot require any alteration not customarily associated with residential use, and it cannot be visible from the public right-of-way or from neighboring properties. Outdoor storage or storage in any accessory building is banned outright, no off-site sign may point toward the home, and the entrance used for the business has to be from within the dwelling unless state law requires otherwise.

The section closes with a catch-all: the use shall not change the character of the dwelling or create outside the dwelling any external evidence of the operation of the home occupation. Subsection 3 separately bars equipment or activity that is not customarily residential, and subsection 5 limits any firearms-related home occupation to keeping no more than 12 firearms on site with no on-premises sales.