Dixmont, ME Home Business: Zoning & Home Occupation Permits (2026)

Dixmont regulates home occupations through its Shoreland Zoning Ordinance, adopted by the municipal legislative body on March 19, 2016. That ordinance applies to land within 250 feet of the normal high-water line of great ponds, within 250 feet of the upland edge of a freshwater wetland, and within 75 feet of the normal high-water line of a stream. A home business on a lot outside those distances is not reached by this ordinance, and the town has no general zoning ordinance to fill the gap.

Table 1 in Section 14 sets the rule by district. Item 17, Home occupations, reads PB in the Stream Protection district, no in the Resource Protection district and PB in the Limited Residential district. The key to Table 1 defines PB as allowed with a permit issued by the Planning Board and No as prohibited. A resident in a Stream Protection or Limited Residential area needs the Planning Board's approval before starting, and a resident in a Resource Protection area cannot run the use at all. The district for a particular site comes from the Official Shoreland Zoning Map.

Section 17 supplies the definition. An occupation or profession qualifies only if it is customarily conducted on or in a residential structure or property, is clearly incidental to and compatible with the residential use of the property and surrounding residential uses, and employs no more than two persons other than family members residing in the home. Employing more than two outside people falls outside the definition.

Under Section 16, an applicant files a written application, including a scaled site plan, on a form provided by the town. Within 35 days of receiving it, the Planning Board notifies the applicant that it is complete or lists the additional material needed. The Board then approves, approves with conditions or denies in writing within 35 days of a completed application. The applicant carries the burden of proving that the proposed use conforms to the ordinance.