DuPage County, IL Home Business: Zoning & Home Occupation Permits (2026)

1(A) of the DuPage County Zoning Ordinance treats a home occupation as an accessory use that must stay incidental and secondary to the residence's use as a dwelling, and lists sixteen numbered standards a home-based business must meet in every residential zoning district. The business has to be operated in its entirety within the residence, and only by the person or persons who live there; it cannot be run out of an accessory building or attached garage, and it cannot add a separate entrance serving only the business.

Outside evidence of the occupation is limited to a single identification nameplate no larger than two square feet, mounted flat against a wall or door or projecting up to eighteen inches. The business is capped at twenty percent of the dwelling's gross floor area or four hundred square feet, whichever is smaller, and it cannot use commercial or industrial equipment beyond what is common in an ordinary single-family home. Manufacturing and repair shops are barred outright, deliveries are limited to private passenger vehicles, parcel services and the letter carrier, and only one home occupation is permitted per dwelling unit.

The ordinance also bars storing dangerous substances on site and requires the use to stay free of noise, odor, vibration, glare, fumes or electrical interference detectable outside the structure. Unlike the county's principal arterial office use in Sec. 1(B), which explicitly requires a building permit, the base home occupation standards in Subsection A do not create a separate permit step; compliance is enforced through the same zoning inspection and complaint process that covers every accessory use in the district.