Eden Prairie, MN Home Business: Zoning & Home Occupation Permits (2026)

Section 11.65, Subd. 1 states the City's purpose in regulating home based businesses: letting them operate in residential neighborhoods without harming the area's residential character, meaning no adverse impact on building aesthetics, traffic volume, noise, odor or general welfare. Subd. 2 makes it unlawful to conduct a home based business anywhere except the R, R-1, RM, MU, TOD-R, TOD-MU, TC-MU and TC-R Districts, and unlawful even there unless the business complies with a detailed list of conditions. Subd. 2.A caps the space used at 25% of the dwelling and bars the business from a detached accessory building or garage entirely.

Subd. 2.B reinforces that no equipment or supplies may be stored in an accessory structure or outside the dwelling. Subd. 2.C requires the business entrance to be inside the dwelling with no external alterations or construction features atypical of a house, and Subd. 2.D limits who can run it: only family members residing in the dwelling, plus no more than one non-resident employee. Further conditions in the same subdivision address noise, motor horsepower, waste emissions, vehicle size and signage, layered on top of the district and floor-area limits that define whether a use even qualifies as a home occupation in the first place.

Home Occupations also appear as a permitted accessory use, subject to Section 11.65, in the permitted-uses tables for the traditional residential districts (Section 11.04) and the mixed-use, town center and transit-oriented districts (Section 11.06).