Erie, PA Home Business: Zoning Restrictions (2026)

The City of Erie Zoning Ordinance defines a Home Occupation as 'A commercial or commercial activity administered or conducted as an accessory use which is clearly secondary to the use as a residential dwelling and which involves no customer, client or patient traffic, whether vehicular or pedestrian, pickup, delivery or removal functions to or from the premises, in excess of those normally associated with residential use.' The same definition imposes seven mandatory conditions: (a) the activity must be compatible with the residential use of the property and surrounding residential uses; (b) it shall have no employees; (c) there shall be no display or sale of retail goods and no stockpiling or inventory of a substantial nature; (d) there shall be no outside appearance of a commercial use, including parking, signs or lights; (e) it may not use any equipment or process that creates noise, vibration, glare, fumes, odors or electrical or electronic interference; (f) it shall be conducted only within the dwelling and may not occupy more than 25% of the habitable floor area; and (g) it may not involve any illegal activity. Home Occupation appears as a permitted accessory use in Erie's residential and mixed-use districts. Erie's standard tracks, and is at least as protective as, the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code 'no-impact home-based business' floor in 53 P.S. Sec. 10107, which a municipality must allow by right.