Fayette County, GA Home Business: Zoning & Home Occupation Permits (2026)

Fayette County treats a home-based business as a conditional use under Section 110-169(2)z of the zoning ordinance, not a use permitted by right. The provision applies in the A-R, EST, C-S, the county's full run of single-family districts from R-85 through R-20, DR-15, RMF, MHP, the PUD-PRD, PUD-PRL and PUD-PEF planned unit development districts, O-I, C-C, C-H, L-C, G-B, M-1, M-2 and BTP zoning districts, covering nearly every parcel in unincorporated Fayette County. The ordinance states its intent up front: to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public and keep home occupations from adversely impacting surrounding residential properties, since residential and nonresidential uses are normally kept separate.

Item 1 restricts who can work in the business: only residents of the dwelling may be engaged in the home occupation, and no nonresident, including an employee, contractor or part owner, may work in the dwelling or anywhere on the premises. Item 5 limits the floor area devoted to the home occupation to no more than 25 percent of the dwelling, and item 6 caps the number of separate home occupations at four per dwelling, with their combined area still bound by that same 25 percent ceiling.

Together these standards, along with the customer-traffic and excluded-use limits found elsewhere in the same section, define what the Fayette County zoning administrator will approve under a home occupation conditional use permit.