Huntington, NY Home Business: Zoning & Home Occupation Permits (2026)

Huntington's Zoning Code defines a "home occupation" in § 198-2 as an activity that is clearly accessory and incidental to a dwelling, carried on wholly inside the building by family members who live there, as their principal place of abode. No permit or site plan approval is required for an ordinary home occupation because it's treated as a permitted accessory residential use, but the definition itself sets the operating conditions. No more than two persons from outside the family may be employed, and no equipment may be used that creates offensive noise, vibration, smoke, dust, odors, heat, glare or electronic interference.

Advertising is limited to an identification sign, with no exterior display or storage of materials and no other change to the residential character of the building. Examples the Code lists include an artist's studio (not an art gallery), dressmaking, a professional office for a physician, dentist, lawyer, architect, engineer or accountant, and music teaching limited to one or two pupils at a time. The use cannot occupy more than fifty percent of the main floor area of the principal building. Animal clinics, veterinary offices and the practice of veterinary medicine are excluded outright, as are restaurants.

Barbershops and beauty parlors are excluded from the general definition, but a beauty parlor operated as a home occupation can still be authorized in a residence district as a use permitted by the Zoning Board of Appeals under § 198-68A(16), provided all the general home-occupation requirements are met and there is no external evidence of the business.