Unincorporated Lake County allows two home-occupation types under UDO 154-9-090: suburban (permitted by right, in the dwelling only, up to the lesser of 1,000 sq ft or 40% of floor area, no customer visits) and rural (special exception, 4.5+ acre lots).
UDO 154-9-090.F lets a suburban home occupation operate by right if it is incidental and subordinate to the residence, is conducted within the principal dwelling, and does not exceed the lesser of 1,000 square feet or 40% of the dwelling's gross floor area. On-site customer or client visits are prohibited, as are outdoor display and listed uses (restaurants, vehicle repair, animal boarding, etc.). Rural home occupations (154-9-090.G) need a special exception and a lot of at least 4.5 acres. Day care homes and bed-and-breakfasts are exempt from home-occupation rules.
Operating a home business outside these performance standards is a zoning violation enforced by the Plan Commission through notices, correction orders and fines.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
Lake County, IN
Backyard composting of yard and food scraps is allowed in Lake County and encouraged by the Lake County Solid Waste Management District. A compost pile must ...
Lake County, IN
Lake County has no county-wide ban on artificial turf for residential yards. Installation is governed mainly by local zoning and stormwater rules and, in dev...
Lake County, IN
Native-plant and prairie landscaping is allowed in Lake County, but it must still comply with local rank-vegetation and detrimental-plant rules. Intentional ...
Lake County, IN
Collecting rainwater is legal in Indiana and Lake County imposes no barrel ban. Rain barrels for outdoor irrigation are unrestricted, though any barrel or ci...
Lake County, IN
Lake County, Indiana sets no county-wide day-of-week lawn watering schedule. Northwest Indiana is not a drought-rationing region, and outdoor water use is go...
Lake County, IN
Indiana law makes property owners destroy detrimental plants. IC 15-16-8-1 lists Canada thistle, Johnson grass, Columbus grass, bur cucumber, and shattercane...
See how Lake County's zoning restrictions rules stack up against other locations.
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