Lodi, CA Home Business: Zoning & Home Occupation Permits (2026)

060 sets the baseline standards every home-based business in Lodi must meet before Article 2's zoning districts will allow it as a home occupation. The threshold requirement is a city business license under subsection (A); there is no separate zoning permit for a standard home occupation, though the standards themselves function as the permit conditions. The accessory use test in subsection (C)(1) requires the business to remain clearly secondary to the property's use as a residence, and the size limit in (C)(2) confines all home occupation activity to a single room that cannot exceed twenty-five percent of the ground floor's gross floor area, though a garage may be used instead if the home's required off-street parking spaces stay available, and outdoor horticulture activity is allowed only on the rear third of the lot.

Subsection (C)(4) bars nearly all signage: no signs are permitted for a home occupation other than a single name plate of one square foot or less, mounted flush to a wall, with no advertising signs of any kind. The code also lists more than twenty specific business types that are automatically disqualified from being a home occupation altogether, including auto repair, animal boarding, medical clinics, welding shops, beauty and nail shops, and any retail or wholesale sales of goods stored at the residence other than mail order with no on-site stock. 5 tons, and cannot add on-site employees beyond the dwelling's full-time residents.