Lower Paxton, PA Home Business: Zoning & Home Occupation Permits (2026)

Section 203-519 of the Lower Paxton Township Code applies where a home business is permitted and splits the rules into no-impact home based businesses and home occupations.

A no-impact home based business must be compatible with the residential use of the property and surrounding residential uses and employ no one other than family members residing in the dwelling. It cannot display or sell retail goods or stockpile inventory of a substantial nature, and it can show no outside appearance of a business use, including parking, signs or lights. It cannot use equipment or a process that creates detectable noise, vibration, glare, fumes, odors or electrical or electronic interference, cannot generate solid waste or sewage out of keeping with residential use, and cannot involve illegal activity. All activity stays inside the dwelling and cannot occupy more than 25% of the habitable floor area, there is no outdoor storage display, and the use cannot require delivery by tractor trailer trucks.

A home occupation has its own standards. The activity is conducted wholly within the principal building or an accessory building. No more than two persons who are not members of the family can be employed. The occupation cannot generate offensive noise, vibration, smoke, dust, odors, heat, glare or electrical disturbance, and it cannot use more than 25% of the gross floor area of the dwelling unit. Business hours cannot run past 8:00 p.m., and the occupation cannot change the characteristic of the district. Off-street parking for employees and visitors must be provided in addition to the minimum required for the dwelling, and for major home occupations the Zoning Hearing Board shall require additional off-street parking if it decides customer parking needs it.

The code's list of home occupations includes dressmaking, hairdressing and nail shop, teaching or tutoring, the office of a physician, dentist or optometrist, pet grooming, lawyer, engineer, architect, accountant, real estate agent and insurance agent. Under § 203-314D, a home occupational business is subject to the criteria and standards for special exceptions in Article VII.