Miramar, FL Home Business: Zoning & Home Occupation Permits (2026)

2 of the Land Development Code makes the Zoning Certificate of Use (ZCU) the city's general gatekeeping permit: any building or space used for a business, profession or occupation in Miramar must obtain a ZCU before opening, and any business that already needs a business tax receipt under Code of Ordinances § 11-27 is automatically pulled into the ZCU requirement too. The same section carves out one specific exception for home occupations as defined in section 201 of the LDC, which are not required to obtain a ZCU at all, alongside owner-occupied multi-family residential properties, group homes, and owner-occupied special residential care facilities.

The exemption is a full pass on the zoning certificate that every other commercial use in the city must secure through the community development department (§ 320), not a separate looser permit track. That means a home occupation's real zoning test is the substantive definition in Section 201: it must be run by a resident of the dwelling, remain clearly incidental and secondary to the home's residential use, and, under Section 201's customer-traffic clause, never bring patrons to the house. A resident unsure whether an activity still qualifies has no ZCU application to file for confirmation, so the practical check is Section 201's plain text and the city's code enforcement authority to act if a home-based activity outgrows those limits and starts functioning like an unpermitted commercial use.