Monroe Township (Middlesex County), NJ Home Business: Zoning & Home Occupation Permits (2026)

The definition in § 108-2.3 describes a home occupation as any nonresidential use conducted entirely within a dwelling and carried on by the occupants of it, clearly incidental and secondary to residential use, with no display and no stock-in-trade or commodities sold upon the premises unless those commodities are clearly secondary to and identified with the permitted occupation. Beauty shops, barber shops and similar occupations are expressly not included as permitted home occupations.

The numeric standards sit in § 108-7.2(A)(17), among the standards of approval for conditional uses in Article VII. The use is confined to not more than 25% of the habitable floor area of the principal structure. Not more than two persons can be employed in the home occupation or trade. It has to comply with Articles IX and X of Chapter 108 on parking and signs, and a 10 foot buffer is required in accordance with Article VIII. The use has to obtain site plan approval and has to meet all the requirements of its respective zoning district. Section 108-7.1 adds that no permit is issued for a conditional use unless an application is submitted to and approved by the approving agency, and the approving board has to determine that the use in that location will not adversely affect the safety and enjoyment or property rights of adjacent properties.

Appearance is policed separately by § 108-5.14, which covers approved dwellings with a professional office or home occupation. No building with a professional office can be constructed or altered so as to be inharmonious to the character of residential structures. The code names store-front-type construction, garage doors larger than needed for passenger vehicles or light commercial vehicles, and unfinished concrete block or cinder block wall surfaces as construction not considered residential in character.