New Britain, CT Home Business: Zoning & Home Occupation Permits (2026)

Section 230-210, added by the Common Council in May 2024 (Item #36440-3), sets numbered conditions a home business must meet everywhere in the city. The use must be accessory and subordinate to the residence itself, and only people who actually live in the dwelling may work in it: no nonresident owners, employees or contractors may be present on the property, and no clients, customers, patients or students may visit in connection with the business. The home occupation cannot change the physical form of the residential building or create impacts, light, noise, vibration, odor, parking demand or traffic, greater than what is normal for a residential neighborhood, and it cannot display merchandise, store hazardous substances, or operate outside the principal building or an allowed accessory building.

Deliveries and pickups of supplies or products are limited to 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., using vehicles that would normally serve a residential neighborhood. Section 230-210-100 then lists uses barred outright as home occupations regardless of scale: automobile or small-engine repair, dispatch centers where employees report and are sent to job sites, equipment or supply rental, taxi, limo, van or bus services, tow truck services, restaurants, funeral or interment services, animal care, shelter or boarding, commercial food preparation, home-based daycare for more than six children, and any activity that stores vehicles, products, parts, machinery or equipment outside a fully enclosed building.

A resident who wants to run a business that fits within those limits still needs the underlying use to be lawful in the applicable district, since Section 230-210-100 cross-references the home-based work standards in Section 270-40-40.270 for anything not already covered.