Oconee County, SC Home Business: Zoning & Home Occupation Permits (2026)

To count as a home occupation under Sec. 2, the business must be carried on entirely within the dwelling or an accessory building on the same parcel by one or more of its occupants, and it must stay clearly incidental and secondary to the property's use as a residence, a category the code construes to include a duly licensed in-home daycare. The floor-area cap is fixed at 25 percent of the dwelling's total floor area, not the parcel; there can be no outside or window display advertising the business; only domestic- or hobby-grade mechanical or electrical equipment is permitted; and no more than one person who does not live in the dwelling may be employed there.

Beyond the definition, Sec. 7 lists home occupations as a conditional use in the Traditional Rural, Agricultural, Agricultural Residential, Commercial, Rural Residential, Residential, Lake Residential, Community Commercial, and Highway Commercial districts, which under Sec. 1(a)(2) means the zoning official's administrative review checks both this definition and the district's other applicable requirements before a zoning permit issues. A site plan showing the proposed use and required off-street parking may be required under Sec. 4. Because the definition, not the district list, carries the substantive limits, a business that exceeds the 25-percent floor-area cap or hires a second outside employee fails to qualify as a home occupation at all, regardless of which of the nine districts the parcel sits in.