Ogden, UT Home Business: Zoning & Home Occupation Permits (2026)

Under Ogden City Code § 15-2-9, a 'home occupation' is the use of part of a dwelling, such as an office, studio or workroom, for an occupation customarily conducted in a home and incidental to living there. The definition sets conditions that keep the use residential rather than commercial: only family members who reside on the premises may work in it; the occupation cannot require any interior or exterior alteration of the home; it cannot involve selling commodities that were not produced on the premises; it cannot spread into accessory buildings, the yard or any outdoor space not normally used for residential purposes, though the definition carves out an exception letting a home run child daycare or a preschool for up to eight children; and no wholesale or retail sales of commodities may be made directly from the home.

Zoning use tables carry that same definition forward: § 15-15-2, governing the R-1-5, R-1-6, R-1-8 and R-1-10 single-family zones, lists 'home occupation' among the uses permitted outright, without a conditional use permit, alongside accessory dwelling units and agriculture. A separate entry at § 15-2-19 defines a 'preschool' as itself a form of home occupation limited to eight children, tying the two definitions together. Because a home occupation is a permitted, not conditional, use in Ogden's residential zones, a homeowner does not need Planning Commission approval to start one, but must still stay inside the family-labor, no-alteration and no-outside-goods limits or the activity becomes an unpermitted retail use under Title 15.