Rothschild, WI Home Business: Zoning & Home Occupation Permits (2026)

Zoning Code § 590-16A(3) lists 'home occupations (in accordance with definition criteria)' as a permitted use in the R-1 Single-Family Residential District, right alongside single-family dwellings and accessory buildings like a private garage. The Village does not run a separate home-occupation permit or license; instead, § 590-180B defines the term itself as the operative standard, an occupation, profession, activity, or use that is clearly a customary, incidental, and secondary use of a residential dwelling unit and which does not alter the exterior of the property or affect the residential character of the neighborhood.

That three-part test does the regulatory work a numeric limit would do elsewhere: the use has to stay secondary to the home's residential function, it cannot show up on the outside of the house, and it cannot change how the block reads as a residential neighborhood. The same permitted-use language recurs across the Village's other residential districts, so a lawful home occupation is not confined to R-1. Because the R-1 table at § 590-16C sets the minimum lot for a single-family dwelling with a home occupation at 7,200 square feet and 60 feet of width, the same as any other single-family lot in the district, the code treats a qualifying home occupation as incidental to the house rather than as a separate land use requiring its own lot standards.

A use that grows past that customary-and-incidental line, such as one that alters the home's exterior, adds signage, or brings in retail-style traffic, falls outside the definition and is no longer a permitted use in the residential district.