Southampton, NY Home Business: Zoning & Home Occupation Permits (2026)

The Zoning Code's definitions section, § 330-5, sets the operative standard for every home occupation in the unincorporated Town, since no separate performance-standards article exists for the use. A home occupation must be clearly secondary to the residential use and must not change the character of the structure as a residence: it cannot occupy more than one-third of the ground floor area of the dwelling, or the equivalent elsewhere in the dwelling if that space is used instead. The activity can show no external evidence other than an announcement sign, and no equipment tied to the occupation may emanate noise beyond the structure's walls.

The definition expressly excludes several use types from ever qualifying as a home occupation regardless of scale, including a clinic or hospital, a barbershop or beauty parlor, a restaurant, a breeding kennel, or an antique dealer; those uses need a different zoning classification and cannot be run out of a dwelling under this provision. A related but separate category, the home professional office defined in the same section for licensed professionals such as physicians, attorneys and architects, carries its own one-half-floor cap and staffing limits and is not interchangeable with a home occupation.

Southampton's off-street parking schedule for nonresidential uses, § 330-95, adds two spaces for the first 400 square feet devoted to a home occupation or home professional office, plus one space for each additional 150 square feet and one space for every employee who is not a family member, on top of the parking already required for the dwelling itself. A lot already hosting a home occupation cannot also add an accessory apartment under § 330-11.2K, since the two uses are treated as incompatible on the same lot.