St. Louis County, MO Home Business: Zoning & Home Occupation Permits (2026)

Section 1003.020.59 is written as a definition rather than a permit standard, which is why there is no application to file. A home business either fits every element of the definition and is allowed, or it falls outside one of them and is no longer a home occupation.

The first condition is about who works there. The business is run by members of the family residing on the premises, so bringing in an employee who lives elsewhere breaks the definition even if that person never meets a customer at the house.

The second is about what the street sees. There can be no signs or displays indicating from the exterior of the residence that a business activity is taking place. That covers yard signs, window displays, and lettering visible from outside, and it is the condition most often noticed by a neighbor.

The third is about inventory. No stock in trade or commodity may be sold on the premises, which separates a home office or a workshop from a retail operation running out of a garage. The fourth condition is nonresidential mechanical equipment, which the ordinance does not allow in a home occupation.

The last is traffic, and it carries the one narrow exception in the definition: no customers, clients, or employees coming to the residence, except one student at a time for tutoring or music instruction. One at a time is the operative limit, and the ordinance contemplates up to 8 tutoring or music students in a day so long as they are never overlapping.

The zoning ordinance separately allows a household to keep up to 2 roomers or boarders and to supervise up to 4 non-resident children. Several activities are named as prohibited home occupations outright: beauty and barber shops, convalescent homes, tourist homes including bed-and-breakfast operations, massage parlors, and motor vehicle repair.