Texas City, TX Home Business: Zoning & Home Occupation Permits (2026)

Texas City Code of Ordinances § 160.006 defines a home occupation as a business activity customarily carried on in the home by a member of the occupant's family. Six limits are built into that one definition. The activity requires no structural alterations in the building or any of its rooms. It involves no installation or outside storage of any machinery, equipment or materials other than that customary to normal household operations. It uses no employees who do not reside in the home. It uses no sign to advertise the occupation. It cannot cause the generation of noise, odor, electrical interference or additional traffic.

The use table is spread across the district sections rather than kept in one list. Home occupation appears among the accessory uses for District A and District A-1 (single-family residential), District A-2 (patio homes), District B (single-family attached and duplex) and District B-1 (townhouse residential). In each list it sits beside private garages, swimming pools and a registered family home, and the lists also allow other uses subordinate to and incidental to the principal use.

Section 160.083(A) closes the obvious workaround. In any district zoned for residential uses, an accessory building may not be used for commercial purposes and may not be rented, so a detached garage, workshop or shed cannot house the business. The residential districts named in § 160.083(D) are A, A-1, A-2, B, C, C-1 and MH.

Process runs through the Building Official. Under § 160.111 no permit for the use of any premises is issued unless the plan filed shows that the premises are to be used in conformity with all provisions of chapter 160. Under § 160.109 the Building Official, Fire Marshal or designee enforce the chapter, may order remedies in writing and can institute action to restrain, correct or abate a violation. A separate business license or registration is not part of this definition, so anyone opening a home business in Texas City, Galveston County should confirm with Planning and Building whether other city chapters apply.