Black Hawk County, IA Home Business: Zoning & Home Occupation Permits (2026)

190 sets the standards a home-based business must meet on unincorporated land outside Waterloo, Cedar Falls, Evansdale, Hudson, La Porte City, Dunkerton, Gilbertville, Elk Run Heights and Raymond. The occupation has to stay clearly incidental and secondary to the property's use as a residence, and it must be conducted entirely within the existing dwelling unit itself, not a detached shop or barn. 100. Staffing is limited to family members who live in the home plus no more than two nonresident employees. The code also bars any outside evidence of the business reaching beyond the lot line, including storage, displays, noise, odors, smoke, vibration, heat, dust, electrical disturbances or excessive traffic.

Any water, sewer or waste disposal system tied to the business needs County Health Department sign-off. A home occupation can display one identification sign, capped at 32 square feet, and customer parking must be provided on-site and kept as inconspicuous as possible. These standards trace to Ordinance 36 in 1995 and remain unchanged in the 2014 recodification. Because the rule sits inside BHCC Title 18, the county's agricultural land preservation and zoning title, it applies only to land the county itself zones; property inside any of the county's incorporated cities follows that city's own home occupation ordinance instead.