Can I run a business from home in Los Gatos, California?
Yes, with a home occupation permit from the Planning Director. Los Gatos allows home businesses in any dwelling, but only resident family members may work there, no more than one customer may be on site at a time, and no signs are allowed.
| Approval | Home occupation permit (Planning Director) [2] |
| Employees | Resident family members only [3] |
| Customers on site | 1 at a time [4] |
| Signs | None allowed [5] |
| Parking | Can't reduce required or available off-street spaces [6] |
| Commercial deliveries | No commercial delivery vehicles [7] |
| Cottage food | Allowed if it meets state requirements [10] |
Where and how
Home occupations are allowed in any dwelling in any zone, even a nonconforming one [1], but you need a home occupation permit first [2]. The Planning Director may ask you to sign a statement that you'll comply and won't issue the permit if the business won't meet the rules [11]. A home occupation is a limited nonresidential use of a home that is subordinate to living there and not noticeable from outside [8].
Operating limits
- Employees: only members of the resident family [3].
- Customers: no more than one on the premises at a time [4], and no more traffic or parking than a typical Los Gatos home.
- Signs: no advertising signs or structures [5].
- Parking: the business can't reduce the home's required or available off-street parking [6].
- Deliveries and storage: no commercial vehicles delivering materials [7], and no storage visible from neighbors or the street.
- Equipment and nuisances: only household or hobby-type materials and equipment, nothing that changes the home's residential character, and no noise, dust, smoke, odor or radio/TV interference.
Prohibited home businesses
Retail sales of firearms or ammunition, medical offices and uses, contractors whose crews meet on site or who store materials, vehicles or equipment there [9], on-site dining, and food catering are prohibited.
Cottage food and daycare
Cottage food operations are allowed as home occupations if they meet state requirements [10], limited to the area registered or permitted by the Santa Clara County Department of Environmental Health. Family daycare homes, small (8 or fewer children) or large (9 to 14) [12], are listed as a permitted use in the R-1 zone, and state law makes them a residential use by right.
Revocation
The Planning Director must revoke a permit if the rules or permit conditions are violated, after 10 days' written notice and a chance to respond.
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Next steps
- Check that your business fits the limits: family-only staff, one customer at a time, no signs and nothing visible from outside.
- Apply to the Planning Division (408-354-6874) for a home occupation permit and be ready to sign a compliance statement.
- Get a Town business license from the Finance Department (408-354-6835) if required for your business.
- For cottage food, register or get a permit from the Santa Clara County Department of Environmental Health.
Common questions
- Can I run a business from home in Los Gatos, California?
- Yes, with a home occupation permit from the Planning Director. Los Gatos allows home businesses in any dwelling.
- Can I have employees at a home business in Los Gatos, California?
- Only resident family members may work there.
- Can customers visit my home business in Los Gatos, California?
- No more than one customer may be on site at a time, and no signs are allowed.
- Can I run a cottage food business from home in Los Gatos, California?
- Yes, cottage food is allowed if it meets state requirements.
California state protections for home-based businesses
California has no general statewide home-occupation law. Cities and counties set the rules on employees, signs, customer visits and parking. State law protects a few specific home businesses:
Family child care homes (Health & Safety Code §1597.45):
- A licensed small (up to 8 children) or large (7 to 14 children) family daycare home is a residential use by right under all local ordinances, including zoning. A city can't require a use permit.
- Cities can't charge a business license, fee or tax for operating one, and it isn't a change of occupancy under building codes.
- Local rules may apply only if they are identical to those for other homes in the same zone, whether the home is rented or owned.
Cottage food operations (Gov. Code §51035; AB 1616, effective 2013):
- Cities and counties can't prohibit home cottage food operations. They must allow them as a permitted use or through a permit limited to reasonable spacing, traffic, parking and noise standards.
- A cottage food operation has no more than one full-time-equivalent employee besides family or household members. Class A (direct sales only) is capped at $75,000 a year and Class B at $150,000, adjusted for inflation (H&S Code §113758).
- You must register (Class A) or get a permit (Class B) from the county environmental health agency.
Home kitchens selling meals (microenterprise home kitchen operations): allowed only where the city or county has authorized them, with a permit and a limit of 30 meals a day and 90 a week (§113825).
What the ordinance says
- Sec. 29.10.09025(a), Town Code Chapter 29, Article I, Division 1 - Miscellaneous (definitions, swimming pools, home occupations), p. 1
Home occupations are allowed in any dwelling in any zone, even if the dwelling is nonconforming, subject to the following regulations:
- Sec. 29.10.09025(a)(1), Town Code Chapter 29, Article I, Division 1 - Miscellaneous (definitions, swimming pools, home occupations), p. 1
No premises shall be used for a home occupation unless the user has a home occupation permit.
- Sec. 29.10.09025(a)(2), Town Code Chapter 29, Article I, Division 1 - Miscellaneous (definitions, swimming pools, home occupations), p. 1
There shall be no employees other than members of the resident family.
- Sec. 29.10.09025(a)(4), Town Code Chapter 29, Article I, Division 1 - Miscellaneous (definitions, swimming pools, home occupations), p. 1
The home occupation shall not involve the presence of more than one (1) customer on the premises at any time.
- Sec. 29.10.09025(a)(8), Town Code Chapter 29, Article I, Division 1 - Miscellaneous (definitions, swimming pools, home occupations), p. 1
There shall be no advertising signs or structures.
- Sec. 29.10.09025(a)(9), Town Code Chapter 29, Article I, Division 1 - Miscellaneous (definitions, swimming pools, home occupations), p. 1
The home occupation shall not be conducted in such a way as to decrease the total number of required or available off-street parking spaces for the premises.
- Sec. 29.10.09025(a)(6), Town Code Chapter 29, Article I, Division 1 - Miscellaneous (definitions, swimming pools, home occupations), p. 1
There shall be no use of commercial vehicles for delivery of materials to or from the premises.
- Sec. 29.10.020, Home occupation, Town Code Chapter 29, Article I, Division 1 - Miscellaneous (definitions, swimming pools, home occupations), p. 1
Home occupation means the use of a dwelling unit for a nonresidential purpose, but in a limited manner both subordinate to the residential use and not discernible from the exterior of the dwelling unit so used.
- Sec. 29.10.09025(f)(3), Town Code Chapter 29, Article I, Division 1 - Miscellaneous (definitions, swimming pools, home occupations), p. 1
Contractor/contracting services which have crews that meet on site prior to traveling to another job site, or which require the storage of building materials or equipment on site, or which will park or store vehicles or construction equipment on site.
- Sec. 29.10.09025(a)(10), Town Code Chapter 29, Article I, Division 1 - Miscellaneous (definitions, swimming pools, home occupations), p. 1
Cottage food operations are allowed as home occupations so long as the cottage food operations are in compliance with the requirements for those operations contained in the California Government Code and with the California Health and Safety Code, as amended.
- Sec. 29.10.09025(c), Town Code Chapter 29, Article I, Division 1 - Miscellaneous (definitions, swimming pools, home occupations), p. 1
The Planning Director shall not issue a home occupation permit where the Planning Director finds that the home occupation will not comply with the provisions of the definition of "home occupation" in section 29.10.020 and subsection (a) of this section.
- Sec. 29.10.020, Family daycare home, Town Code Chapter 29, Article I, Division 1 - Miscellaneous (definitions, swimming pools, home occupations), p. 1
A small family daycare home is for eight (8) or fewer children and a large family day care home is for nine (9) to fourteen (14) children.