Richardson weighs new rules for home-based businesses under state law

Richardson is moving toward a new set of rules that would make it easier for people to run businesses from home, but not at the expense of quiet residential streets. The City Plan Commission unanimously recommended approval on May 19 of zoning text changes tied to Texas HB 2464, after first discussing the update at its May 5 meeting.

The change matters because it reaches into everyday neighborhood life in Richardson, where home occupations are already allowed in single-family homes, townhomes, duplexes and apartments. Under the city’s current ordinance, those businesses must operate entirely inside a fully enclosed structure, use no more than 20% of the home’s floor area and avoid outside storage, exterior signs, building changes that reveal the business and nonfamily employees. The rules also limit activity that could bring extra traffic or parking to a block.

The state law adds a new category, called a no-impact home-based business, that cities cannot prohibit. HB 2464 also says cities cannot require a license, permit or other approval for that kind of business, cannot force rezoning and cannot require a fire sprinkler system in a single-family detached home or a multifamily building with no more than two residential units. Cities still may enforce fire and building codes, along with rules on health, sanitation, transportation or traffic control, solid or hazardous waste, and pollution and noise.

In practical terms, the looser category could help people who work as consultants, designers, online sellers, tutors or other service providers that need a home office or studio and want less overhead. The state law still draws lines: a qualifying home-based business cannot create a substantial increase in traffic, cannot allow on-street parking tied to the business, must stay invisible from the street and cannot substantially increase noise or violate local noise rules.

Not every home operation will qualify. Richardson can still restrict or prohibit businesses that sell alcohol or illegal drugs, structured sober living homes and sexually oriented businesses. City staff said keeping both the older home-occupation rules and the new state category in the ordinance would let already legal businesses keep operating while bringing Richardson into compliance with state law.

The Texas Municipal League warned during the legislative debate that HB 2464 could leave important health and safety protections to self-enforcement and make proactive city enforcement harder because the law does not require registration. For Richardson, the result is a middle path: more room for home-based earning, but a continuing local effort to keep trucks, visitors, noise and other spillover from turning residential streets into commercial corridors.