Modernizing home-based business regulations

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As part of a Council-approved strategy [PDF, 16.7MB] to support small businesses and create more economic opportunities for residents, the City of Vancouver is looking to update the rules and regulations around operating a home-based business.

Many neighbouring cities allow customers or employees to visit a home-based business with some restrictions (e.g., by-appointment only).

To allow more flexibility for home-based business operations, we are proposing the following:

• Allowing some non-resident employees and customers by-appointment, within limits
• Maintaining restrictions on signs, outdoor storage, and physical impacts such as noise, vibration, smoke, dust, odour, etc.
• Adding restrictions to business activities that might cause physical impacts and limits to how much of a dwelling can be used for a home-based business

The goal is to make the rules more flexible and more in line with neighbouring cities. At the same time, we know that changes to these rules will need to consider how business activities from home could affect neighbours. This is why we are taking a careful approach, by introducing some key changes while maintaining protections against impacts to the people living nearby.

How to get involved

• The survey is now closed (closed on Sunday February 25, 2024)

We thank everyone for your input! The feedback has now been gathered into an engagement summary report [PDF, 1MB]. Staff brought forward a Council Report outlining the proposed home-based business regulations for City Council’s consideration on July 9, 2024 with a subsequent public hearing taking place on September 24, 2024. As a final step, the home-based business regulations were brought forward for Council to confirm enactment of the changes on October 8, 2024.