Also in 2024, as part of a major zoning overhaul, Pomona, Calif., approved the “secondary use of a single-unit home’s garage for the purpose of conducting a business enterprise that is operated by the homeowner.” Customer traffic is limited to 7 am to 10 pm, “deliveries by any commercial vehicle” cannot occur between 6 pm and 8 am, and no “equipment or process is permitted … that creates noise, vibration, glare, fumes, odors or electrical interference detectable to the normal senses, off the premises.”
Last year, city commissioners in Muskegon, Mich., unanimously approved ACUs, as did Seattle councilors, who signed off on “[f]ood processing and craft work,” “[g]eneral sales and services,” and restaurants in residential areas. In March, the Lone Star State’s capital city amended its Land Development code to create “a new land-use category for commercial establishments limited in size (maximum 200 square feet) that are accessory to a residential use on the same parcel.” The Austin Board of Realtors endorsed the revision: “Front Yard Businesses give everyday Austinites the opportunity to build wealth and explore entrepreneurial ventures without taking on the risk and expense of commercial space.” The measure’s “by-right administrative approval structure” reflected “the kind of permitting reform” the organization “has consistently championed.”
Three Republican lawmakers in New Hampshire believe the same way. During the 2026 legislative session, they sponsored an act “establishing accessory commercial units by right.” House Bill 1023 defined an ACU as “a subordinate commercial space” located “on the same lot as a principal residential or commercial use, either within the same structure or in a detached accessory structure” that is “clearly incidental and secondary to the principal use of the property,” and provides “neighborhood-scale goods or services that do not produce excessive noise, odor, vibration, traffic, or other adverse impacts on surrounding properties.”
