## Facts

- Charles E. and Margaret Baxter owned and lived in a single-family residence in Killeen, Texas, located in a single-family residential zoning district.
- The Baxters operated a music school inside their home, providing up to about 110 student-hours of instruction per week and earning more than $20,000 annually.
- The applicable zoning ordinance permitted “accessory uses” customarily associated with dwellings, including “customary home occupations.”
- The Baxters conducted instruction within the residence, used no exterior advertising signs, and employed no non-family members.
- Charles P. Parks, a neighboring property owner, complained that the school’s scale and income exceeded what could qualify as a “customary home occupation.”
- The City of Killeen Board of Adjustment determined the use did not violate the ordinance; the district court affirmed that determination.

## Issues

1. Whether operating a music school within a single-family residence, given its volume and income, qualifies as a permitted “customary home occupation” (accessory use) under the city zoning ordinance.
2. Whether the activity’s scale made the commercial use dominant such that it violated single-family residential use restrictions.

## Decision

- The court of civil appeals affirmed the district court’s judgment, leaving the Board of Adjustment’s order in place.
- The court held the Baxters’ in-home music school qualified as a “customary home occupation” and therefore was a permissible accessory use in the single-family district.
- The court rejected the argument that business volume or profitability alone removed the use from the ordinance’s “home occupation” category.

## Legal Principles

- A residential zoning ordinance that permits “customary home occupations” allows certain in-home, resident-conducted activities that are customarily associated with residential living.
- The controlling inquiry is whether the activity remains incidental to the primary residential use or becomes the dominant use, effectively converting the property to a commercial establishment.
- Profitability and high activity levels are not, by themselves, dispositive; courts focus on the nature and manner of operation and whether the property’s residential character is preserved.
- A zoning board’s reasonable construction and application of an ordinance will be upheld when consistent with the ordinance’s text and residential-use purpose.

## Conclusion

The court upheld the Board of Adjustment’s interpretation that a resident-run music school conducted entirely inside a home, without outside employees or commercial signage, could remain a permitted “customary home occupation” even with substantial instruction volume and income, so long as the residential character of the property remained dominant.


Parks v. Board of Adjustment of the City of Killeen, 566 S.W.2d 365 (Tex. Civ. App.—Austin 1978)