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Love thy neighbor, or else
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March 5, 1998: 12:07 p.m. ET
Keeping neighbors and zoning boards happy with your home business
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Does your home-based business comply with your town's zoning laws?
The personal computer's proliferation has spawned tremendous growth in the number of people who work out of their homes.
That means neighborhoods once considered strictly residential now harbor a number of commercial "offices."
Afraid to ask if your home-based office violates your town's residential zoning laws?
Don't be. Experts say you're probably fine, so long as you aren't storing supplies in the yard or receiving an active stream of customers at your house day and night.
If your home office consists of a computer, fax machine and an extra telephone line, your local zoning ordinances likely allow your planned business activities.
But some neighborhoods, like townhouse communities, forbid any kind of commercial operation out of a residence. And some cities require permits for home-based offices.
"Before people start a business out of the home, they definitely need to check with their local building/zoning office," said Jim Kalohn, a zoning officer in Schenectady, N.Y. "They should make sure they're in compliance so they don't run into a problem."
Applications, inspections and permits
Schenectady doesn't require most home offices to have a permit, nor do many other locales.
But when a home-based business' activities potentially affect a neighborhood -- say, by attracting delivery trucks or lots of parked cars -- restrictions can kick in.
Kurt Ackermann, a Tulsa, Okla., zoning official, said his community considers "a home office per se ... just an accessory use of a residence," with no special permits required.
But some Tulsa home businesses require "special-exception" permits from the Board of Adjustment.
For instance, Ackerman said the city requires "special-exception" permits to homeowners who want to run beauty parlors out of their homes, even if such applicants simply want to remodel the garage and put a stylist's chair in.
Unfortunately, such permits don't always come cheap.
Just ask home-based beautician Sharon Mayes, who had to pay a $100 fee to go before Tulsa's Board of Adjustment, and also had to pay for a legal notice in a newspaper and flyers informing neighbors of her plans.
Schenectady limits home-based business' impacts on neighborhoods in several ways.
First, zoning laws prohibit home businesses from occupying more than 24 percent of a residence's floor area, up to a maximum of 400 square feet -- including inventory storage.
Additionally, home-based businesses can only have one non-resident employee, and cannot offer on-site retail sales.
However, zoning limits and permit fees vary from locale to locale.
Isleton, Calif., a Sacramento suburb that has about 10 home-based businesses among its 833 resident, requires home-headquartered firms to have a permit and pay a $100 business operations tax each year.
Permit applicants must notify residents within 300 feet of the prospective business, while the home must pass inspection by Isleton's building inspector and fire chief. The city's Planning Commission also charges $50 for reviewing the business operator's permit application.
Storage, signs and traffic
Once you get any required permits, how to you stay on the zoning inspector's good side?
First, experts say a minimal inventory on a home-based business will help keep you out of trouble with your neighbors and the city. Many towns require you to store supplies indoors, which rules out stacking pallets against the side of the garage.
"Your business really shouldn't be visible," said Linda Gonzales, Isleton's city clerk. "Whatever you have has to be inside your house."
Signs advertising your home-based business also often face restrictions. A Tulsa home-business owner can hang a sign on his car or truck, but not in his living room window or front yard.
Isleton allows home businesses to display a sign through the glass of the front window, but nowhere outside of the house. Schenectady limits signage to one square foot attached to the building.
Many municipalities also restrict how much auto traffic your home-based business can generate.
Schenectady limits home-office traffic to no more than two business-related vehicle trips in one hour -- "your car as well as somebody else's," according to zoning officer Kalohn.
Tulsa residents seeking special permits for at-home salons must also answer questions about proposed hours of operation, as well as how many customers the business owner expects to see in a day.
"Generally, they will allow (a home-based beautician) to have one customer in the chair and another customer waiting no longer than 10 or 15 minutes," Ackermann said. "They don't want a lot of extra people there hacking off the neighborhood."
Love thy neighbor
Overall, experts recommend maintaining good relations with your neighbors.
Municipal officials say the vast majority of complaints about home-office zoning violations come from irate neighbors.
Thus, experts recommend considering your neighbors' feelings when setting up and operating a home business.
If a neighbor finds anything irksome about your operation, they might call City Hall to complain.
Incidentally, City Hall likes it that way, because such a system means municipalities don't have to spend a lot of staff time policing your neighborhood for zoning violations.
"We don't have the staff to go out and try to hunt (violators) down," said Schenectady's Kalohn. "We can only deal with (problems) on a complaint basis, or if somebody's doing something that really catches our attention."
Isleton's Gonzales said residents who have paid her city's commercial-operation fee often report neighbors they suspect of working from home without the requisite license.
"People come in and say, 'Why should I have to pay and they don't?'" Gonzales said. "In a town this small, if anything new comes in, you know."
-- by Margaret Nowak for CNNfn Interactive
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