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This text amendment establishes revised regulations for
allowing people to operate businesses out of their homes.
Citizen inquiries about working at home are increasingly
common; County records show 105 total Home Occupation
permits issued by Zoning in 1991, tripling to 308 by 2005.
This County trend reflects a broader national trend;
U.S. Census data showed 4.2
million Americans worked from home in 2000, a 23 percent
increase from the number of home-based workers in 1990.
According to a website devoted to supporting and tracking
small business activity, Smallbiz.com, home-based businesses
make up 53% of the small business population in the United
States. They serve as incubators for growing businesses.
The current home occupation regulations in the Ordinance
were first adopted in 1981. Over the years, they have been
amended many times to add specific new uses or to make minor
changes to standards, but the basic structure and approach
to home occupations has remained unchanged over the last 25
years. Rules which served as a reasonable accommodation to
home businesses are now badly out of date because of changes
in the way that modern businesses operate.
Increasingly, many
of the requests for home occupations received
by zoning staff do not fit well
within the current regulations, and staff is finding that
permits must increasingly be denied. In addition, the
existing home occupation regulations contain some
conflicting regulations which make their application
difficult in some instances.
Staff is recommending a total
rewrite of the provisions in order to change the structure
of the Ordinance and approach to home businesses. The
current regulations generally list specific allowable home
occupations, list prohibited occupations and then provide a
variety of standards for the uses. While this is not an
unusual structure for home-occupation Ordinances, this
approach is problematic because it is very difficult to keep
the Ordinance up-to-date with all potential viable home
occupations. Staff is suggesting a move toward a more
performance based set of criteria for home occupations.
Home Occupations Approved
Administratively
The first issue is
identifying the types of home occupations that should be
allowed by-right.
As a starting point, staff
recommends that any home business with no impacts be allowed
by-right; if it is not possible to tell that the home
occupation occurs on the site, and it isn’t dangerous, it
seems reasonable to allow it. The proposed language of the
Ordinance lists the characteristics that qualify a business
as “no impact:” no employees, customers, clients or others
associated with the business coming to the house, no
additional traffic to the neighborhood generated by the
business, no exterior changes to the property, no
noise, vibration, glare, fumes, odors, or electrical
interference detectable to the normal senses generated by
the business, and no hazardous materials involved.
Because the existing regulations go much further in allowing
home occupations by-right, staff is recommending that, in
addition, the revised language continue to allow the types
of impacts already allowed by the existing provisions. The
current Ordinance allows up to one employee in a home
business. It allows limited signage. And it allows, for
some service uses, unlimited customers or clients coming to
the site. The revised revisions generally incorporate this
additional flexibility into the restructured provisions.
Staff is, however, suggesting a limit on the number of
customers/clients allowed to come to a use that is approved
administratively. The proposed limit is one customer at any
time and no more than four per day, with the applicant
required to demonstrate to the Zoning Administrator that
parking is available for the customer/client.
Home Occupations Approved By Special Permit
Although restructured, the provisions authorizing home
occupations by special permit are largely unchanged from
those in the current Ordinance. Specific current uses
allowed as home occupation by special permit subject to
special standards are retained, i.e. gunsmithing, small
contracting businesses, auto repair, etc. Today’s broad
categories of “home occupations with retail sales or
services” are not retained by name, but the same uses are
authorized under the revised structure. Likewise, the
specific category of “cottage industries” (which is
difficult to define relative to other home occupation uses)
is eliminated, but such uses would still be allowed under
the general provisions to the same extent now authorized
under the current Ordinance. Standards for the various uses
that were scattered through Article 5 and 6 have been
consolidated and presented consistently in Article 5 along
with all other standards for special permits. Retail uses
continue to be strictly controlled by generally limiting
retail sales to items produced on site.
The main change proposed for home occupations is to allow
any home occupation to add a second non-resident employee
through a special permit; this privilege is now granted only
to home occupations with retail sales or services. Also, any
use with more than four customers/clients/visitors per day
and/or one customer/client/visitor at a time now is able to
ask for authorization through the special permit, where
previously this privilege was granted only to certain retail
and service uses.
A Note on Barber/Beauty Shops
The existing regulations specifically exclude barber and
beauty shops as home occupations, but then go on to allow
them under commercial uses in residential zones, subject to
the home occupation standards. This proposed amendment
removes this contorted approach and allows them as home
occupations provided they meet all standards. A special
permit would be required.
A Note on Contractor’s Offices and Small Contracting
Businesses
Currently, there is some ambiguity within the Ordinance as
to whether home offices are allowed for contractors or
similar business such as landscaping and lawn care
services. The types of specific offices listed as allowed
in the Ordinance are all professional or business type
offices, which can be distinguished from contractors’
offices as typically contractors’ have equipment and
material stored and/or used in association with the
business. Nonetheless, such contractor’s offices have been
historically allowed as home occupations conditioned upon
there being no storage of materials or equipment on the
site. The reality is, however, most of these businesses do
involve equipment or materials and many of these home
occupations evolve into zoning violations when the amount of
materials, equipment or activity becomes disruptive to
neighbors.
The proposed Ordinance clarifies the provisions related to
home contractors and should allow improved administration by
staff. A contractor’s office continues to be allowed as a
home occupation, and authorizes some very limited inside
storage of materials or equipment on site. Therefore,
someone could run a lawn service from their home so long as
they store the lawn equipment or trailer carrying such
equipment inside each night. As there are limits to the area
that can be devoted to such storage (25% of any building;
maximum 1000 square feet), this language should clarify the
extent to which such businesses are allowed by-right. The
proposed language of the Ordinance continues to allow a
small contracting business on a larger scale in the rural
districts, and for homes located in certain commercial and
industrial districts; such larger scale use requires special
permit approval and is subject to certain conditions.
A Note on Family Day Care Homes
The current regulations
allow a day-care home with up to five children as a home
occupation, requiring approval of a zoning/administrative
permit. The Code of Virginia (Section 15.2 2292) actually
specifically precludes the County from requiring any permit
for such a use. Therefore, the use is being eliminated from
the list of authorized home occupations, but is added as an
accessory residential use in Section 6-102. The text change
does not impact the existing ability to have such day-care
homes.
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