Make Home Business Legal : Zoning: It’s illogical for L.A. to bar self-employed but not corporate home-based work.
It’s a typical day in a Los Angeles neighborhood. Craig is at his home computer, putting the finishing touches on his screenplay. Kathleen is in her den, tallying accounts receivable as the bookkeeper for various local small businesses. Jim is at his drafting table, keeping one eye on his 4-year-old daughter while working on the architectural drawings for his client’s dream house. And all of them are breaking the law.
Los Angeles is one of the few major cities whose antiquated zoning laws prohibit anyone from operating a business solely out of a residence, even when the business merely entails the quiet use of a computer, phone and a fax machine.
Over the past year, I have been fighting for our city to join 77 other cities in Los Angeles County that have legalized some form of home-based business. Los Angeles has been trying without success to develop a home occupations ordinance since 1985. This must change.
Across America, one in four workers regularly works at home for at least part of their week. As the “information superhighway” creates new communication links, that number will surely skyrocket in the coming years. But Los Angeles, usually on the cutting edge, in this case is still struggling to join the 20th Century even as we prepare to enter the 21st Century.
The city’s laws send a mixed message about working from home: We allow and even encourage residents to work at home if they work for an employer but we forbid them from working at home if they work for themselves.
Legalizing home-based business is good public policy. It helps to take cars off the road, clean up the air, promote entrepreneurship and nurture family life. It can even help to deter crime by allowing more residents to keep an eye on their neighborhoods during daytime hours.
“Why not leave well enough alone?” some people ask, “Why do we have to legalize home-based businesses?” All home-based businesses currently operate under a dark cloud. They are at risk of being turned in by a disgruntled neighbor at any time. In the course of pursuing a home occupations ordinance, several longtime operators of nondisruptive home businesses have told me their stories of being cited or shut down by the city’s Department of Building and Safety.
Some of today’s home-based businesses will be Los Angeles’ economic giants of tomorrow. Apple Computer, Mrs. Fields’ Cookies, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and Ben and Jerry’s all began as home-based businesses.
The city’s Planning Commission last year approved a version of a home occupations ordinance, which is currently under review by the City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee. This draft ordinance proposes a list of 26 home occupations that would be legalized.
As the ordinance is now worded, anyone seeking to perform a job not on the list of 26 (why accountants, but not bookkeepers? why real estate agents but not real estate appraisers?) would have to apply to the city zoning administrator at a cost of $467. New occupations continually evolve (who had heard of CD-ROM designers five years ago?) which would force hundreds of home-business operators to petition the zoning administrator for recognition. Some would do so; some would operate illegally.
Instead, I believe the ordinance should focus on clear, tight standards that all home businesses would have to meet. If the business does not generate additional traffic, noise, or disruption beyond an ordinary residential use, then it should be permitted. If the business uses mechanized equipment, brings in multiple employees, draws on-site sales, increases neighborhood traffic or engages in other disruptive activities, then it would be prohibited.
The home occupations ordinance has met opposition from many who fear that it will go unenforced and lead to a proliferation of disruptive businesses in residential zones. Fear of lack of enforcement should not become a reason to continue the status quo.
I have proposed beefing up enforcement of illegal home occupations. This enhanced enforcement would be paid for by a $20 to $25 fee on home occupations permits and through fines on violators.
With these changes, I believe,the city can legalize home-based business in a way that protects, and even enhances, our residential neighborhoods and quality of life in Los Angeles.
