A Win-Win City Ordinance

The Los Angeles City Council is finally moving forward on a matter that is right for the times. On a 13-1 vote, the council ordered a proposed new ordinance that will permit more businesses in residential homes, apartments and condominiums. To date, only doctors, dentists and ministers have had that right.

Nationally, there are up to 43 million home-based businesses. They have acquired their own acronym (SoHos, for Small Office/Home Office folks) and an advocacy group, the Home Office Assn. of America.

Of the 88 cities in Los Angeles County, 77 now have home-based business ordinances. Much of what Los Angeles will require, at the behest of Councilmembers Laura Chick and Rudy Svorinich Jr., are based on those ordinances. But refinements are in order.

To be sure, adult entertainment, automotive repair, gun sales and more will remain illegal. But a certified massage therapist should not be on the automatically banned list. Nor should someone who makes a few babushkas or sweaters at home.

Will this destroy neighborhoods? Become a regulatory nightmare? There are reasons to believe that the answers are “no.” Some 300,000 home businesses are already operating, unobtrusively and well within the bounds of the council guidelines. And enforcement can be more targeted so that those few charged with enforcing the ordinances can focus on the real menaces, like the fellow repairing boat engines in his driveway. Also, the easy access of computer technology allows for far more refined and professional operations.

It will be good for the city because it will gain a piece of a currently underground revenue stream through new business licenses and fees. The proposed law also makes sense in this era of corporate downsizing. It allows efficient economic self-sufficiency. It respects a quality of life issue for those who benefit from working at home. It is the least expensive way of keeping hundreds of thousands of Angelenos off crowded freeways at rush hour.

The ordinance, which Mayor Richard Riordan is expected to sign, will legitimize successful entrepreneurs who now can’t even put their home address on a business card without some risk. And the council includes adequate restrictions (proved successful in other cities) on noise, traffic, the number of clients per hour, signage and other things that could ruin the character of residential neighborhoods. It can really be one of those win-win situations.