Globe City Council has asked the Planning and Zoning Commission to revisit portions of its latest draft ordinance updating regulations on home-based businesses.
According to Globe Planning and Zoning Administrator Dana Burkhardt, the city’s current home occupation code — which the ordinance would modify — is outdated, likely last updated in 1998.
“It might be a carryover from the counties, because the city probably largely had utilized the county code in prior years,” he said.
The existing regulation consists of a single paragraph. It prohibits the “sale of stock-in-trade” on the premises, limits business space to one-fourth of a home’s floor area or no more than 400 square feet of a detached workshop, and requires that the use not change the residential character of the dwelling or create nuisances such as noise, fumes, traffic or parking congestion.
Yet, Burkhardt said the current code is not explicit enough to reflect the types of home businesses already operating successfully in the community.
The current code “would prohibit most anything but a professional, semi-professional office, so that's not the code you would want in place,” he said. “It's not explicit enough to allow the current uses that are operating happily in the community.”
The need to revisit the ordinance surfaced about a year ago when a resident applied for a conditional use permit to provide swimming lessons from their home. That request highlighted gaps in the existing language.
Since then, the commission has worked to modernize the code. The process included peer and best-practice research last summer, presentation of draft language in the fall, and a citizen review meeting in January.
The commission ultimately drafted Ordinance No. 894, which defines permitted and prohibited home occupations and expands the code’s applicability to all residential districts.
Following a public hearing last month, the commission voted 3-1 to recommend adoption of the ordinance to the city council.
If adopted, the new code would require a Conditional Use Permit for daycare of five to 10 children (excluding the occupant’s dependents). The new code would also limit any home-based instructional classes to five students at a time, and limit the number of trips made to a residence for such classes to no more than 24 trips in a day. It would also limit the number of business-related daily trips generated by the home occupation to five.
The draft ordinance would also prohibit certain home occupations, including: firearms manufacturing, medical marijuana dispensaries, repair or servicing of motor vehicles, drop-off, repair or plumbing shops, and kennels and grooming of animals.
At last Tuesday’s council meeting, Burkhardt presented the ordinance, followed by a public hearing.
Several councilmembers expressed concern about the scope of the prohibitions, particularly those involving motor vehicle repair, plumbing and animal grooming.
“I worry about too much oversight and striking a balance,” said councilmember Mariano Gonzalez. “There's got to be a balance between someone talented and pursuing their talent, whatever it may be, and balancing that of the needs of the neighborhood.”
Councilman Jesse Leetham said that listing specific permitted and prohibited uses would be restrictive to innovation and conflict with the city’s interest in encouraging economic development.
“I don't want a policy that just blatantly says no to residents who aren't causing any problems,” he said. “Our job is to protect the neighborhoods, protect your neighbors, but also leave room for people to be able to work and build something from their homes, making a code that protects residents without closing the doors for the residents that are doing something within their homes.”
Leetham and others also questioned the limits on daily trips to home-based businesses.
Pam Trobaugh, who works locally in childcare, addressed the council during public comment and raised concerns about the impact of trip limits and conditional use permit requirements on home-based daycare and preschool programs.
“We are in a desert. We do not have regulated childcare here in this town. And I think you're just putting another step and another roadblock,” she said. “We need to make it a little easier so that we can get more kids into a quality program, and [that it’s] affordable.”
Burkhardt, along with City Manager Paul Jepson and city staff, will review the concerns raised by council and return at a future meeting with proposed revisions and suggested modifications to the ordinance’s language.
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