Raleigh City Council makes it easier to bring some businesses into neighborhoods
It will be easier for people to open a business in their homes after the Raleigh City Council passed new rules Tuesday night.
The zoning change lets people start businesses like hair salons, music studios and tattoo parlors in their homes without first going to the city’s Board of Adjustment.
This is about getting goods and services closer to where people live, said Council member Jonathan Melton, who has pushed for this change.
“This has been worked on for almost a year at this point, including an engagement process that went above and beyond the normal text change process, to planning commission to committee,” he said before the vote.
“And now here we find it again,” Melton continued. “What we have in front of us is a measured approach to allowing folks to earn a living off of their homes, reduce car dependency — and I’m ready to move forward.”
The change came despite concerns about potential negative impacts on residential areas of the city.
The vote was 6-2 in favor, with Council members David Cox and Stormie Forte voting in opposition.
“My largest issue is we have not heard a lot of public support for it,” Forte said after the meeting. “When they did the engagement process, the overwhelming responses were opposing it. The majority of the emails I have gotten have been in opposition. I just feel like if we are going to make such a substantive change you really want to make sure the community understands what’s going on, number one, and two, agrees with a major change like this.”
What’s in the rules?
Before the new rules were adopted, Raleigh residents could open a business in their home if they got a special-use permit. That meant going to the Board of Adjustment, a sometimes lengthy and expensive endeavor that often required hiring an attorney.
“We have to think who has the resources and access to that process and who does not?” Melton said during the meeting. “And who are we allowing to make use of their own talent and entrepreneurship? And who are we blocking from that investment? ... So what we have tried to come up with is a very reasonable measured incremental approach forward.”
The new rules remove the special-use permit and require a city staff-issued permit as long as the guidelines are met. Business hours are limited to 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and drive-thrus and outdoor seating is prohibited, among other rules. The types of businesses that would be allowed include office, dance, martial arts and music studios, sports academies, clothing manufacturing, graphic design and repair shops.
During the meeting Tuesday, the council agreed to add a requirement that neighbors be notified when someone applies to put the business in.
Originally the proposed change included retail and food sales but a council committee nixed the idea. State law prohibits cities from regulating the sale of alcohol and tobaco, which concerned residents and some council members.
“What it does is allows people to work from home, to be innovative, to be entrepreneurs,” said Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin. “And, let’s face it, COVID has changed things. And this is an opportunity for people to earn a living from home in a new way.”
‘Limit the worst case’
During the public hearing Tuesday, two people spoke for the change while six signed up to speak against it.
Jennifer Truman, who is running for City Council, spoke in favor, and said the rules before the council were a compromise that will help people.
“The rules that you can vote on today limit the worst case scenarios that have been imagined,” she said. “But they do encourage entrepreneurship, side hustles and small businesses by creating an objective standard with a simple permitting process for most small, home-based businesses to serve customers or clients close to where they live. And that’s the really other important point. We must welcome services and small businesses into our neighborhood corners to meet our climate goals. Whether that’s a popular opinion or not.”
David Ulmer also spoke in favor of the change, and said it wasn’t fair he was able to work from home for his job but others with valuable skills could not. He also expressed frustration with people worried about strangers who would visit these at-home businesses.
“I’m also getting a little tired of some of the people that oppose because of strangers,” he said. “This is a big city. Cities have strangers because we can’t know everybody. And stranger danger is for 3-year olds, it’s not for adults. So if you can’t handle one or two people come through your neighborhood once in a while I just don’t know what to do with it. You don’t have a right to stop people from visiting other people. You’re allowed to and should accept strangers in your neighborhood.
‘Extreme and contains no moderation’
Jennifer Irving Kochman said the council would be putting businesses over residents if it approved the changes.
“Everybody supports mom and pop businesses in their neighborhoods,” she said. “This draft is extreme and contains no moderation whatsoever.”
This change will also hurt neighborhoods that don’t have homeowners associations as HOAs would likely prevent these types of businesses.
Lisa Hughet asked the council to add back the notification requirement toneighbors.
“I’m not in opposition to anybody running a business, and particularly next to me,” she said. “I just don’t want to be negatively impacted by it by ‘Surprise, we got a karate class going on.’ And I’m on a Zoom call.”
Paula Hoffman chose her home because it was in a residential neighborhood with good schools. This new rule would have many unintended consequences, she said.
“These changes render zoning meaningless,” Hoffman said. “They remove the residential atmosphere, thereby changing who chooses to live inside the city limits, changing the diversity of our school populations, even hurting our public schools and devaluing our properties. I have no problem with people working out of their homes. I just want to have the special-use permits so that I have an opportunity to make sure that everybody is safe and we have no outside interference from our neighbors’ businesses.”
This story was originally published June 9, 2022 at 8:17 AM.
