Under proposed changes that Secaucus officials plan to make to the town’s zoning law, all future home-based businesses will be outlawed.
If the changes are approved by the Town Council, such businesses as home-based day care centers, tax preparer services, doctor’s offices, law offices, and even solitary endeavors like freelance writing, could be banned.
The changes, which will be introduced by the Town Council this week, will apply to new businesses only and will not impact current businesses that comply with existing laws.
Town officials said last week that some people have complained that home-based businesses interrupt the character and feel of residential neighborhoods, turning them into mini-commercial districts.
“We want to alleviate some of the parking issues that people complain about as a result of home-based businesses,” said Town Administrator David Drumeler. “When you have a home-based business on an already crowded block it creates problems. You have people coming to utilize the home-based business, oftentimes when residents are coming home from work and are looking for parking for their own vehicles.”
Zoning changes designed to ban home-based micro businesses will stem a growing trend.
________
But the bigger issue, Gonnelli said, is keeping the character of the community consistent.
“We feel it’s not really appropriate to run a business out of your home,” he said. “We want residential areas to be residential areas. We want to discourage these kinds of businesses from being on residential blocks.”
But what about businesses that don’t regularly draw clients to the residence, such as doing freelance writing on one’s computer, or creating artwork in your home to sell?
When the example of freelance writing was given, Drumeler said the law will apply to all businesses equally since the town doesn’t want to “discriminate” against or single out specific types of businesses. But he admitted some businesses might be able to operate under the radar more easily than others.
The exact language of the law was still being drafted last week.
May hurt entrepreneurs in recession
Town officials don’t know how many micro businesses there may be in Secaucus since current local laws have not required them to get zoning approval. Currently, a Secaucus resident can set up a business in his or her home without town approval if the business has only one employee and occupies 15 percent or less of the home’s square footage.
But zoning changes designed to ban such businesses will stem a growing trend.
A 2009 study by the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business and Emergent Research found that 50 percent of all businesses in the U.S. are now home-based, a number that rose steadily during the recession. Nationally, such businesses employed 13 million people in 2008 and now account for the fastest growing segment of all small businesses launched.
Many so-called “homepreneurs” are people like Secaucus resident Kelly O’Keefe who were laid off from jobs during the recession and found it difficult to find new jobs in the private sector.
“I was laid off in September 2008. By the summer of 2009, I still hadn’t found anything,” said O’Keefe, a web designer who has nearly 15 years of experience in her industry. With unemployment benefit checks running out and her severance package from her old job gone, she decided to go into business for herself, launching her own company out of her two-bedroom apartment in Xchange.
Financially, she said, the business got off to a rough start, but she’s been able to make ends meet – thanks in part to having low overhead costs for her business.
“I’m just barely able to pay my rent, car note, utilities, food and so forth,” she said. “My business doesn’t yet generate enough income for me to pay my rent and expenses here [at Xchange] and then also pay additional expenses at an off-site office.”
O’Keefe wasn’t familiar with the town’s proposed zoning change, which she assumes won’t apply to her as an existing business.
However, O’Keefe noted, “These changes make me nervous for that next person who gets laid off and can’t find a job…Sometimes creating your own job is the only option you have.”
Other zoning changes proposed
In addition to banning home-based businesses, the council will also propose other changes to current zoning laws.
Developers will be barred from including underground garages to new homes being built in Secaucus. The move is designed to limit the amount of future property damage when the area gets hit with heavy rains and Secaucus floods.
The Town Council will also require that homes maintain a certain percentage of yard space and will limit the amount of paving homeowners can have on their outdoor property.
The proposed zoning changes were still being drafted last week and the specific language of these changes was not yet available for public release.
The next council meeting will take place at 7 p.m. this Tuesday at Town Hall.
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.