LOS ANGELES : Planning Panel Approves Home-Based Businesses

The city has moved a step closer to allowing businesses to operate in residential areas, with a panel voting unanimously this week to legalize more than two dozen home-based occupations.

The vote by the city’s Planning Commission came nearly 10 years after officials began to study whether to change zoning codes that prohibit commercial operations in residential neighborhoods. Only doctors, dentists and ministers are allowed to conduct business in their homes.

If approved by the City Council, the ordinance would bring Los Angeles in line with dozens of other municipalities in Southern California that have legalized home-based businesses, and which are collecting fees on the operations.

The Planning Commission’s decision followed more than three hours of testimony from homeowners, most of whom fear that the law would turn residential neighborhoods into crowded commercial districts, as well as comments from home business supporters.

“This is an unfair burden on residential communities that are trying to establish a peaceful, restful and quiet atmosphere,” said Alan Kishbaugh, president of the Federation of Hillside and Canyon Assn., which represents about 250,000 residents on both sides of the Santa Monica Mountains.

Advocates of home-based businesses testified at the hearing that they are happy the city is finally attempting to legalize such enterprises, but they criticized many restrictions in the proposed law.