For more than 15 years, Nicole Bulow has used physical therapy to help active adults recover from injuries, support women through pregnancy and postpartum recovery, and care for people living with chronic pain. A licensed physical therapist, she built her practice, SolFuel, around longer, more personal sessions delivered from the comfort of home. When Nicole moved to Leavenworth, Washington—a small, Bavarian-themed town nestled in the Cascade Mountains—to be near family and raise her own, she did everything right: she studied the town’s home occupation law, confirmed her small practice complied, and prepared a parking plan and floor diagram before she ever applied for a permit.

But when she applied for a permit, Leavenworth officials told her no. 

Although the town’s zoning code makes no mention of physical therapy, officials decided it was essentially a full-blown doctor’s office, which is a prohibited home occupation. Their reasoning turned on Nicole’s professional license and the nature of her care, factors that have nothing to do with the zoning ordinance’s purpose: protecting residential neighborhoods from traffic, noise, and other land-use impacts. Meanwhile, the town permits nearly identical home businesses, including massage practices and home salons, even though Nicole’s practice would burden the neighborhood no more than they do.

Now Nicole is fighting back, both for herself and for everyone who hopes to earn an honest living working from home. Her appeal challenges Leavenworth’s interpretation of its zoning code as arbitrary and unmoored from any legitimate zoning concern. The lawsuit asks the town to honor what its own rules already make clear: that a quiet, low-impact home practice like hers is exactly the kind of work the home occupation ordinance was designed to allow. That way, the town can no longer arbitrarily block her—and others like her—from making a living in their own homes.

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Nicole Bulow, Home-Based Physical Therapist

For more than 15 years, Nicole Bulow has helped people get back to living the lives they love. A licensed physical therapist, Nicole specializes in helping active adults recover from injuries, guiding women through pregnancy and postpartum recovery, and treating chronic pain.

For years, Nicole operated her practice, SolFuel, from her home in Seattle. The setting wasn’t just convenient. It was a key element of her business. She gave her clients longer, more personalized treatment sessions in a comfortable environment that felt nothing like a busy and brusque medical office. Running her practice from home also allowed Nicole to continue caring for patients after becoming a mother while keeping her services affordable.

In 2025, Nicole moved to be closer to her sister and raise her young family in Leavenworth, Washington, a Bavarian-themed village nestled in the foothills of the Cascades. With endless hiking trails, ski slopes, and more right outside her door, the town’s rugged, adventurous way of life promised exactly the kind of clients she could help best. Once she had settled into mountain life, Nicole planned to focus her practice on easing the aches and pains of adventurers from all around town, while continuing her prenatal and postnatal work. Her former clients valued her care so much that many were willing to drive more than five hours across a mountain pass from Seattle to continue seeing her.

Before she moved to town, Nicole did her homework. She carefully reviewed Leavenworth’s home occupation laws and confirmed that her practice met every requirement. She planned to see only a handful of clients each day, prepared a parking plan and floor diagram, and knew that other home-based businesses, including massage practices, had received permits.

The Town Tells Nicole She Can’t Continue Her Home Business

When Nicole applied for a permit, the town said no. Officials told her she could not operate her practice from home. That refusal forced her to rent a small office space, keeping her away from her kids during the day.

Although Leavenworth’s zoning code does not explicitly prohibit physical therapy, town officials concluded that it was “like or similar” to physicians, dentists, and chiropractors, which are prohibited home occupations under the code.

When Nicole asked why physical therapy was prohibited as a home occupation while massage therapy was not, the town ultimately pointed to her professional license, explaining that physical therapists are licensed healthcare providers who treat patients in a clinical setting. But that distinction does not hold up. Washington licenses massage therapists too, and many of them practice in clinical settings alongside physicians and physical therapists, yet the town freely allows them to operate from home. By treating Nicole’s license as the dividing line, the town drew a distinction its own rules do not support.

Fundamentally, Nicole’s practice would burden the neighborhood no more than the home businesses Leavenworth already welcomes, yet the town bans hers alone. The result is that she cannot make a living the way she always has, nor serve her clients the way she knows works best for them. Instead, she pays rent on an office she never needed and spends her days away from the children she moved to Leavenworth to raise, all because of a distinction the town’s own ordinance was not meant to draw.

The Purpose of Zoning

Modern zoning is barely a century old. American cities began adopting comprehensive zoning codes in the early twentieth century, and the U.S. Supreme Court first upheld the practice in its 1926 decision Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., which approved the use of zoning to separate incompatible land uses. But because zoning restricts how people may use their own property, courts have always treated that power as a limited one. Zoning’s only justification is managing a property’s external effects—its impact on neighbors.

That means a zoning code may regulate the things that cross a property line, such as traffic, parking, or noise. What it cannot regulate, however, is what happens inside the home itself. A zoning ordinance has no business dictating a resident’s profession or license, the particular services they provide, or the color of paint they choose for their walls, because none of those things affect the neighborhood. When a town stretches its zoning power to police those internal details, it exceeds the only justification zoning has ever had.

Legal Claims

Now, Nicole is fighting back, not just for herself, but for so many others in her town and beyond who wish to earn a living from their homes.

Nicole has partnered with the Institute for Justice to challenge Leavenworth’s denial of her home occupancy permit because it has no relationship to the ordinance’s purpose and arbitrarily treats nearly identical occupations—physical therapy and massage therapy— differently.

The town’s interpretation of its code rests on factors such as professional licensure, patient care, and whether physical therapy is commonly practiced in a clinical setting. But those characteristics have nothing to do with zoning, which is concerned with neighborhood impacts such as traffic, noise, and preserving residential character.

The ordinance also provides no objective standard for deciding which occupations are “like or similar” to physicians, dentists, and chiropractors. Under the town’s interpretation, endless other licensed professionals could also be prohibited without any meaningful limitations. For example, a dietician who wanted to offer one-on-one advice would also be prohibited.

The federal and Washington constitutions prohibit governments from treating similarly situated businesses differently without a legitimate justification from their zoning codes. Because Leavenworth allows home businesses with the same neighborhood impacts while prohibiting Nicole’s, its interpretation is unlawful.

Nicole’s case seeks to ensure that zoning laws cannot arbitrarily prevent people from earning an honest living from their homes.

Litigation Team

The case team includes IJ Washington Office Managing Attorney Bill Maurer and IJ-Washington Litigation Fellow Riley Grace Borden. 

The Institute for Justice

The Institute for Justice (IJ) is the national law firm for liberty, dedicated to protecting Americans from arbitrary and abusive government power since 1991. Through its Zoning Justice Project, IJ challenges laws that prevent people from using their property in peaceful, traditional, and productive ways. The project includes defending home-based businesses from unfair zoning restrictions and includes defending a home recording studio in Tennessee, a family-run animal sanctuary in North Carolina, and a home auto shop in Pennsylvania.