Home-Based Business and Occupation Act
Modernizing Zoning Laws to Allow Home-Based Businesses
The pre-COVID custom of Americans living in one place and working in another is historically unusual. As one scholar noted, “The phenomenon of leaving home to go to work did not become the norm until the Industrial Revolution.” Even then, home-based businesses never went away.
As states began adopting the Standard Zoning Enabling Act (SZEA) in the 1920s, which authorized municipal governments to segregate industrial uses out of residential districts, states made accommodations for those working from home. By the 1950s, zoning ordinances reflected a consensus that “home occupations” were permitted by right in residentially-zoned homes. But home occupation permits were often reserved for “feminine occupations” and “high prestige” professions.
The pandemic returned a wide swath of the American workforce to working from home. The percentage of Americans who commute to an office may never return to pre-COVID levels, and many workplaces now offer hybrid working arrangements, where workers continue to work from home a couple of days per week.
Yet today’s zoning laws remain relics of the 20th century. Too many home occupation ordinances impose archaic restrictions on client visits, interior design, and other in-home matters that are not the government’s business. Zoning ordinances should regulate the effects of a home occupation on a neighborhood, not the private conduct itself.
IJ’s model legislation brings home occupation ordinances into the 21st century by modifying the Standard Zoning Enabling Act at the state level.
Modern land use regulation is remarkably uniform in its general principles, and 47 states have adopted the SZEA in one form or another. IJ’s model makes modest changes to zoning law while clarifying that home occupations, so long as they do not disturb neighbors, are allowed as an accessory use in residential homes. This important clarification modernizes zoning laws and provides certainty and flexibility to residents.
IJ defends property rights by fighting abusive zoning laws nationwide.
IJ’s Zoning Justice Project aims to end zoning abuse by protecting the right of all Americans to productively and peacefully use property.
