PRESENTATION
Proposal 11: Update home occupation rules
0:48:45
·
6 min
Proposal 11 would modernize zoning rules for home-based businesses. Certain occupations currently prohibited would be allowed. These include barbershops, interior decorating, stock brokers, advertising, and PR agencies.
Businesses could have up to 3 non-resident employees and use up to 49% of the home's floor area. Safeguards against nuisances would remain.
Modifications were made to address concerns about housing competition and clarify enforcement.
Dan Garodnick
0:48:45
Proposal 11, home occupy patients.
0:48:49
As you all know, many New Yorkers start their businesses in their homes.
0:48:54
And zoning allows for a wide range of home business types.
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Today, including lawyers, jewelry makers, music teachers among many, many more.
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The pandemic changed how New Yorkers work from home, but Zoning has not kept up.
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Prohibiting specific occupations like barbers or interior decorators and other restrictions that are in zoning that are holding back business creation.
0:49:23
So we are proposing to enable entrepreneurship with modern rules for home based businesses while keeping in place safeguards to ensure that any home based business is not creating a nuisance.
0:49:35
So It would allow occupation types that today are explicitly prohibited in zoning.
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Barbers, interior designers, stock brokers, advertising or PR agencies.
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These in the New York City's owning resolution today strictly forbidden to do at home.
0:49:52
We would expand this employee, outside employee allowance from 1 to 3.
0:49:57
This already exists in a number of areas of the city.
0:50:00
And we would allow for the permitted size of a home business to increase from 25 or 500 square feet to 49% or 1000 square feet.
0:50:09
Again, this already exists in a number of areas of the city.
0:50:13
And we want to clearly define other types of hazards such as the danger of fire toxic, not just matter being prohibited in these areas.
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We obviously do not want to create a condition where people are doing noxious or harmful things from home.
0:50:27
Even while we want to give them the opportunity to say be a stock broker or barber in their own house.
0:50:34
Let's go to the next slide here.
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This is just a quick reminder.
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Of the existing limitations on business activity in the home that are unchanged.
0:50:51
By this proposal.
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Now we're not touching any of this.
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Business activity must be clearly incidental to or secondary to the residential use of the space.
0:50:59
You gotta live there.
0:51:02
It's gotta be home to you for it to be a home occupation.
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That's 1.
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2.
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At least one person, this is now repetitive carrying on the business.
0:51:10
Gotta live there in home.
0:51:12
Okay.
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Business cannot have exterior signage, exterior displays, displays of goods that's visible from outside.
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Cannot do that today, unchanged.
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You can't sell items that are produced in other places.
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So if you're making somebody something at home, well, you can sell it at home, but that's it.
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You can't produce it somewhere else and sell it in your house.
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Any home based business can't generate any noise, odor, dust, particulate matter, or other objectionable effects.
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Nuances cannot be tolerated in home businesses.
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Today, that's the rule unchanged.
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Enforcement on this stuff DOB investigates potential zoning violations of home occupations.
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Building owner could be fined for a violation.
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It could be grounds for terminating a lease.
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If there's a violation of the rules.
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And I will note, and this came up in the the community board, and city planning, commission process, This does not supersede any building's rules.
0:52:14
By our saying, you know what?
0:52:15
Doesn't make sense for us to strictly forbid an interior decorator from operating in his or her own home.
0:52:25
If the rules of the building don't allow it, the rules of the building don't allow it.
0:52:30
So zoning does not take the place of the individual rules of a building.
0:52:35
So lease agreements, co op agreements, and other residential legal documents supersede zoning and can place limitations that we just don't think we as New York City should be placing ourselves.
0:52:45
Okay.
0:52:46
All that stuff stays in place unchanged.
0:52:51
Next slide.
0:52:52
So we made a few changes at the city planning commission in response to community board concerns.
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We heard concern about competition between housing and commercial activity and about potential environmental effects and nuisances.
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And so we reinstated the cap of a 1000 square feet and 49% of the space in our proposal.
0:53:16
We clarified that home occupations can't use common areas in a residential building.
0:53:23
And we clarified the language from commercial districts also applies to home occupations, giving DOB and building management more clearly defined guidance to enable enforcement of a violation.
0:53:36
Okay?
0:53:36
It's another one pager that you have in front of you defining in greater detail some of the changes and some of the rules.
0:53:43
Next slide here.
0:53:44
And then this is just to illustrate where we have different rules in New York City today where we allow up to 3 employees and 49% of the space and a certain number of square feet, places like office conversions, the special Tribeca mixed use district, any MX district in the city, Queen's Plaza sub district, SoHo, NoHo.
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These are all areas where we have up to 3 employees in a home business and up to 49% of the total space can be used.
0:54:25
So we think those rules should be applicable more broadly recognizing the fact that people are living and working differently for us to have a list in zoning and say no.
0:54:37
These are the things that we think that you cannot do.
0:54:41
Is no longer the way for us to be thinking about this particular challenge.
0:54:46
Okay.