Atlas Twp.-Home business owners may find it just a little more friendly in the community.
At 7 p.m., Nov. 18, the township planning commission will host a public hearing to discuss amendments to the home occupation ordinance, which covers township businesses in the home.
Specifically, the changes to the ordinance will include allowing two employees that do not live in the home to work there, up to 30 vehicles per day may travel to the home, and one two-by-two sign in front of the house.
‘It’s proactive,? said Rick Misek, township planning commission chairperson.
‘We are encouraging more entrepreneurship. We need to loosen this up a little bit and become more home occupational friendly. It goes two ways: home businesses operating in a residential district and residential uses in a commercial or industrial district, both are the concern of the board.?
Misek said more people that don’t have work are beginning to do home occupations, from Tupperware to crafts to recording medical records.
Forrest Carter, associate professor of Marketing in the Eli Broad School of Business at Michigan State University, said communities coast-to-coast are trying to find ways to create entrepreneurship.
‘These Atlas Township amendments are somewhat ingenious,? said Carter. ‘The residents starting the home businesses in the township are utilizing their biggest asset, their homes, as capital. The down side is their largest asset is in the worst market’residential areas. These home business owners were perhaps very productive people in the automobile industry, and now are using this to start their own business.?
While the number of home-based businesses are unknown in the community, according to the U.S Bureau of Economic Analysis, the number of home- based businesses has increased.
From 2001-2006, the number of Oakland County self-employed people increased by 42,500, or 33 percent, from 128,000 in 2001 to 170,000 in 2006.