Dear Editor,
How do we decide where to live? Investment potential? Family security? Community? All of these factors are taken into consideration when we purchase our homes. When we purchase a home in a residential setting, should we have an expectation of living next to a business with employees? I do not believe so.
Currently, Zoning Ordinance 78 defines residential base businesses as Home Occupations. One of the sections of this ordinance states, ‘only the residents of the dwelling unit may be engaged in the home occupation.? Home Businesses can have employees, they just cannot be based in the home. There are home businesses scattered throughout our township that, for the most part, go unnoticed because they adhere to Ordinance 78. After all, isn’t that the ideal test of the Home Occupation guidelines?
So why does our township board want to eliminate this section of Ordinance 78, thus allowing an unlimited number of employees to operate out of a single residence?
Is this something that any board member would welcome into their subdivision and want to live next to? Will this improve the quality of life in our residential areas or detract from it? Does the current economic climate justify the widespread ramifications of this zoning change? Will this ordinance change further diminish the values of our homes and challenge the stability of our neighborhoods?
I, for one, do not see the benefit to our community by the changing of Ordinance 78 as it pertains to Home Occupation. I would like to know why this board feels compelled to make a negative change to an ordinance that, for the better part of 20 some years, has worked and worked well.
Please let the township know how you feel about this issue.
Joseph Geraci