Owners of Smyrna home businesses no longer will have to seek signatures from their neighbors before the city will approve their businesses - unless they reside in an apartment.
This change and a few others were approved 7-0 in April by the Smyrna City Council.
A few apartment complexes within Smyrna do not allow home businesses to operate in the complex, according to Community Development Director Russell Martin, Planner I Caitlin Crowe and Business License Officer Kelly Moon in a memo.
However, other apartments prefer to be informed of incoming home businesses to their complex, they added.
“Either way, it is advantageous to keep the apartment radius letter requirement,” the memo said.
As for homes that are not apartments, “by continuing to require the radius letter signatures, many citizens have stated an invasion of privacy and have questioned the rationale behind obtaining their neighbor’s signatures,” they added.
Other changes are to allow one-chair beauty salons and emergency consultations and treatments in the home by physicians, dentists and lawyers.
“Code enforcement cannot prove if an interaction is an emergency or not,” the memo added.
As of January 2019, 21 percent of home occupations are internet sales; and 76 percent are considered administrative, including construction, catering and mobile car wash, Martin, Crowe and Moon said in the memo.
Currently, home business licenses are handled administratively through Business License Officer Kelly Moon and do not go in front of the Mayor and Council at any point since 97 percent of the businesses are administrative or internet sales - whether new or a renewal, the memo added.
Information: SmyrnaCity.legistar.com/calendar.aspx
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