The Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury is considering a change to a legal grey area in its bylaws to officially allow more home businesses, including piano and swimming lessons.
On Tuesday, the BWG committee of the whole, which is made up of council members, asked town staff to start a public consultation process, which includes a public meeting, about whether the town should change its home occupations zoning bylaw.
“We’re trying to allow our residents to branch out and have home businesses,” said Mayor Rob Keffer. “That’s good that we are looking at expanding.”
Under the current bylaw, all home businesses must be operated within the main dwelling, so a job teaching backyard swimming lessons is technically not permitted in BWG. However, council has previously agreed to allow that home business to continue until it makes a formal decision and approves a zoning bylaw amendment.
While indoor teaching, such as music lessons, has “always been permitted as a home occupation so long as Zoning By-law provisions are respected,” town staff recommended making it formal to stop any from growing into a commercial school, according to a town report.
Some of the staff-recommended changes to the zoning bylaw include:
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Allow business owners to sell goods from their homes, as long as they are not the primary reason for the business’ existence
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Formally permit indoor teaching
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Permit fitness instruction
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Permit outdoor swimming lessons
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Permit catering business
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Permit home-based medical practitioners
To cut down on traffic and parking concerns for the latter, town staff recommended limiting the number of medical patients that can be seen at any one time, the frequency of appointments, the number of exam rooms, and the hours of operation.
“It would be incumbent on the practitioner to obtain and retain any required licenses pertaining to the practice of their profession,” the town staff report added.
With concerns to noise from outdoor swimming lessons, town staff wrote in a report that a case could be made it would be “no more impactful than the pool owner entertaining a number of children, friends or family for social swims,” but the number of students and hours of operation should be limited.
BWG Coun. Gary Lamb asked staff whether Airbnb will be part of the discussions behind any home occupation zoning bylaw changes.
“Someone can turn their house into a hotel unit without parking,” he said, suggesting Airbnb renters could host big parties.
Staff said they intend to include Airbnb as part of a future public meeting discussion.
The zoning bylaw issue stems from 2016, when BWG council requested information from staff about broadening home-based businesses after several people requested zoning bylaw permissions, read a town report.
In May 2017, council asked staff to start a general review of the home occupation section of the zoning bylaw and report back with any recommended changes.
Currently, there are several regulations for home occupations to ensure they are small in scale and have few negative effects on other homes. These include:
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Must be operated inside; not allowed to use any accessory building, yard or private garage
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Shall not create noise, vibration, fumes, odour, dust, glare or radiation that is detectable outside the home
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Specific prohibited uses include adult entertainment, paint shop, tattoo parlour, pet salon and fitness centre
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Maximum floor area is 50 square metres
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Person who runs the business must live there
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One non-resident employee is allowed
Home businesses can result in “an efficient use of existing infrastructure and housing stock,” read the town report.
“At this point in its history BWG is home to a significant number residents that commute to locations outside of the Town for work. In consideration of this the Town continues to work to diversify the local economy,” the report read.
Home occupations can offer flexibility, provide local services, and contribute to a “local consumer base that allows local dollars to remain in BWG,” it read.
Risks for expanding home occupations could include the potential for more complaints related to noise, increased on-street parking and vehicular traffic, and “perhaps a perceived negative change in the neighbourhood character,” read the report.
“Traditionally home occupations are expected to be essentially undetectable to the neighbourhood. Any new permission provides the potential for home occupations to become more prevalent and detectable,” it read.
