Nashville Standard

The Nashville Metropolitan Council overwhelmingly approved a new ordinance last week to allow home businesses to serve customers in their private homes, and many are applauding the move.

The new ordinance will allow certain businesses including recording studios, beauty shops, tutors and other home businesses, to serve clients in their home, the Tennessean reported.

The Institute of Justice and the Beacon Center of Tennessee have been litigating since 2017 to end the city’s ban, and in a prepared statement the institute said the new ordinance will allow home businesses to have six customer visits a day, six days a week.

"This is a welcome and necessary change,” said Braden Boucek, vice president of legal affairs for the Beacon Center, in an email to the Nashville Standard. “Many Americans work out of their homes, from tutors to piano instructors. Apple was founded in a garage. This is a quintessential American value. Nashville, in particular, has long seen the music business driven by home studio and recording artists. It should never have been illegal to make music in Music City, and we're glad it no longer is.”

Keith Diggs, attorney for the Institute for Justice, said in an email, "Home businesses are great for people who either can’t or don’t want to take out a bank loan to start up a business. Everyone in Nashville—even the folks who opposed this ordinance—knew that there were home businesses in every neighborhood already.

"The impact for these home businesses is that they no longer have to hide for fear of arbitrary code enforcement. For people who didn’t have a home business before, the ordinance gives entrepreneurs a new way to grow their business while so much activity in dense commercial centers is effectively paused."

The council’s decision to allow home businesses to serve clients is a positive for the city and for people who cannot afford to work outside of the home due to costs such as commercial rent, according to Boucek.

“Many people cannot afford commercial rents or large studio space," he said. "Many people are parents and need to work from home. Lij Shaw is an award-winning music producer who takes care of his daughter. Pat Raynor is a semiretired widow. Working out of her home allows her to support herself with dignity. Everyone understands that there are many sorts of businesses that can and are run out of the home and only enhance a neighborhood's appeal.”

Shaw and Pat filed a lawsuit against the city of Nashville. Shaw is a Nashville music producer who ran a recording studio from his home and Raynor is a widowed hairstylist. Shaw was served with a cease and desist order in 2015 and has been fighting the city every since. Raynor was shut down by the city in 2013 even though she had a state-approved license to cut hair in her home. 

"My clients are my neighbors," Raynor said in a prepared statement. “I’ve been waiting for this for seven years and I’m glad to see Nashville entering the 21st Century.”

“So many of us in Nashville need to work from home,” said Shaw in prepared remarks.  “Letting people work from home will save home studios in Nashville.” 

When asked if he knew of other cities with bans like Nashville's, Diggs said, "not in any city of Nashville's size or stature. Nashville’s client ban was an extreme outlier."

Boucek agreed and said, "Nashville had the most oppressive home business laws we are aware of. This bill puts Nashville more in line with other cities, allowing people to work from home while still preserving the residential character of our neighborhoods.” 

Boucek added that the new ordinance, “allows small businesses to exist. It's particularly urgent now, when the city of Nashville is strongly urging people to work from home.”

For his part, Diggs said he's heard from many Nashville residents about the restrictive home business ban. 

"... I’ve visited Nashville dozens of times over the last several years and have heard from many affected Nashvillians about this issue," he said. "Many were afraid to speak out for fear of being targeted by NIMBY [not in my back yard] activists and reported to Metro Codes. They no longer have to live or work in fear."

According to the Institute of Justice,  approximately 1,600 home-based businesses operating within Nashville's city's limits were considered illegal under a provision added in 1998 to the the city's residential zoning ordinance that prohibited any "home occupations" from serving clients on the property.