Note the last line I quoted… In New Jersey no home business is technically legal without a zoning variance.! I wonder how soon New Jersey will be able to catch up with Red China in attempting to control people… at least they have text messaging in NJ too. (See yesterday’s post on Big Brother).
From NJ News Transcript…
FREEHOLD — Persistence pays off. At least it did for borough resident Raymond Raya of Court Street.
Raya’s persistence, passion, belief that what he was doing was right, as well as some revisions to his original plan, led members of the Zoning Board of Adjustment to approve a variance on Nov. 8 that was previously denied in July. The variance will enable Raya, who is an attorney, to work from home.
Voting to grant the variance for a home office with certain restrictions were board Chairman Kevin Mulligan and members Connie Murray, Catherine Buchalski, John Newman and William Barricelli. Voting against the variance was William Madigan.
Raya sought the variance because he wanted to have the ability to operate his legal practice in his home in order to have the ability to be with his family.
“I want to be able to sit by my window and do my work with my wife and family around me,� he said.
Raya and his wife, Mary Cozzolino, who are expecting their first child in June, applied for a use variance in July and that request was denied. At the time, they were contract purchasers of the home on Court Street.
During the summer, some residents appeared before the board to oppose the home office use, and board members decided that the use could result in additional vehicular traffic in an area that already has substantial traffic.
Raya and his wife returned before the board on Oct. 25. He said they had purchased their “dream� home despite the board’s denial of the home office use in July. Raya said he changed his original application and was no longer asking to be permitted to have clients come to his home. He said he would meet his clients in the office of a Freehold attorney, thereby eliminating his neighbors’ concerns about parking and traffic.
“We want to do this legally,� Raya said at the Oct. 25 meeting. “We want you to allow us to be up front about this. We’ve bent over backward to satisfy our neighbors. There will be no clients, no signs and no deliveries.�
He said he wanted to have the ability — legally — to take phone calls, to send and receive faxes, to send and receive business mail, and to be able to claim the office space on his income tax return.
Neither Freehold Borough nor the state has a law that permits home offices. The practice is technically illegal without a variance from the zoning board.
John Newman on January 2nd, 2006 at 9:10 am
Well, not illegal in NJ, not zoned for in the area were Mr. Raya wanted to live. Freehold is a residential area and the area was zoned as residential only. Therefore, Mr. Raya need a variance. His request for a variance was (finally) granted due to the minimal impact his busiiness would have. However, had Mr. Raya wanted the traditional law office, his application most likely would have been denied. His neighbors turned out in droves on his first application because he was going to have a traditional office, meaning seeing clients, etc. Mr. Raya shares a driveway with one neighbor, wanted a sign in front of his house, would have to have handicap access, and there was no legal parking directly in front of his house (you’d have to know where he lived to understand why there is no parking there). Therefore, his first application would have changed the character of the neighbor hood.
But as another article from the same day’s paper pointed out, afterwards (like that night afterwards) the zoning board talked to the borough council. A new ordinance is being passed that would allow home businesses that have no virtually impact to be approved without having to obtain a variance.
John Newman
Freehold Zoning Board member