Seattle City Wire

In an effort to speed economic recovery as the COVID-19 pandemic recedes, the Seattle City Council passed a bill at its March 15 meeting that lifts several code restrictions on home businesses for the next year.

The measure — sponsored by council members Dan Strauss, Teresa Mosqueda and President M. Lorena Gonzalez — is called "Bringing Business Home" by its supporters, and it temporarily amends the city’s municipal code. Changes include allowing home businesses to receive walk-in customers, to increase the number of employees on-site and to install larger unilluminated signs.

Dan Strauss | Seattle.gov

“We know that the land use code was not written for life in a pandemic, and the land use code has not kept up with our changing environment,” Strauss said during the city council meeting. “Especially when we're doing more than ever from our homes.”

The bill was introduced to provide small business owners and entrepreneurs flexibility during the current challenging times, Strauss said. However, council member Alex Pedersen, in a post on his city council website, questioned the need for the bill’s blanket changes and suggested it could hurt existing small business districts.  

“I do not think it’s appropriate to make citywide land use changes based on anecdotes or conjecture,” he wrote. Pedersen was the lone opposition vote on the bill.

Testimony from Caitlin Braam of Yonder Cider, a walk-up bar in Seattle’s Greenwood neighborhood that closed last month after complaints that it was operating illegally in a residential zone, was one of two statements of support from local businesses that were entered into the record by Gonzalez. However, Strauss said the bill wasn’t just about Yonder.

“It's about the opportunity to start and grow a business that could soon fill a vacant storefront down the block or by giving a struggling small business the chance to move home for the moment to weather the storm and then come back in full bloom,” Strauss said during the meeting.

An amendment to the bill was unanimously passed on March 15. The amendment specifies home businesses cannot be drive-in businesses. It also states home businesses in the automotive retail sales and service industry cannot cause a significant increase to parking congestion or traffic in the area immediately around them.

Home-based businesses will still be regulated by other levels of government and public entities, such as the Department of Health, the Liquor Control Board and the state of Washington, Strauss said. In addition, home businesses still must abide by the noise, odor, light and smoke regulations that are currently written in the code.

“This bill means that it will be easier for people to start their dream of being a small business owner and help us get back to a city of vibrant small businesses,” Gonzalez said at the meeting.