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STEVENS POINT, WI (WSAU) — City planners in Stevens Point discussed a proposed home occupancy ordinance on Monday, aimed at limiting the size and scope of home office setups in residential neighborhoods.
Mayor Mike Wiza and others addressed areas of the proposal and issued some clarifications. That included a question from 7th District Alder Mary Kneebone who didn’t want the ordinance to keep people from engaging in art or a hobby due to language that restricts the use of welders “If someone is using [a welder] in an art studio, can they do that in their garage? That may be something [we have to look at] case-by-case.”
Mayor Wiza noted that residents would still be able to use welders to perform repairs on their own items or in an art project. They wouldn’t be able to run a welding shop out of their garage. “If my primary function is to weld or machine things that would be prohibited under this ordinance.”
Kneebone also questioned some restrictions on what could be used for storage, which Wiza says is not designed to keep residents from storing tools or yard equipment in an outdoor shed. It is designed to keep someone from storing items in an industrial-size container or empty semi-trailer. “I don’t think we want those sitting around in other people’s yards.”
Alder David Shorr clarified a portion of the ordinance regulating the number of outside employees that could come to the home. The ordinance currently allows any occupant of the home to work for the business along with two people who don’t reside in the home. This means a family of four could have as many as six people using the dwelling as their office. “It’s about comings and goings. How many employees are showing up every day because that’s their place of work? Keeping it to the people who live there, plus two.”
Mayor Wiza noted that the language does not limit the size of the business’s payroll. It only limits the number of people that work out of the home. “If Mike Wiza has a typing business and I employ five people- they all come to my house in the morning and start typing- that would be prohibited. But, if they are employees and they don’t come to my house to go to work, they work in other places, that is permitted.”
Both Wiza and Shorr noted that language is designed to limit traffic and parking congestion in a residential neighborhood.
Monday’s discussion did not come with a vote on the proposal. Leaders will continue to tweak the language and will bring it back for further discussion at a later date.
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