It Shouldn't Be Illegal to Work at Home

[EasyAce]

By Nick Sabilla
http://reason.com/archives/2018/03/24/it-shouldnt-be-illegal-for-rec

When Lij Shaw's daughter was born, he decided to work from home so he could spend more time with his family.

A record producer in Nashville, Shaw found a slightly offbeat solution to achieving work-life balance: Investing over $100,000, he completely soundproofed his house's detached garage and transformed it into The Toy Box Studio, a professional recording space featuring state-of-the-art digital equipment and classic analog devices. Over the next decade, Shaw hosted countless musicians, one of whom even mixed the album that won the first ever Grammy Award for Best Roots Gospel Album. During this time, not one of his neighbors ever complained to Shaw about noise, traffic, or anything else regarding his studio.

Nonetheless, in 2015, Nashville's code enforcement ordered Shaw to cease and desist. Only by dropping the studio's recording rates from his website and removing its address from Google Maps was he able to escape prosecution. Business for the studio—Shaw's main source of income—plummeted.

Nashville's zoning code bars most businesses from serving clients in the owner's home. Shaw tried to have his home rezoned. But though he received overwhelming support from dozens of neighbors and even some members of the city's planning commission, the Nashville Metro Council denied his application. And so in December, Shaw—along with the Institute for Justice, where I work, and the Beacon Center of Tennessee—filed a lawsuit challenging Nashville's client ban for home occupations. "A man's home is his castle," he says. "I should have the right to earn a living in mine."

The prohibition "makes outlaws out of perhaps thousands of Nashvillians who…are simply trying to earn an honest living," according to the suit. There are at least 1,600 home-based enterprises in operation in the city, and since many such companies are forced to operate illegally, the true count is most likely even higher . . .

[ABX]

If it pleases the crown, can I conduct my own but in my own dwelling?

I hope this crap doesn't catch on. I work at home 75% of the time when I'm not on the road and my wife does full time.

[EasyAce]

If it pleases the crown, can I conduct my own but in my own dwelling?

I hope this crap doesn't catch on. I work at home 75% of the time when I'm not on the road and my wife does full time.

I work from home too. I'm a free-lance editor/writer and blues guitarist/writer/arranger. (Among other things, I make demos of the songs I write for my new band
in my little home office, and I write formal charts for people who want my help to arrange their music.) One of my best friends turned two thirds of his house into
a fully equipped recording studio. My band rehearses at our bassist's home. Fortunately, Las Vegas seems to be more intelligent about such things. Seems to be.