Comment by 2ICofafireteam | Hacker News Reader

Comment by 2ICofafireteam | Hacker News Reader

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One prohibits industry and the other prohibits obnoxious behaviour.

No matter what, zoning won't let me have a machine shop in my garage. The thing is that machine shops aren't all the same:

If I'm servicing heavy equipment there will be low-beds delivering equipment, a driveway full of grit, disassembled machines and oil stains along with welding and arc-air gouging, etc. Not something you want next door; nuisance laws stop this.

If I'm making parts for medical instruments, everything is inside, you can't see or hear any of it when I close the door, and traffic consists of me making weekly trips to buy bar stock and the occasional courrier van. What nuisance is that?

Both are machine shops but they are far from having the same impact on a street.

I grew up next to a small factory / machine shop. By small I mean a factory the size of 3 acres and maybe 30 employees. There was essentially zero nuisance, I couldn't hear the machine shop running unless I was within 10 feet of the wall. This would fall under light industrial most likely, essentially no pollution. I see no reason why this small factory, or similarly a small coffee shop would be banned from being in a residential neighborhood. The "nuisance" argument is exaggerated to absurd levels when you can barely notice them.

Right on.

It would be safe to assume a business with 30 employees would bring nearly 30 cars into the street and a coffee shop could increase foot traffic.

These things aren't necessarily true, but those assumptions aren't necessarily unreasonable. I think this is where things break down.

Out my way, when zoning does allow home-based business, restrictions are mainly about yard/accessory building usage, customer traffic/parking, and number of non-resident employees(I assume because of parking).

I see it as an honest attempt to prevent nuisance activity while allowing some flexibility but it also seems lazy and too restrictive. My hypothetical garage based machine shop could be non-conforming and be one complaint away from being shut down no matter how unobtrusive it is.

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