The Village of Kensington Board of Trustees approved changes to the village’s zoning code Tuesday to clarify regulations on professional offices in homes.
The new law bans the rental of office space in single-family homes, overnight accommodations for customers or employees and excessive shipping to and from the office – areas not dealt with in the previous code.
Village of Kensington Mayor Susan Lopatkin said the goal was to reduce the law’s ambiguity.
“It’s a clarification,” said Lopatkin. “There have been two instances where suspected commercial use [of home offices] was occuring, and there was an instance where a prospective buyer wanted to clarify [the potential uses of the property] and we didn’t have clear parameters.”
“We’ve been discussing this for the last four months… we modified the local law to incorporate [public] comments,” she added.
While the previous law limited home commercial use to health-care offices, the new proposal allows any professional office to seek a permit with the exception of private schools and child-care facilities.
Both the and new and previous laws restrict the number of employees allowed to work out of a home office to one nurse, assistant or associate worker and one assistant or licensed practitioner.
The board was also scheduled to discuss a zoning amendment that would have given the Architectural Review Board greater flexibility in handling residential construction projects.
That proposal was tabled and will be modified prior to its next consideration by the Board of Trustees.
Reach reporter Dan Glaun by e-mail at dglaun@theislandnow.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x203. Also follow us on Twitter @theislandnow1 and Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.
