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City solicitor warns long lists and strict hours could make new Salem home-occupation ordinance hard to enforce
Summary
City solicitor James Wellick urged a clear, characteristic-based definition for home occupations rather than long enumerated lists and highlighted enforcement challenges for hours and structural-change prohibitions.
At the committee review of proposed home-occupation zoning language, City Solicitor James Wellick advised councilors that overlong lists of allowed professions risk producing ambiguous interpretations and enforcement headaches. "I don't think that we should have the list of home occupation shall be limited to the following and similar uses," he said, urging a definition built around characteristics of the activity rather than a non-inclusive list of professions.
Wellick also questioned prescriptive restrictions such as fixed shutoff hours or blanket bans on structural changes, noting the difficulty of applying those rules to varied work-from-home activities (for example, an author working after 7 p.m. or a homeowner adding a small dormer). Councilors responded that a short, robust definition and a narrowly drawn prohibited-uses list could strike the right balance between clarity and flexibility; the committee asked the solicitor and staff to draft revised language for a future joint public hearing.
