New Lewes panel begins home-based biz discussion

Lewes’ newest municipal panel has begun discussing what home-based businesses should be allowed in the city.

The Lewes Planning Commission’s Home Occupation Subcommittee was born out of an application by Sarah Prieto and Stephen Matthews. They want to open an at-home dog grooming business in the basement of their historic row home at 405 Savannah Road. That business is currently not on the list of home-based businesses permitted in Lewes.

The couple has made their case before mayor and city council, and the Lewes Planning Commission.

Their neighbors are opposed to having such a business located in the middle of a string of row homes. They cite noise, odor and already hard-to-find parking as reasons the city should keep dog grooming off the list.

The new subcommittee held its first meeting Oct. 30 at city hall. The LPC has tasked the group with determining what at-home businesses should be added to or removed from the city’s permitted list, dog grooming being one example.

It is considering a draft ordinance that would place at-home businesses in three categories: no impact, low impact and potential impact.

No impact would require little to no government involvement. The other two categories might include some restrictions on parking, hours and foot traffic.

The panel also discussed the possibility of scrapping the need for business licenses for at-home businesses.

Kevin Keane, the LPC commissioner who chairs the subcommittee, said the goal should be to make home-based businesses as nonintrusive as possible.

“We don’t want to undermine the residential character of the neighborhood,” Keane said.

The panel discussed a process by which neighbors would try to work out differences over the business before the city would step in.

Prieto said she and Matthews have been taking pictures outside their house three times a day, and that there is an average of 15 to 19 available parking spots.

“People say they can’t find parking, but that is untrue. We have evidence that our home-based business on Savannah Road is not going to be high impact. It will be very low impact,” Prieto told the panel.

She joined the meeting from Virginia, where she is grooming dogs two days a week, pending the decision in Lewes.

The row homes are zoned residential-commercial. They were built in the late 1890s and are located in the city’s historic district.

Susan Genereux, who formerly lived at 403 Savannah Road, told the panel she is concerned that renovations Prieto and Matthews have done do not meet standards of the Lewes Historic Preservation Architectural Review Commission.

“It seems the process has not gone for review to HPARC, not only for home-based businesses, but also what has already been altered to allow the business; there have been continuous violations,” Genereux said.

Matthews responded by saying they did not make any changes to the facade. He said they only removed dirt underneath and are dedicated to keeping the historic nature of the home.

LPC commissioners Rich Innes and Bill Wolff are also serving on the panel.

The subcommittee’s next meeting is scheduled for 11 a.m., Wednesday, Nov. 13, at city hall.

The agenda and meeting link can be found at lewes.civicweb.net.