A soon-to-be graduate of Paul Kane High School is hoping the city and city council will make the necessary changes to St. Albert's land use bylaw (LUB) in order for him to operate a home-based car detailing business — something he was doing for almost a year before learning it was prohibited.
Liam Grant started Heritage Auto Detailing last spring as a hobby, but it wasn't long afterwards that his services became pretty popular and it became a full-time job for the 18-year-old.
In an interview, Grant said he reached a peak of doing two appointments a day last fall, with most vehicles taking between three to five hours to service. It was at this point he decided it was time to become more official, so to speak, and applied for a business licence from the city.
Over the winter, Grant said he largely relied on being able to use his garage in Heritage Lakes to clean and polish his customer's cars, but in April, about two months after being issued a business licence, he received an email from the city saying he wasn't allowed to operate from his home, as the services he offered were prohibited as a home-business under the LUB. He was told to stop operating from home or face possible fines and have his licence revoked.
“It was last fall I decided to get a business licence, so I just applied on the city's website,” Grant explained. “I got an email back from them and they were like, ‘Yes, everything's good, you can operate.’”
In the city's April email to Grant, parts of which were shared with the Gazette, a business licensing staff member said after reviewing the photos published on the business's Facebook page, the city took notice Grant was operating from his home and warned this was “unlawful.”
“You are allowed to perform auto-detailing administrative work from your residence ... and you are allowed to perform mobile detailing where you attend a client's home, but nothing else,” the email reads.
“Compliance with this is compulsory, or your licence will end up being revoked.”
In an email, the city's director of economic development, Mike Erickson, told the Gazette the city's initial granting of the licence was conditional on only administrative duties being performed at the home, and he maintained this distinction was made in an email to Grant in February when the licence was approved.
Since April, Grant has switched to only offering mobile services, something he said he was doing about 30 per cent of the time before the city's warning. But it has come at the cost of losing customers because detailing work requires access to water and power, which isn't always possible if his clients live in an apartment or condo, for example.
“It's still really busy right now, but there's still a lot of people that I have to say no to,” Grant said, estimating business has dropped by about 30 per cent.
“I can't bring water with me, so it's hard.”
In what may be opportune timing for Grant, the city is nearly finished a two-year re-write of the city's LUB, a draft of which includes some slight rule changes for home-based businesses.
READ MORE: St. Albert nears final stages of land-use bylaw update
Although the changes being proposed are largely limited to allowing some types of home-based businesses to have up to four employees who don't live at the residence, the draft LUB also introduces a "levels" system for defining different types of acceptable home-based businesses.
For example, a “Level 1” home-based business involves a permanent resident of the home working in an office setting with no employees. A Level 2 home-based business would also be operated by a resident inside their home or in an accessory building on the property, with one non-resident employee. The draft LUB says a Level 2 home-based business cannot be related to animal care, automotive services or speciality service, or be a drycleaning operation.
A Level 3 home-based business, as defined in the new draft LUB, can have up to four non-resident employees, and some examples of allowed business types include contracting services, “automotive and autobody repair, and onsite light fabrication.”
However, in an email, the city's director of planning and development Adryan Slaght said it's the city's intention to still prohibit car detailing as a type of permitted home-based business under the proposed changes to the LUB because of noise and parking concerns.
“There are also environmental concerns about the soaps and chemicals that may be used as part of the business operation,” Slaght said. “Water containing detergents, potentially gasoline, possible heavy metals from rust, and motor oils could flow directly to the storm drain system.”
“This eventually then leads these contaminants into the storm ponds and then the river, where it can harm water quality and wildlife.”
Slaght did not explain how these concerns are managed by allowing businesses like Grant's to be mobile operations, where operators travel to customers' homes to perform services.
When it comes to Level 3 home-based businesses, as proposed under the new draft LUB, Slaght said although the draft indicates automotive and autobody repair businesses would be permitted, Level 3 businesses will only be allowed in two specific land use districts: Future Urban Development and Transitional.
Both the Future Urban Development and Transitional districts can be thought of as placeholders that will likely be re-districted to, for example, High Density Residential, once development is actually planned for the area. Level 3 businesses won't be allowed in any residential district, Slaght said.
“Overall, automotive uses are considered to be better suited to commercial, industrial and non-residential land use districts, and not appropriate for a ‘Home Occupation.’”
Some members of council said they'd be open to considering changes to the city's LUB to allow businesses like Grant's to be home-based, but they'd need more information about what additional rules might need to be put in place.
“I just want to know what the potential consequences are before we move forward, both good and bad,” said Coun. Sheena Hughes, who said she'd be interested in discussing the change.
Likewise, Coun. Shelley Biermanski said she'd expect parking considerations to be a major issue if car detailing was allowed as a home-based business, but she'd also need to have more information before deciding if she was in favour.
“I'm happy to help any business succeed — that's what we all want — but we have to stay within the parameters of what can work with the neighbours and neighbourhood as well,” Biermanski said.
On the other hand, Coun. Mike Killick said he didn't think allowing businesses like Grant's to be home-based would be “well-received” by residents.
“I think that would create a whole bunch of traffic problems and parking problems,” Killick said.
“I hope everybody understands that these are the rules across the city for all businesses. We're not picking on one particular business by any means.”
For his part, Grant said he thought car detailing was far less disruptive than how it's characterized by the city, and the city should be doing more to support entrepreneurs.
“Everything I do is literally just cleaning,” he said. “I'm not even operating any power tools other than a vacuum and a hand drill to brush out carpets.”
“Someone drops their car off, it stays on my property the whole time and if anything it's in the garage, and no one hears anything, no one sees anything.”
“More and more people are wanting to be entrepreneurs, and I think as a city it's really important to be supporting these people and understanding what they're doing and where they're coming from.”
The draft LUB is expected to presented to council this fall.
