Pat Raynor

The author is requesting an exemption so she can keep cutting hair at home.

Pat Raynor lives in Donelson.

When was the last time you heard of a noise or other complaint against somebody for taking the occasional hairstyling appointment in their home?

If you lived in Donelson, just 15 minutes east of downtown Nashville, you would probably never know that I operated a small, state-licensed hair salon business in my garage.

There was no traffic or disruptive clients, and my hairstyling sessions were invisible from the street. But in 2014, the Nashville Codes Department sent three agents to shut the salon down, despite my approval from the state Cosmetology Board, and threatened city criminal fines if it reopened.

As it turns out, it is illegal in Nashville to serve a customer in a home for any reason. The law was added in 1998 as part of a rewrite to the zoning ordinance without any public debate.

I’ve worked in hairdressing my whole life. After 66 years, I am proudly independent and want to keep working. But I will have to sell my home and live off Social Security if Nashville keeps me from reopening my salon.

Without my home business, I have to work a physically exhausting schedule late into the night, even in winter, to pay $135 in rent every week for a one chair commercial salon.

The only way to work manageable hours, cut expensive rent costs, and avoid a dangerous commute is to work from home.

Now I’m asking the local government: Why should it be illegal to cut hair, teach a music lesson, or tutor kids in Music City?

The Metro Council knows the home-business ban is ridiculous and needlessly hurts local businesspeople like me who are trying to earn an honest living.

At a public hearing in 2011, many councilmen acknowledged that many home-based businesses already existed and were technically illegal but harmless. Still, lawmakers voted 21-11 to kill a reform bill that would have allowed home based businesses to serve 10 customers a day.

Some councilmen claim the current law works because the Codes Department only goes after “bad” home based businesses. But my story shows this talking point is false. When the department shut down my home based salon, it was not too noisy, crowded, dirty or unsafe. They shut down my business because an anonymous tipster reported that it exists. In Nashville, that existence is a crime.

Others say that businesses don’t belong in residential neighborhoods. But look around: Amazon, UPS, the Postal Service, and other home delivery firms bring business into residential neighborhoods every day — to say nothing of your friendly neighborhood landscaper, babysitter, dog walker or pest controller.

Steve Jobs started Apple, now the world’s most valuable company, in his garage. It doesn’t make sense to outlaw safe, quiet and manageable small businesses in the comfort and privacy of home.

On Tuesday the Metro Council will hear my application to rezone my home — and my home only — to allow me to discreetly serve clients in my garage again.

I don’t like asking for special treatment, but it is the process the city has forced on me and other local business owners to maintain some independence in life’s golden years. But it should not have to be this way.

If the Metro Council repeals the unfair and unreasonable ban on home-based businesses, a new set of rules can help grow the local economy and benefit the whole city.

Pat Raynor lives in Donelson.