Thanks for your support on this important issue. People lived, worked and grew up in close proximity. Children learned a work ethic at their parents side, watching and participating in the family business. Then the industrial revolution came along and variances were developed to separate the noise and pollution of manufacturing from residential areas. Well, the industrial age is giving way to the information age where a computer, modem and knowledge is often all that is needed to produce a valuable service.
Regulations have yet to catch up with the changing economy.
Large corporations are bragging about their ecology and employee-friendly policies that have employees telecommuting rather than putting them on the road to work everyday. This also save office space so that they have one third to one half as many desks as they have staff, lowering their overhead costs. Small business should have the options. The advantages of home-based businesses far outweigh the concerns. Disallowing home-based business, constitutes throwing the baby out with the bath water.