Nashville entrepreneurs are now legally allowed to have clients come to their home businesses.

After 1 a.m. Wednesday, the Metro Council voted 25-14 to allow musicians, beauticians and others to work from their primary home under newly established guidelines. That decision came after councilmembers held nine months of sometimes-tedious debates on the impact that allowing a permit could have on neighborhoods.

Councilmember Dave Rosenberg says this is an opportunity for people to come above board and for the city to regulate behavior that has already been happening for years.

“We’ve added a lot of protections for neighborhoods that don’t exist right now,” he says. “And that’s a great thing to have done, and add opportunity for our neighbor.“

Yet many neighborhood associations have voiced opposition to allowing people to operate businesses out of their homes.

Councilmember Brett Withers says his voters in East Nashvile aren’t pleased that people won’t have to play by the old rules that they were bound to.

“They really feel that this undoes their life’s work of creating a neighborhood that is mixed-use,” Withers says, “in places that have been carefully designed and thought through.”

A few of the restrictions are that customers will be allowed from 8 a.m. until 7 p.m., with a maximum of six total visits in a day.

Councilmembers that support the legislation say having a law on the books will help Nashvillians struggling economically because of COVID-19.

The bill will take effect immediately and undergo a review before Jan. 7, 2023. The full legislation is online here.