Heather Chlup finally has passed the final hurdle to obtaining a special land use permit (SLUP) from the city of Dunwoody so she can give violin lessons from her home on Brierwood Place. City Council Monday unanimously passed the application on second reading, ending an arduous four-month process.
Chlup made application on March 19 with the city to obtain a SLUP that would allow her to establish a “home occupation with customer contact” in her home—in this case a private educational use to provide one-on-one violin lessons to students.
She is not the first person in DeKalb County to seek a special land use permit (SLUP) to operate an educational business out of her home. She is not even the first Dunwoody person to seek a SLUP. But she was the first to seek a SLUP since Dunwoody became a city.
So, Chlup most certainly was breaking new ground in the city of Dunwoody.
“Councilman Robert Wittenstein thanked me directly last night for being patient, because I was the City's "guinea pig" in this process,” Chlup told The Crier on Tuesday morning. “And I understand that because of that, I may have had to be more patient than what would normally be required.”
Chlup said she is relieved that “I can now get on with the business of teaching because, essentially, that is what this whole process is about—children who want to learn the violin and giving me an opportunity to teach from my home.
“I'm excited,” she explained. “I have started to outfit my home studio in preparation with colorful displays, furniture and other teaching aids. It's starting to feel like back in the days when I was an elementary classroom teacher and had my room all decorated up. Kids like color and stimuli and so do I. I can't wait to open my doors to students.”
Chlup chose to follow all the rules and seek the special land use permit that others who provide such services might just bypass. She followed all the rules, filed all the proper paperwork, got nine emails of approval from neighbors and even advertised her intentions in a public notice in the newspaper.
She thought she had done everything right. The city planning staff seemingly agreed, and the Community Council agreed and approved her application on April 14 with a vote of 6-0, with one member absent.
By all rights, her application at that point should have been on its way to the Planning Commission for approval and then on to City Council for the final step.
But the city attorney decided there was a glitch in the way the April 14 Community Council meeting had been advertised and said Chlup’s application had to be heard and voted on again at the May 9 meeting. In fact, the entire April agenda had to be voted on again in May because of the “notification technicality.”
The city had to change the wording in its ordinance dealing with public notification as a result.
Chlup is a certified elementary teacher with degrees in both music and music eduction and has taught students for the past 15 years both in her previous homes and in public and private school systems. She has conducted string orchestras and choirs on three continents and is a member of the American String Teachers Association.
Her home is on a cul-de-sac at the end of Brierwood Place in the Briers North community. Her intention is to use one room at the rear of her home as a music teaching studio in order to teach the violin to private students. Lessons would only involve one student at a time, not groups of students.
She stated in her application that the students most likely will be minors accompanied by a parent and only one vehicle would be required, “which can be accommodated on the property’s long driveway.” She said lessons would not involve the use of a stereo, loud speakers, microphones or any other such amplification equipment.
Chlup said in the end she got essentially what she had asked and hoped for when she started the process in March.
“There were some conditions placed on it, such as the fact I can only teach one student at any one time and cannot hold recitals on my premises. However, I indicated in my application that I did not intend to either teach in groups or hold recitals at my home, so I saw this coming and am totally agreeable to it,” she explained.
“I also cannot use amplification equipment or percussion instruments (other than a piano or keyboard). But seeing as I am a violin teacher, I didn't think those conditions were that necessary anyway, since I never indicated I would be using them,” she said. “I guess now though, if I wanted to use castanets, tambourines, triangle or wood blocks to assist my students in learning rhythm, those are excluded under the conditions too.” She said sometimes these instruments help children develop their rhythmic abilities.
“I am happy with the outcome, but it was anti-climactic rather than exciting like I had hoped and I'm sure this was due to the fact I was just exhausted from the whole process and the amount of work I did to get it,” Chlup stated. In addition to spending a lot of time, she said the process also cost quite a bit of money. “There was the $500 for the permit application and $160 “to have the city's sign erected in our front garden.”
Asked when she plans to begin giving violin lessons, Chlup said, “I have a few steps to complete first. I now need to obtain a regular business license from the city of Dunwoody (the one you need when you don't require customer contact at your home).” She also said she has some paperwork to complete to establish the form of business, and she needs to obtain liability insurance for the business.
“Finally, I need to start looking around for students,” she added. “I expect within a month from now, just in time for the new school year. It can't come soon enough.”
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