PROVO — It's OK to have a home-based scrapbooking business in Utah County. But think again if you're eyeing your garage as potential office space.

According to an ordinance passed Tuesday by Utah County commissioners, new home businesses in the county's unincorporated territory will have to be contained to individual residences — making garages, carports and any other areas outside of the dwelling units off-limits.

"We're just finding that, basically (the purpose of having a home-business license) is not what it used to be: an access for the farmer to have some secondary income," Community Development Director Jeff Mendenhall said at Tuesday's County Commission meeting. "It's becoming kind of a primary income for somebody living in the county, and (a secondary income) is really what it's meant to be."

The ordinance, which will not apply to already-existing businesses, will restrict home operations to no more than 500 square feet in the home or 20 percent of the residence, whichever is smaller.

The ordinance also removes a previous option that allowed home-business owners to use their garages or build a detached, 900-square-foot or smaller facility to house a "premises occupation."

"The problem was, when (home-business owners) started in the garage, and they found they needed more space, so they moved outside of the garage," Mendenhall said. "Some people in the past have had mechanics shops and then, all of a sudden, you start seeing parts being stored outside of the garage. Usually, the things people use the garage for, they tend to spill outside, rather than when they're only in the home area."

Although only five premises-occupation licenses have been granted in Utah County, Mendenhall said the county's current code, which allows garages to be used for regular home businesses, is difficult to enforce.

Clifford Argyle, a resident of West Mountain, said he's had a bad experience living next to a neighbor with a premises occupation license. The premises occupation license allows his neighbor to build cabinets for a business, but Argyle says the operation belongs in an industrial zone, not next to his house in a residential zone.

According to Argyle, the business is loud, noxious with the smell of lacquer and disruptive with lumber deliveries and visiting clients.

"It has destroyed my quality of life," Argyle told county commissioners. "You do not put industrial uses next to residential. ... It shouldn't be there. I have it next to mine."

The commission voted 2-1 to change the ordinance. Commissioner Larry Ellertson said he voted against the ordinance because it could be too restrictive for those who can run home businesses and don't disturb their neighbors.

"We've got a whole lot of future ahead of us, and there are people who may want to make a living in a way other than driving somewhere to work," Ellertson said. "To put this into perspective, we're talking about trying to find ways to reduce traffic problems and all of these things and we're going to find more and more movement toward those kinds of things over time, and we're limiting that opportunity with what we're looking at today."

Mendenhall said the ordinance will become effective within 15 days, around April 4, or when there's a public notice in a newspaper.

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