Utah County enacted a ban on certain kinds of home-based businesses Tuesday in what was described as an update of land-use rules to keep them relevant now that the county is rapidly urbanizing.

The change won't affect existing businesses, and most home businesses are in a different category than the one changed. It also doesn't solve a dispute between West Mountain neighbors that illuminated the issues at stake, although it likely will keep similar disputes from erupting in the future.

County commissioners approved the change 2-1. Commissioner Larry Ellertson dissented and said the change went too far.

"I just feel that we're painting with such a broad brush that we're eliminating everything," he said.

But the category deleted in areas zoned as residential-agricultural or mining and grazing -- "premises occupation," in which a small business is housed in a standalone building in a residential area -- is less relevant these days, said Utah County community development director Jeff Mendenhall.

The original aim was to let farmers operate a side business to supplement income.

"The principal intent of it ... was for a farmer, during the wintertime or sometime when things are slow, and he's out there repairing his harvester, he might repair somebody else's, too," Mendenhall said. "We don't find that's what's really happening."

In fact, in most cases these days it's the farm that provides supplementary income, he said.

There are only five premises occupation operations in unincorporated Utah County, so "I don't think it's a big change at the moment," Mendenhall said. But it's a nod to the county's growth, he added: "Houses are getting closer together. It's becoming more residential."

Commissioners also heard from someone who lives next to one of the five businesses and favored removing this particular zoning category.

Clifford Argyle's neighbor operates a cabinet-making business behind his house, and Argyle said the noise from the equipment and the smell of the materials keep him from enjoying his property.

"It has destroyed my quality of life," Argyle said. "I do not want someone else to go through what I have gone through for some time."

The change approved Tuesday doesn't apply to this case, but Argyle has asked for commissioners to review his neighbor's business license. That hearing is scheduled for May. The license could be amended or even revoked.

The neighbor, Clay Boardman, said that he's complying with all the rules and that he hasn't heard complaints from any other neighbor, although Argyle lives closest to him. Mendenhall confirmed that county officials had tested the noise levels, and "as far as we know, the decibel level at the property line passed."

Boardman and his family also raise cattle on the property, and locating his one-man shop there makes it easier to stay agriculturally viable.

"This basically subsidizes me enough so that I am able to have a farm," Boardman said. "I enjoy it, and it teaches my kids how to work.

"He's coming at me when all I did was do what the county told me to do. I'm willing to work with him any way I can ... that's reasonable, cost-wise. But I don't see what I could ever do to make him happy."