CRIMINALS NO MORE : HOME-BUSINESS OWNERS APPLAUD NEW ORDINANCE.

Byline: Lee Condon Daily News Staff Writer

Mandy Wildman is leaving her job today as a technical writer for Treasury Services Corp. - and going home for good.

Not that she's quit working, though.

Next week she'll start her new job, launching a home-based business designing and sewing Victorian wedding dresses and costumes.

After years of mulling over the idea, the 38-year-old Kagel Canyon resident said she's taking the leap because she's expecting her first child in February.

``It was the final impetus to make me say I want to do it,'' said Wildman, who also will continue doing some technical writing at home.

In creating a home-based business, Wildman will become one of 338,000 residents in Los Angeles County to operate a business out of their residences.

But unlike the home-business pioneers before her, she won't have to become a criminal in order to become an entrepreneur.

Home-based businesses received the preliminary go-ahead from the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday, to legitimize what until now has been an illegal - though rarely penalized - activity.

For many home entrepreneurs, it means they can come out of their private, commercial shadows.

``It's about time,'' said Cyndi Seidler, who has been running her Lake View Terrace business from home for two years.

For Seidler, the laws against home businesses forced her to secure a post office box and have a second phone line installed so as not give away the fact that she was running her Handygirl Professional Organizing Service in her residence.

Julia Neiman, a 47-year-old Sun Valley resident who runs a research firm and a dog kennel at her home, said, ``Passing (the ordinance) is just legalizing what is already going on.''

In the past, home business owners were vulnerable to the whims of their neighbors, she said.

``If the neighbors wanted to get someone, all they had to do was call the city,'' Neiman said. ``(The city) could confiscate your computer. I think people have a right to make some money at home by typing.''

Although many home businesses will become legal, others will still be banned. These include adult entertainment, automotive repair, dentistry, body piercing and massages.

Leona Koudelka, a 26-year-old massage therapist from Sylmar, said the city should not discriminate against legitimate, licensed massage therapists like her just because some prostitutes hide behind the massage name.

``There are too many females out there who call themselves massage therapists but who are actually prostitutes,'' she said.

Instead of legislating against massage therapists, she added, police should call all the massage therapists to determine who is offering legitimate massages and who is offering sex for sale.

``The city should get the prostitutes out of the way, give them a bigger fine,'' Koudelka said.

The new ordinance, sponsored by Councilwoman Laura Chick and Councilman Rudy Svorinich, would only legalize businesses that could meet performance standards designed to keep them from becoming neighborhood nuisances.

Those standards limit the storage of business materials inside homes and restrict client visits to no more than one per hour between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. They also ban excessive noise and on-site training of workers.

There is some flexibility, however, to decide which businesses are appropriate for various sections of the city.

Permits will be $25 once the ordinance is finalized, Chick said. Fee revenue would be used to pay for implementation and administrative costs of the program.

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Photo: (Color) Cyndi Seidler has been running a business in her home in Lakeview Terrace for two years.

Myung J. Chun/Daily News