Ask HN: How to ask your employer to let you own your personal projects

I have been working on a personal project for awhile now, and think that I could potentially monetize it in the nearish future.

However, the product could (arguably) be considered a competitive product with something my employer offers, and I since I signed a non-compete with my employer I fear that there could be legal retaliation against me if I were to try and do anything with my project.

My project only "competes" in an abstract sense, and a part of me feels like if I were to disclose my project, I'd be told I couldn't monetize it, but also couldn't keep working on it for fun.

Has anyone here ever had any similar situations? What did they do?