Hi everyone,
I really appreciate the wide variety of advice and experience you are all bringing to this conversation, and your comments have definitely helped me think through my decisions around the appliances. I did not particularly intend for the discussion to move towards zoning, health inspections, and other regulatory concerns, but since it has, here is some information that will hopefully clarify our situation somewhat…
Zoning:
Our new house is located in Fairfax County, Virginia. Our
home and accessory building are zoned "R-3," which means residential with specific density limitations. The Fairfax County Zoning Ordinance permits residents to run businesses from their homes and from accessory buildings on their property provided that the business meets a list of fifteen criteria outlined in the ordinance and that the resident obtains a "Home Occupation Permit" from the county. The criteria outlined in the ordinance focus on maintaining a residential appearance for the exterior of the building, the number of permitted employees, and the hours employees may work. There's also an oddly long section about the restrictions surrounding horses and horseback riding lessons. My business meets all of the "Home Occupation" criteria.
Certain types of businesses are explicitly outlined in the ordinance, but food businesses are not one of them. This means that before we can obtain the "Home Occupation Permit" we have to file a "Use Determination Request" with our county Zoning Administrator. The Zoning Administrator must rule that the business fits the definition of a "Home Occupation." However, the Zoning Administrator has issued multiple rulings determining that food businesses fall within the scope of a "Home Occupation" as defined by the ordinance, so the "Use Determination Request" is really pro forma at this point.
TL;DR - We are good to go on zoning.
Health Inspections/Cottage Food Laws and Etc.:
In Fairfax County, businesses that deal with food are governed by one or more of the following four regulatory agencies, depended on their business structure, location of the business, and the type of food the business handles:
- The Fairfax County Health Department regulates "Food Establishments." Under county code, "Food Establishments" are not explicitly defined (this becomes relevant later), but are categorized for the purposes of inspection as "Full Service Restaurant," "Fast Food," "Mobile Food Unit," "Caterer," or one of several designations for institutional food service. These designations help one get a sense of the types of businesses that are meant to fall under the county's purview. At some point in the very recent past (aka still referenced on websites and inspection databases run by state agencies), the Virginia Department of Health was in charge of regulating these types of establishments through thirty-five local level agencies which may or may not have corresponded neatly to the boundaries of Virginia's ninety-five counties. The Fairfax County Health Department uses the "Fairfax County Food and Food Handling Code" as its regulatory standard. This code is essentially an unmodified copy of the 2017 FDA Food Code (this is also relevant later).
- The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) regulates "Food Processors" operating "Food Establishments." Under state code, "Food Processors" and "Food Establishments" are not explicitly defined (do you sense a theme here?), but these businesses are required to label all products and submit ingredient lists and processes for all products. This gives you a sense of the type of businesses that are meant to fall under VDACS's purview. VDACS then separates "Food Processors" into two tiers: 1) Businesses that are regularly inspected and may produce a wide variety of items, including goods that must be time/temperature controlled, and 2) Businesses that are only subject to a pre-operational inspection and must follow more restrictive regulations, including limitations on the types of goods they may produce and on net sales for certain products. Both tiers of "Food Processor" businesses can be run from either a "private home" or a "commercial kitchen" and are subject to the same regulations and standards regardless of where they are located. VDACS uses the "Virginia Food Laws" as its regulatory standard. The "Virginia Food Laws" were written independently from the FDA Food Code and differ significantly from that code in that they are shorter and less prescriptive. For example, in the FDA Food Code you will find language referring to the precise "foot candles" needed to illuminate a particular work surface, while in the Virginia Food Laws you will find phrases like "Every place used for the preparation…of any food shall be properly lighted."
- Some state agency whose name I can't remember regulates businesses that produce pure dairy products and ice creams.
- In most cases another agency deals with businesses that produce meat things, but not necessarily all things that have meat in them.
The lines between what type of business is regulated by which agency is somewhat blurry. For example, if you own a bakery that serves customers but also makes/packages/sells cookies to a local retailer, then you should technically be regulated by both the Fairfax County
Health Department and VDACS, but in practice will only be regulated by Fairfax County. Or, if you own a wedding cake business that you run out of your
home kitchen, you should technically be regulated by Fairfax County (because you're not selling that wedding cake in a big box with an approved label on it, you're taking it to an event and setting it up), but in practice you will be regulated by VDACS.
My business could easily be defined as a "Food Processor" and then be regulated by VDACS. My business could also be defined as a "Food Establishment - Caterer" and regulated by the Fairfax County
Health Department. Both definitions have benefits and drawbacks, which I will not go into detail about right now because this post is already super long and probably boring. As a "Food Processor" I would have an easy path towards operating the business from our extra building and any construction can use residential material/standards provided that they make it possible to keep the kitchen clean and functional as specified in the Virginia Food Laws. As a "Caterer" I would have a more difficult path towards operating the business from our extra building and any construction/equipment would need to meet commercial standards as specified in the Fairfax County Food and Food Handling Code, which is based on the FDA Food Code.
Personally, I really hate this kind of regulatory messiness and I think rules should either be enforced as written, re-written to reflect practice, or taken off the books.
TL;DR - Yes, I can legally work out of a kitchen in a private home and that kitchen can be built to residential standards, but also it's complicated and not necessarily what I want.
The Extra Building:
I think I may have given a slightly misleading/incomplete description of the "extra building" on our property. The building is a 700 sq ft. single-story cement block building with its own electrical service and a decent sized panel that's mostly unused. The building is plumbed and already has a gas line. The gas line currently has capacity for several appliances, if we need to add additional capacity, the gas company needs to swap out the regulator at the meter and they will do that for free.
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I know there's other stuff to respond to, but that's all the writing time I have today. Thank you again to everyone.