photo credit: Courtesy County of Monterey
Official graphic showing images of the microenterprise kitchen concept.

Sonoma County has cleared the way for ambitious home chefs to launch a business. Thanks to a unanimous vote by the board of supervisors this afternoon, supper clubs could pop up starting in January....or maybe not.

There was a bit of a congratulatory celebration by supervisors this afternoon. So called micro-enterprise home kitchens could open a new avenue for small scale entrepreneurs and give some financially-struggling residents a lucrative side gig enabling them to make ends meet.

"I am thrilled that we are finally getting a chance to take this step today, I just want to say thank you, also to you the community, because it took a lot of advocacy. I remember rallying, it might have even been back in January of 2019 at the calendaring session where we had a lot of folks speaking out in support of this," said Supervisor Lynda Hopkins.

By approving the measure, the county taps a $138,000 state grant provided to create the program. 

According to officials, it was concerns among the county's incorporated cities that have caused much of the delay. To ease those them---as the ordinance affects the county as a whole, including cities----there's some fairly significant exceptions baked in.

No signs are allowed, all food must be prepared and consumed on the same day, and operators will need to buy several permits. Atop that, microenterprise kitchens are only allowed in someone's primary home, not a second home, not in a truck, vacation rental, or in business or industrial districts.

"If it's not allowed by the general plan, the permittee would not receive a permit," Verne Ball of the county counsel's office told the board of supervisors.

Since most homes are in residential zones and most residential zones forbid commercial  retail activity, it is unclear exactly where these businesses could locate. KRCB News has reached out for answers from both Permit Sonoma and the planning departments in Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park...we'll continue reporting on this story as more information becomes available.