After I've been working on my business plan for MONTHS and being shifted around from one department to another to find out about licensing & adding onto our house for a bakery, etc. The city inspector tells us that there is no way we can get rezoned for a business thanks to a lousey bakery that opened up a few years ago and ruined it for everyone. I am just lost. I don't know what to do. I can't believe my dreams have just been crushed. Ugh. Sorry to vent here but I didn't know where else to go. I really hate my city right now.
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.....................I hate to hear this. You do such lovely work. Any chance of moving to a place that will allow you to open up? I hate when people ruin things for others. I'm struggling with getting a sign in my yard for same reasons. Hope things change for you.
can you talk to the city inspector again and find out exactly what the lousy baker did? If you can, make your case (with concrete "evidence" or whatever supporting documentation) how you will do things differently.
He didn't go into details about the other bakery (he couldn't even come up with their name) but he did put enough emphasis on the neighbors being an issue.
We just bought this house a year ago BUT I grew up a block away. I lived there for 20 years before buying another house across town and living there for 5 then moving back here. I know everyone around here and they wouldn't have the slightest issue with me having a cake shop in the backyard. It was not going to be an open door bakery either. Only by appointment only and he still said there was no way he could help me. He's the one that I would go to for zoning apparently and our house would need to be rezoned because I need to add a second kitchen. What gets me is that we are really close to the city limits and there is a bakery just outside of the city limits that added onto her house and had NO issues whatsoever... but then again, she didn't have to deal with our lovely city 
I'm setting up a meeting to discuss renting kitchen space at a church... I just was really hoping to be able to do it all from home and be here with my kids but I guess that's out of the question
I agree. Don't stop just because one person told you this.
Are you trying to open a bakery at your home or just bake legally from your home? There's a difference.
One, you'll have a lot of foot traffic the other you won't.
When I was going up before the zoning in my town I was turned down the first time because they thought I wanted to open a full blown bakery in my basement. When I told them I just wanted a legal kitchen so that I could sell a few cakes a week it made a huge difference.
Don't give up.....try to go before the board at their next meeting.
Good luck!
I was in your shoes not to long ago. When I found out that it is illegal to sell food from a home I was really crushed. But praise God that I ran into (seriously almost ran into) the Economic Developer for my town. She let me know who to talk to, what I need to know and where to go. She really got her foot in the door for me. I am now renting the kitchen at the community building, am in a first name bases with the health inspector (who still scares the tar out of me!), am getting help with my business plan for free with the small business development center at the local junior college, AND I'm going to talk to a lady next week about buying her old bakery. It needs a lot of work, but it will be worth it.
So don't quit! Make a few phone calls. I promise that there is someone out there who can help you.
Thank you. I did go through our local economical developer to get the name and number for this guy. I am now contacting HIS supervisor hoping there is another way around it. I'm also going to contact that developer in hopes that they can do something about this 
Sorry, he has both titles actually... inspector & zoner/planner... apparently they can have multiple titles in our little town.
How does that work if you bake out of a kitchen in a church? Do you still claim as income? Is it still a business? I can deliver anywhere they require a license then right? What do you do with the cakes after they're all made? I'm assuming they can't sit at the church kitchen until the wedding so then I take them back to my house where I can get dog hair all over them? lol... ugh, this is just so darn confusing.
How about going to the town planning board? They could give you a variance. Or, if you have a contact with the town council, maybe them. But definitely go to the planning board; inspectors, etc., carry out their orders. If they are not called a planning board in your city, find out what the name of the governing body is called. If the law states you can't, then the inspector is carrying out the law, but if they issue you a variance, then you are in essence being given a legal bypass for the law. And it's all legal.
Conditional zoning is the attachment, to a rezoning, of conditions that are not spelled out in the text of the zoning ordinance. The zoning authority makes no promises, but receives a binding agreement from the land owner. The actual agreement is usually a covenant or deed restriction that may be enforced by the local unit of government.
Conditional zoning differs from "true" contract zoning in that the conditions are placed on the property by the landowner in order to convince the local government to pass the rezoning, but the local government does not reciprocate by contracting to pass the rezoning. Conditional zoning is, therefore, legal.
In some instances, conditional zoning operates in the following way: The property owner puts the conditions on the property and then formally applies for the rezoning. The locality, seeing the conditions, passes the rezoning without being legally bound to do so.
But, what if the landowner doesn't trust the local government to match the placing of special conditions with the passing of the rezoning? In this situation, the local governing body can pass the rezoning amendment today, but give the amendment a delayed effective date. The delayed effective date is the future date on which the landowner puts the desired controls on the property by covenant. Exactly this form of conditional zoning, a delayed, contingent effective date, was approved by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. (101)
Another variation on conditional zoning happens when the community takes the first step by passing the rezoning and putting it into effect immediately, but coupling it with a condition that the rezoning will be repealed if the applicant fails to carry out a condition such as imposing a covenant or making a dedication of land for a street. This arrangement has been treated by the Supreme Court twice. In the first case, (102) the court danced around the issue, wondering if the repealer would be legal without the notices and hearings normally accompanying a zoning change. In a later case, (103) the court sanctioned a conditional rezoning with an automatic repealer mechanism. This leaves the legal status of the automatic repealer relatively secure in Wisconsin.
The following guidelines and suggestions should be considered by communities contemplating the use of contract or conditional zoning arrangements:
q The local zoning authority may not be party to a contract binding itself to rezone, although it is permissible for the zoning authority to recognize the conditions and be motivated to rezone because the conditions exist.
q The conditional rezoning must meet the general test of all rezoning promoting the general safety, welfare, and health of the community and it must not constitute illegal spot zoning. The special conditions attached should be reasonable. To be sure they are reasonable, the special conditions could be based on a community plan. The argument that conditional rezoning disrupts the plan or represents spot zoning will be diminished if similar conditions are called for in the plan.
q The local zoning ordinance should contain a section explaining the intent and form of conditional zoning provisions. If the provisions contain an automatic repealer clause providing that the zoning reverts back to the original zoning if the conditions are not met within a set time limit, a specific time limit should be included. Also, if this form is to be used, notice should be given and a public hearing conducted on repeal to avoid a possible challenge on due process grounds. If the form of the provisions is that the zoning becomes effective only upon the conditions being met within a time limit, the time limit should be specified in the ordinance, and definite standards for compliance should be provided.
q Conditional zoning should be used only to deal with particular circumstances that arise at the time of rezoning. If a unit of government wants to put conditions on certain uses of land whenever they arise, other methods which permit application of conditions are available, such as special exceptions and conditional uses.
Just keep trying....if he is the only one that told you that, he is just one person. Go to his boss, ask a lawyer, those rules keep changing all the time ,how says that they can't chance them back for you.
If you did everything you were supposed to do and invest money and time, you should fight it.
I am so sorry to hear about your problems. I too live in Wisconsin and am familiar with Manitowoc and my DH's is from and his family still lives in Two Rivers.
I think that Wisconsin and all of its counties have some of the most uncooperative and rude people working for them (and we are paying their wages) that I have ever run across. No one wants to help you or tell you anything.
Hopefully you can find someone that will listen to you and can help you get your business off the ground. Go for this variance and do what you have to do. Keep us posted.
I'm sorry =( Please don't give up though. Keep trying!
I can't see one person being the deciding factor FOREVER. You know what I mean?
There someone on here that wanted to do something, but they were told to open up a catering kitchen, and they didn't want to do that. Finally they were like OH!. I need to open as a "catering kitchen", instead of a bakery. Or something like that. Basically it was a matter of terminology and classifying items.
Anyway....my point is keep trying!!
When I was getting my house zoned, one zoning member told me "No way!!" I was crushed and let it go for a few months. Later, I stopped back in the township and shoke to the supervisor of zoning and he told me, "No Problem!!". Do you homework and research then possible look into again!
Good luck!!
~ jaime
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