The Fort Walton Beach City Council voted 4-3 on Oct. 27 to allow home-based cottage food businesses to sell from an outdoor cart or stand, ending a debate that began in July after code enforcement opened cases against several of the stands.
- Councilman Payne Walker made the motion to adopt Ordinance 2227 on second and final reading, and Councilman Ben Merrell seconded it. Councilwoman Debi Riley and Councilman Logan Browning also voted yes. Councilman Bryce Jeter, Councilwoman Gloria DeBerry and Mayor Pro Tem David Schmidt voted no. Schmidt presided over the meeting in the absence of Mayor Nic Allegretto.
The ordinance amends Section 5.01.01 of the city’s Land Development Code, which prohibits any outside evidence of a home-based business beyond a single unlighted nameplate. It creates an exception for businesses operating under Florida’s cottage food law, Florida Statute 500.80, allowing one cart or stand outside the home. The stand can be no larger than 20 square feet and 8 feet tall, must sit at least 15 feet from the front property line and can operate only between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. Operators must also provide two off-street parking spaces, register with the city and store the stand out of sight outside operating hours.
Growth Management Director Tim Gibson reminded the council that the ordinance does not determine whether cottage food businesses can operate in the city.
“It’s not a question of whether or not we can put the cottage food businesses out of business or anything like that. They are protected by Florida Statute,” Gibson said.
- He said the only question before the council was the sale of products outside the home, and that operators who moved their sales inside would meet the city’s current code.
When Jeter asked whether any other Florida city had taken this step, City Attorney Jeff Burns said Fort Walton Beach appears to be the first to explicitly allow the stands. He noted Santa Rosa County recently banned the stands, though not the businesses themselves.
“There’s other municipalities or counties that have been banning them, outright banning them, but we’re the first ones to outright allow them,” Burns said.
A months-long process
The issue surfaced July 22, when Austin’s Cookies, a popular cottage food stand in Fort Walton Beach, posted on social media that a complaint had been filed and code enforcement was shutting the stand down. City staff put enforcement on hold while drafting a fix. The Local Planning Agency recommended approval 4-2 on Aug. 6, and the council passed the ordinance on first reading 5-1 on Aug. 11.
At the Aug. 25 second reading, the council voted 4-3 to postpone a decision to Oct. 13. Jeter cited SB-180, a state hurricane recovery law that bars cities in storm-affected counties from adopting more restrictive land development regulations, and said he wanted more time to hear from residents. The Oct. 13 hearing was then pushed to Oct. 27 in the aftermath of Hurricane Isaias.
At the final hearing, Burns said SB-180 is being extended another year because of the hurricane. He confirmed to Jeter that, as a result, the council would have to wait an additional year before it could make the stand rules more restrictive.
Gibson said that during the postponement he received a few emails supporting the stands and a few opposing them. Code enforcement cases opened against several stands have remained on hold while the council decided, he said.
Public comment
A Kenwood resident spoke against the ordinance, saying the stands could draw petty crime and lower neighboring property values. She cited studies she said show a home next to a visible home-based business can appraise for up to 10% less, and said operators should advertise online and sell from inside the home, as Santa Rosa County requires.
Kyle Henderson of Austin’s Cookies spoke in support, saying his business will show signs of activity under state law either way, from customers picking up orders to mail carriers collecting boxes.
- “I think this affords the city the opportunity, like Mr. Merrell said, to provide some of that control and some of those mechanisms to help shape it the way you want,” Henderson said.
Anne Marie Wilkerson, who runs Lily’s Little Shop, told the council that while maps of the area show 20 to 30 cottage food operations, only seven are within Fort Walton Beach city limits.
Council debate
Merrell said the most common complaint he heard was customers blocking the road, and that state law says nothing about parking. Allowing a cart, he said, gives the city a way to require off-street parking and set hours that it would not otherwise have.
“So without anything, without giving something and getting something, then they could go, ‘Okay, it’s on my stoop, but they’re going to show up at 3 a.m.’ And so there is something given back here,” Merrell said.
Jeter said he supports cottage food businesses operating as the state already allows but not the outdoor stands. He compared the issue to pontoon rentals, which he said spread into Fort Walton Beach backyards after Destin added regulations, eventually forcing the city to write its own ordinance.
- “I support the home-based businesses. I don’t support the stands. I think it leads to mechanics, I think it leads to commercial,” Jeter said.
Schmidt, who also voted no, said during public comment that he did not want to take away anyone’s livelihood and that operators would keep selling no matter how the vote went. “It’s the temporary structure that we’re discussing,” he said.
Walker, who was absent for the first reading and voted against the August postponement, read through its restrictions before the vote and noted the council had passed it 5-1 on first reading.
“I don’t believe there’s been any changes, substantial changes to anything that would cause us to not want to move forward with it. It does regulate it, it controls it,” Walker said.
Browning said the surge of new stands some had predicted never came.
“I feel like if there was a time for just a boom of cottage food stands, it would have already happened by now, and it hasn’t,” Browning said.
