I would Like to know how to start something like what you are all doing in Texas here in GA. I am very curious as to how to go about getting a bill started . Here in Ga there are so many laws and most of them are sort of stupid if you ask me, but I feel us Georgian's should fight for the same right as you Texan's are fighting for. The right to bake, decorate and sell our cakes from our own home. If any one can help me please pm me. TIA

Hey all out of towners.... When I visited my daughter in Austin (she attends UT) we stayed at a hotel called Habitat Suites. Its fairly inexpensive and sleeps five. That may be an option to spliting a night or two for the next go around....

Anyone from the Corpus area interested in going in next time?

Kelley-I know you answered this earlier but I can't find it. What happens now? When will they vote? And why didn't they yesterday?

I was SO excited to see that Dr. Zerwas is on the committee. Not only is he my representative, BUT I went to highschool with all FOUR of his kids. Graduated and was good friends with one of them

I think I shall give him a call tomorrow!

I ordered my T Shirt!!!! I hope it fits correctly, I have never ordered clothing online.

I DIDN'T GET MY UPDATES EITHER!!! Ok, deep breath....I missed the whole part about going to Austin this week!! ARGGGGG
I'm going to try to watch the archives & see how my Rep responded. He always gave me positive feedback when I've contacted him about this issue. I'm going to make sure he wasn't just humoring me.

Now I will try to make it to the Senate meeting.

Are any of you from the Waco area?

I am not getting the email updates either. I have to just keep checking the thread when I can!

I'm in Fort Stockton....Anyone from this area going?? Odessa/Midland Folks, you going??? Monahans??

mine is doing the same. when and where is the next meeting?

Here is a link to the Utah Cottage Food Operation laws. Maybe that will give some of you an idea. http://www.rules.utah.gov/publicat/code/r070/r070-560.htm

Tamale Cake - where was the staph??? Oh but it made me laugh.

Hi Tish - I spent quite a bit of time with you and your hubby, ya'll are so cute! If you lose your job you can do cakes full time! laughing. When I was reading the thread yesterday, I thought Montgomery County Man reminded me of Foghorn Leghorn, but we were already picking on him so bad I didn't want to point it out, but when I saw what you posted, I laughed and clapped! Yep - that was who he reminded me of - a celebrity of his very own!

Kelley, those of us who attended - can we at least write the committee members and tell them thank you for being so attentive to our cause and listening to what we had to say? and how much we enjoyed their sense of humor?

Kelley, this may be bad news for some. This is the email I received from the Sr. Planner:

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but this bill does not exempt cottage food businesses from local zoning laws. If you are not exempt, then in order to operate within the City of San Antonio limits, you would be required to rezone your home. Under our current code, a cottage food business would fall under the "Bakery - retail" category and is not permitted in a residentially zoned district.

If the bill is intended to exempt this use from local zoning, then our city would need to amend our zoning code to reflect the change in the law. I've asked our legal staff for an opinion on this issue. I will let you know as soon as I hear back from them..."

I live outside city limits, so it's not an issue for me, but everyone who lives within city limits would have to rezone and I have no idea what that entails, but I imagine it isn't easy or cost effective.

I am from Abilene and called my Rep on the issue. My Rep is Susan King and she is on the hearing committee. They were very nice and knew all about the bill. Hopefully that means that they are receiving other calls from this area!

Please don't contact the Committee members unless you're their constituent - we've already made our point, loud and clear.

Amia - I'll forward your info to Patrick. That seems somewhat disastrous to me (how are those of us who live in the suburbs or city limits ever going to get zoned as commercial?)

This was addressed at the hearing. Rep. Gattis said, point blank, (as closely as I can remember) "This bill WILL NOT TRUMP zoning laws" So, if your county, city, HOA, etc says "no" then you're SOL.

The question is, how many areas do not allow this?

I think we need to keep the cart in front of the horse here. We may need to tackle the zoning issue, but maybe we should focus on one battle at a time? If people start getting discouraged by their zoning issues, we may lose a lot of support for this bill.

Zoning is treated differently from city to city and county to county. What may work for one person, may not work for another. This goes for bakeries or any type of home business. As I mentioned in a previous post, sometimes zoning can be changed for certain neighborhoods, or you can get a waiver for your particular neighborhood.

Just remember, if you start throwing zoning issues into the mix with this bill, we may get a whole new set of opposition to it. Think about it this way... the zoning laws are there to protect us, not just hinder us. How would you like it if the house next door opened a bike repair shop? or a porta potty rental? or your neighborhood psychic hung out their shingle? You start changing the laws, rather than getting waivers, you open a whole new can of worms that may not be so easily closed.

Just my opinion - take it for what it's worth! 2 cents!

"Please don't contact the Committee members unless you're their constituent - we've already made our point, loud and clear. "

I'm sorry if I didn't make myself clear Kelley. I am a constituent of Rep King. I live in Abilene and this is her district.

jenhaberman, that was for me. I asked about emailing to say thanks from those of us who attended. I get the reason why and I'm good with it, I just didn't respond back because I didn't feel like I needed to.

I agree about the zoning thing. If I am not mistaken on Earlene's website she talks about this in her how to start a business notes. She is in Texas also and there were some issues from somewhere that she lived. She schmoozed her neighbors who fought for her not against her and she got what she wanted.

I live in a subdivision with no homeowners organization, an older neighborhood. My only concern is that I can have a separate kitchen, which i need becuase of my dogs, but for business they require a 1000 gallon grease trap. I know though that I can petition and get it changed once I prove to them what I'm doing and how much more "grease" it is not going to cause in the sewer than it is now, and I am willing to put an under the sink in line trap (which they dont like) just in case there is more than I think there is going to be. But that's a battle for after this battle.

You should never be discouraged by an obstacle. They are stepping stones to success, but you have to take them one at a time. We just told the city, we aren't generating traffic at all and I'm not serving from my cake kitchen. They were okay with that aspect of it. I could even build a separate building in my property line and they were good, just wanted that grease trap (I call it a swimming pool)! laughing. - Maybe Ill put it in and just have it hooked up to collect rain water so I can water my yard when they tell us not to use the city water! laughing.

Houston has zoning?

About the zoning...here is my initial opinion.

While I see it as a problem (as I live in Houston). I would much rather have this bill passed as is than not passed at all.

I agree that it would be upsetting to have this bill pass and then have to continue to struggle to actually be legal. However, it would definitely take the edge off of looking over my shoulder wondering if Commercial Bakery down the street is going to find out about me and report me because then don't want the competition (like I'm even competition).

I really do think (while I don't understand) that if we try to amend the bill to state something about exemption from zoning that there would be great opposition from the committee as there is a reason for zoning.

We can only tackle one battle at a time.

We also need to keep in mind that the more exposure we get - like the media exposure - the more the opposition becomes aware of us. We really need to stick together and show numbers for the Senate. Even with the opposition at the house, there were still more of us than them.

You guys just hang in there. I'm sure there will be other battles to fight, not just zoning, but we can't conquer them all at one time. And while it might not effect me, I'd be willing to stand with the next person who has a problem for whatever reason, including zoning. We can figure it all out, if we can just hold tight to the reason we started it in the first place. I'm not saying you don't have a legitimate argument, but one step at a time. We'll help you figure out the rest.

Hi Guys, I have a friend in Ohio who has a legal cottage food business. I will email her and ask her about how the zoning laws work/are effected by their cottage food law. In texas you can already legally by having a seperate kitchen so there must be something to this.

I think the Zoning issues needs to be addressed but I think we should ask Rep Gattis how it may affect the bill.

I'll let you know what I find out from Ohio.