Maria Winter thought she could supplement her son's college fund by selling homemade cookies. She has a talent for baking and knows her products are well-received, having made and decorated cookies for students at the elementary school where she teaches.
But when it came time for Winter to fulfill the application requirements and pay the fees associated with launching a home-baked goods business in Somerville, New Jersey, she quickly learned how byzantine the licensing process can be for home bakers.
Somerville officials denied her application for a home business zoning permit, telling her that she needed to secure a zoning variance. According to MyCentralJersey.com, which first reported on Winter's story, the borough said she had to pay a $1,000 application fee and put $4,000 into a borough escrow account. It also required that she publish a public notice in the local newspaper and notify all neighbors within 200 feet of her property that her application would undergo a public hearing. "Going through a public hearing is a lengthy, expensive process," says Rob Peccola, an attorney for the Institute for Justice (IJ)...000000
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