Metropolitan King County Council 516 Third Ave., Rm. 1200 Seattle, WA 98104 Phone: 206-296-1000 Toll Free: 800-325-6165 TTY/TDD: 206-296-1024 Fax: 206-296-0198 council@kingcounty.gov
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Dec. 8, 2008 Rural businesses receive a boost: County Council provides flexibility for home-based retail sales Simplifying regulations to support traditional rural industriesEntrepreneurs in rural King County will now have greater flexibility in what they can sell on their property, under revised regulations for home-based businesses in rural communities that were adopted unanimously today by the Metropolitan King County Council.
“Small home-based businesses are the backbone of the economy in King County’s rural and unincorporated communities,” said Councilmember Larry Gossett, chair of the Council’s Growth Management and Natural Resources Committee. “This legislation simplifies some of the regulations that have restricted the operation of these businesses and should encourage rural entrepreneurs to expand their companies or open new ones.”
The ordinance adopted today by the Council allows on-site retail sales of goods that support the traditional rural industries of agriculture, forestry and equestrian activity, and removes unnecessary regulations and restrictions that were often misinterpreted as an exclusive list of activities that were allowed as a home-based business.
The old rules allowed home-based rural sales only if the products were produced, grown, or built on-site. Sales of goods not produced at the business were allowed only if the orders were placed by mail, by phone or online. In the interpretation of these rules, some rural businesses compelled customers to jump through some odd hoops to comply with the code.
For example, people who went to a Maple Valley horseshoe store that did not manufacture its own horseshoes, nails, and rasps had to pick out their purchases, telephone the clerk standing a few feet away, and then go back to their car to have their purchases delivered to them.
“In this age of technology, some business can be done in-home without impacting neighbors,” said Councilmember Kathy Lambert, who represents Northeast King County. “Local sales of equipment and supplies needed in the rural area will also help ease traffic congestion by reducing the amount of driving needed to access these resources. This revision brings our land-use codes in line with technological advances for retail sales.”
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