After unanimously voting to move forward with an at-home restaurant pilot program, Fresno County supervisors reversed course, voting not to undertake the program.

During the second vote Tuesday on the Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operation program, supervisors voted 3-2 against moving forward, with supervisors Nathan Magsig, Buddy Mendes, and Garry Bredefeld opposed.

The change came after several residents spoke out against having restaurants and retail food sales in neighborhoods, saying restaurant operations would disrupt traffic, noise, and parking.

Supervisors also opposed limited health inspections, saying there should be at least two. Fresno County Counsel Doug Sloan said the state does not allow random inspections without cause.

“I also am concerned about public safety and the public issues about this. People can come to residents if somebody opens their home to do this, people can come and buy food until 10 o’clock at night,” Bredefeld said.

Supervisors had not voiced concerns about late-night dining or traffic when they first approved it. Supervisor Buddy Mendes said he did not know until Tuesday that it included in-home restaurant dining.

Home Kitchen Program Helps Entrepreneurship

The program would have permitted 66 in-home food operations throughout the county. Business owners would be limited to 30 meals a day or 90 meals a week. They would have to submit logs monthly and could not earn more than $100,000 a year in sales.

Operations would have been limited to 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The goal was to increase entrepreneurship, said Veva Islas, Fresno Unified board president and executive director of Cultiva La Salud.

“(Home kitchen operations) is important to our communities because it creates a pathway to opportunity, an opportunity for people who have a talent, who have an ability to prepare delicious meals and it is regulated,” Islas said.

She said the program built in limitations to keep operations from getting overly busy.

Paul Samarin, owner of House of Paul in Kerman, said in-home operations make it easier for business owners like him to transition from small operations to brick-and-mortar restaurants. He said he does not have the income on paper that makes landlords comfortable allowing him to move in.

“Now, as I’m trying to move into a brick-and-mortar, I’ve been unable to make that jump from a small business to a brick-and-mortar just because of the capacity of the culinary centers that won’t allow for the food storage of my pastrami. So it’s brisket, it’s lots of meat, lots of stuff that cured and marinated for 30 days,” Samarin said.

Residents Opposed Traffic, Noise Impacts

Several residents came out to oppose the program, saying they did not know about the program when it received its first vote in June.

“What’s not addressed is increased traffic, parking congestion, deliveries, noise, and a steady flow of customers, these are not small changes,” one resident said.

Another asked for limitations on operating hours, music and traffic coordination.

Supervisors who changed their vote picked up on some objections from residents.

Others added concerns about inspections. Fresno County Public Health Department Director Joe Prado said inspectors would respond immediately to any complaints or concerns about food health but could not inspect more than once a year without complaints.

Supervisor Luis Chavez, who supported the program, said many of the concerns were addressed during the first reading June 30.

“Their concern is that this program will have no limits on what type of folks, individuals can issue these permits. They think it’ll be the wild, wild west,” Chavez said. “I agree that we need guardrails and I can assure you that this county will never go down that road of folks just opening up kitchens across the county.”