Cottage food operations in Cupertino are authorized under the California Homemade Food Act and permitted by Santa Clara County's environmental health department. The city treats them as home occupations under Municipal Code Chapter 19.120, with the same residential-character limits.
California's Homemade Food Act (Health and Safety Code Sections 113758 and 114365 et seq.) allows qualifying low-risk foods to be produced in a home kitchen. Registration or permitting of the cottage food operation is handled by the Santa Clara County environmental health department, not the city. Cupertino regulates the home-based business dimension as a home occupation under CMC Chapter 19.120: the operator needs a City business license tax certificate (CMC 19.120.020), and the operation must stay incidental and secondary to residential use, with no exterior display, no more than one nonresident employee, limited direct sales, and signage restricted to one square foot only if legally required. State law caps the type and gross sales of cottage foods.
Selling homemade food without state registration, county approval, or a City business license, or exceeding home-occupation limits, can trigger enforcement by the county or city.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
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Under California's SB 1383, Cupertino residents and businesses must keep food scraps and yard trimmings out of the trash and use Recology South Bay's organic...
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Artificial turf is not counted as drought-tolerant landscaping in California, and under SB 676 (Government Code 53087.7) cities like Cupertino may regulate s...
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Cupertino's Water-Efficient Landscape Ordinance (Municipal Code Chapter 14.15) implements California's MWELO and caps turf at 25% of landscape area, favoring...
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Cupertino places no ban on residential rainwater harvesting and actively encourages on-site rainwater and graywater capture in its Water-Efficient Landscape ...
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Cupertino has permanent water-waste prohibitions under Municipal Code Chapter 15.32, banning runoff, hosing pavement, and un-nozzled hoses. Water is supplied...
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Cupertino declares overgrown weeds and dry brush a fire nuisance under Municipal Code Chapter 9.08, enforced through a Santa Clara County weed abatement prog...
Side-by-side rule comparisons with other cities in Santa Clara County.
See how other cities in Santa Clara County handle cottage food operations.
See how Cupertino's cottage food operations rules stack up against other locations.
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