Cherry Grove Cookie Business Owner and North Myrtle Beach Clash Over Home Sales Rules

A home-based cookie business in the Cherry Grove section of North Myrtle Beach has found itself in a dispute with city officials over what the owner is allowed to sell — and where — under local rules governing businesses operated out of a residence.

The disagreement centers on a familiar tension in beach communities across the Carolinas: how to reconcile the growing popularity of small, kitchen-based food businesses with zoning codes that were written to keep residential neighborhoods quiet and free of commercial traffic.

A kitchen-table business meets the zoning code

Home baking has boomed in recent years, fueled by social media marketing, online ordering and state cottage food laws that allow certain low-risk items — cookies, breads, cakes and similar shelf-stable goods — to be produced in a home kitchen and sold directly to customers without a full commercial kitchen license.

But state food-safety rules and municipal zoning rules are two separate things. Even when a baker is operating legally under a state cottage food exemption, a city can still regulate how a business functions inside a residential zone. Those local rules typically address issues such as customer traffic, signage, parking, deliveries, employees on site and whether goods may be picked up at the home at all.

According to the business owner’s account, the operation has been run as a small home enterprise serving local customers. The city, for its part, points to its own ordinances governing home occupations — the category that covers businesses run out of a residence — and how those provisions apply in a neighborhood setting.

Why Cherry Grove adds another layer

Cherry Grove is one of North Myrtle Beach’s most densely developed residential areas, a mix of year-round homes, seasonal residences and short-term vacation rentals packed along narrow streets and channels. Parking is tight, especially in the summer months, and neighborhood character is a recurring theme at city meetings.

That context matters. Cities often defend home-occupation restrictions on the grounds that a steady stream of customers arriving at a house — even for something as innocuous as a box of cookies — can change the feel of a street and create congestion or safety concerns. Small-business owners counter that a handful of pickups a week is far less disruptive than the vacation rental turnover already common in many coastal neighborhoods.

What typically comes next

Disputes like this usually follow one of a few paths. A business owner may apply for a variance or special exception through the city’s board of zoning appeals, seek a formal interpretation of the ordinance, or move sales to a permitted location — a farmers market, a commercial kitchen, a retail partner or delivery-only model. In some cases, cities revisit their home-occupation language entirely, updating decades-old rules to reflect the realities of e-commerce and cottage food production.

For small operators, the stakes are practical. Renting commercial kitchen space or a storefront can transform a side business with thin margins into one that no longer pencils out.

The broader question

The Cherry Grove case is a local one, but it echoes debates playing out in towns across the country as micro-businesses grow out of home kitchens, garages and spare bedrooms. Regulators are working to balance neighborhood protections with a wave of entrepreneurship that did not exist in the same form when many ordinances were drafted.

How North Myrtle Beach resolves this particular disagreement may signal how flexible the city intends to be as more residents look to turn hobbies into income — one batch of cookies at a time. Read More