I'm looking into starting a cottage bakery business from my residence (apartment) and have been sorting out the permit necessary for it. I have mostly completed my cottage food license under VDACS (I'm located in Virginia) and just need to submit proof that my property is zoned for it. When I reached out to my county (Arlington) for zoning info about it, they directed me to apply for a home occupation permit. Applying for one however, does not seem to allow me to designate an apartment unit within the building, just the building itself.
So naturally I'm like "Okay I don't want to apply for a permit on behalf of the entire building, just my unit". I emailed the county back stating my issue. While I await their response I wanted to see if anyone has gone through a similar situation and how they resolved it.
My apartment lease restricts business activities that involve someone coming to the apartment building, or like doing business in the apartment itself (they specifically call out a daycare business as an example of a business type that is prohibited). So obviously wouldn't do "porch" pickups here.
I've thought about registering my business at a PO Box instead, but I feel like that would create similar complications. What type of zoning proof do I actually need to provide to VDACS?
This is what it says on the application: "Provide written documentation that you have approval from your local zoning office to operate a home food processing business on your property. Any verifiable documentation from the zoning office is acceptable."
TLDR:
Q1: Is there a better way to do this than registering it at my apartment? Wish I owned a townhome or a single-family home that I could do this from, but this is what I got rn.
Q2: The Virginia cottage food license application requires proof of zoning to operate a home food processing business, what do I actually need to provide? What zoning proof have you all provided with your cottage food applications?
Trying to do everything legally, but also don't want to make things overly complicated/difficult on myself when there is an easier way to go about it.
TIA! Sorry for the long post.