Effective immediately, Wyoming home-based businesses, also known as Home Occupations, are now a use-by right in all areas of unincorporated Laramie County, the Laramie County Board of Commissioners has announced.
For Laramie County, which includes the Wyoming capital of Cheyenne, use-by right amounts to an expansion of the state’s 2015 Food Freedom Act, which exempts home based businesses from food safety permits and inspections. The Board’s announcement said it took the “bold action to protect private property rights and support entrepreneurs” in “a move toward deregulation and small business empowerment.”
In a vote that followed a public hearing this past week on land use regulations, which drew a crowd of 200, commissioners opted to eliminate all requirements for permits, site plans, and applications for Home Occupations.
It means county permission will no longer be required to operate a home business, including home businesses producing food for human consumption.
“This is a big win for the hundreds of residents who have quietly and responsibly operated home businesses for years,” said Commissioner Gunnar Malm. “We’re removing red tape, expanding opportunity, and making it easier for people to succeed without unnecessary government interference.”
Home Occupations were previously limited to specific zoning districts and subject to regulatory requirements. The Board said the approved changes expand access and legal protections for these businesses countywide, representing a significant step forward in promoting economic freedom and flexibility for Laramie County residents.
Those in attendance at last week’s public hearing were “in a rage,” Cowboy State Daily reported, because they thought land use regulations were being used to increase requirements for home-based businesses. “We don’t want the government telling us what we can and cannot do on our property,” one resident told the Commissioners.
That left the Board with some explaining to do. After a unanimous vote to remove all home-based business regulations, the Board issued a statement saying: neither the previous nor the updated regulations restricts or prohibits livestock ownership, FFA and 4-H participation, or agricultural activities.
These uses are fully protected under both state law and county policy. In addition to the changes for home businesses, the Board approved updates that benefit small commercial projects. In many cases, business owners will no longer be required to submit costly engineered site plans. A simplified site plan option is now available, saving thousands of dollars in upfront expenses and easing the burden for local startups and growing enterprises.
“These reforms reflect our long-standing commitment to protecting rural lifestyles, promoting small business growth, and defending private property rights,” Malm added. “We appreciate the community’s input and remain committed to transparent, pro-resident policymaking.”
Laramie County’s action comes 10 years after the Wyoming Legislature adopted its ground-breaking Food Freedom Act.
Twice amended since, Wyoming lawmakers still view the state Food Freedom Act as a “home run,” with little attention to the possibility that the trade in homemade food might be making people sick. The act also allows commercial sellers to sell inspected and uninspected foods side by side, as long as a separate cash register and barrier are provided.
The Wyoming Food Freedom Act recognizes direct transactions between the producer and the consumer. A 2023 amendment allows producers of eggs and egg products to sell their products at farmers’ markets, farms and ranches, and homes and offices.
In 2017, amendments changed the Food Freedom Act “to allow for a producer’s production and sale of homemade food or drink for an informed end consumer’s home consumption and to encourage the expansion of agricultural sales at farmers’ markets, ranches, farms, and producers’ homes.”
The 2017 amendments also included:
Homemade food products are specifically exempt from state licensure, permitting, inspection, packaging, and labeling requirements.
Meat products and animals that may be sold under the act are identified.
Farmers’ markets, farms, ranches, producer homes, and offices are all named as places where transactions may occur.
Rabbit and fish were added as products consumers can purchase directly from producers, and Wyoming adopted a 1,000-bird exemption that is modeled after a federal regulation permitting the butcher and annual sale of up to 1,000 chickens directly to consumers.
Nothing in the Wyoming Food Freedom Act precludes the Wyoming Department of Health from investigating outbreaks of foodborne illnesses, nor does it in any way impact state brand inspections.
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