Mobile County Environmental Services Department (Office of the County Engineer)

Junkyard / Auto-Salvage License (auto-repair)

An auto-repair business that also functions as an 'automobile graveyard' — buying, selling or storing wrecked, scrapped or dismantled vehicles or parts — within 1,000 feet of a county road in unincorporated Mobile County needs a Junkyard license from the county's Environmental Services Department, priced at $750.00 a year, expiring September 30 the same as the general Business Privilege License, which this license stacks on top of. An ordinary repair shop that merely stores customer vehicles awaiting repair, insurance resolution, or law-enforcement impoundment is explicitly EXEMPT from this $750.00 license under Section 4 of the separate Mobile County Junk Control Ordinance, which instead only requires the shop to keep accurate records of each such vehicle's receipt date, ownership, status and disposition, available for county inspection on request — a real carve-out, not a reason for an ordinary repair shop to assume it needs the junkyard license. Application requires a site sketch and screening plan, proof of an active NPDES stormwater permit from the Alabama Dept. of Environmental Management, and compliance with siting setbacks (400 ft from a school, hospital or church; 100 ft from any stream or river bank); licenses are issued only by Mobile County Commission vote after Environmental Services Director approval. This license applies only in unincorporated Mobile County.