Santa Clara County
County of Santa Clara Department of Environmental Health
In short
County of Santa Clara Department of Environmental Health issues 7 permits we publish for Santa Clara County, last verified 2026-09-28. Each carries the fee as the agency publishes it, with a link to the schedule it was read from.
What this agency issues
| Permit | Issuing agency | Fee | Renews | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mobile Food Facility (MFF) Permit | County of Santa Clara Department of Environmental Health | The fee is set under DEH's Property/Program-Element fee schedule by Board of Supervisors resolution, on the same March 1, 2026 adjustment cycle as the fixed food-facility permit, and varies by unit type and risk category rather than one flat figure. | annual, with an annual renewal window DEH designates specifically for mobile food facilities | 2026-09-28 |
| Body Art Establishment Permit / Practitioner Registrationonly if it applies to you | County of Santa Clara Department of Environmental Health | Annual body-art facility and practitioner-registration fees are established by Board of Supervisors resolution as part of DEH's fee schedule; body-art program fees were adjusted effective March 1, 2026, on the same cycle as DEH's food-facility fees. | annual | 2026-09-28 |
| Temporary Food Facility Permit (events)only if it applies to you | County of Santa Clara Department of Environmental Health | The temporary-event fee is set under DEH's Property/Program-Element fee schedule by Board of Supervisors resolution and varies by event length and food-handling complexity rather than a single flat figure. | per temporary event, limited to the duration DEH approves for that event | 2026-09-28 |
| Medical Waste Generator Permit | County of Santa Clara Department of Environmental Health | The permit fee is set by Board of Supervisors resolution as part of DEH's fee schedule and varies by generator classification (Large-Quantity or Small-Quantity) rather than a single flat figure. | annual | 2026-09-28 |
| Hazardous Materials Business Plan / CUPA Registration | County of Santa Clara Department of Environmental Health | CUPA registration and Hazardous Materials Business Plan fees are set by whichever CUPA has jurisdiction over the business's location, under its own adopted fee schedule, and are billed annually through the state's CERS reporting system rather than at one flat statewide or countywide rate. | annual (CERS registration and the Hazardous Materials Business Plan are renewed or updated annually, or whenever regulated inventory changes) | 2026-09-28 |
| Underground Storage Tank (UST) Permitonly if it applies to you | County of Santa Clara Department of Environmental Health | UST permit fees are set annually by whichever CUPA has jurisdiction over the tank's location (see the Hazardous Materials Business Plan/CUPA record for the county's CUPA roster), as part of that agency's own Unified Program fee schedule, rather than one flat countywide figure. | annual | 2026-09-28 |
| Food Facility Health Permit (fixed restaurant / retail food) | County of Santa Clara Department of Environmental Health | The permit fee is set under DEH's Property/Program-Element (PE) fee schedule, adopted by Board of Supervisors resolution; food-facility fee amounts were last adjusted effective March 1, 2026, following resolutions the Board approved on December 9, 2025 and January 27, 2026. The fee varies by facility type, seating and risk category rather than by a single flat figure. | annual (standard California retail food facility permit pattern) | 2026-09-28 |
Fees shown as a range or formula are set that way by the issuing agency — we do not average them into a single number.
About each permit
Mobile Food Facility (MFF) Permit
A food truck, cart or other mobile food facility operating in Santa Clara County needs a DEH Mobile Food Facility (MFF) permit before operating, issued under the same DEH program that permits fixed food facilities and reaching all 15 cities plus the unincorporated area, since DEH is the county's single environmental-health regulator for retail food with no independent city program identified anywhere in the county. DEH publishes a dedicated annual renewal period for mobile food facilities rather than a rolling individual renewal date. The fee is set under DEH's Property/Program-Element fee schedule by Board of Supervisors resolution, on the same March 1, 2026 adjustment cycle as the fixed-facility food permit, and varies by unit type and risk category rather than one flat figure. A third-party industry aggregator, foodservicenerd.com, publishes approximate current figures of roughly $493 to $1,026 for the annual MFF permit plus $845 to $2,113 for MFF plan check, self-described as cross-checked against DEH's schedule in August 2026 — a directional estimate only, not a county-confirmed figure; DEH's own current fee table controls the exact amount.
Body Art Establishment Permit / Practitioner Registration
A salon offering tattooing, permanent makeup or body piercing needs a DEH body-art establishment permit, and each practitioner performing that work needs an individual DEH practitioner registration, under California's statewide Safe Body Art Act (Health & Safety Code §119300 et seq.) as implemented locally by Santa Clara County Ordinance Code Division B11, Chapter XVI. An ordinary hair or nail salon that offers no tattooing, permanent makeup or piercing needs no body-art permit at all. DEH's own open-data records confirm this permitting program reaches San Jose, one of the eight cities with its own independent fire department, which is direct evidence that DEH's non-food environmental-health programs, like its food programs, operate countywide rather than being limited to the unincorporated area or to SCCFD's seven-city service area. Annual facility and practitioner fees are established by Board of Supervisors resolution as part of DEH's fee schedule, and the body-art program's fees were adjusted effective March 1, 2026, on the same cycle as DEH's food-facility fee change.
Temporary Food Facility Permit (events)
A restaurant, coffee shop or food-truck operator selling food at a fair, festival or other short-term event in Santa Clara County needs a DEH Temporary Food Facility permit for that event, separate from its standing fixed-facility or mobile-food-facility permit. DEH administers this permit countywide, reaching events held anywhere in the 15 cities or the unincorporated area, under the same Property/Program-Element fee schedule that prices its other food programs; the fee is set by Board of Supervisors resolution and varies with the event's length and the complexity of the food being served rather than a single flat figure. An operator who wants to sell at a recurring event across a season, such as a certified farmers' market, applies separately for that arrangement rather than a single-event permit. This permit is issued under Division B11's Environmental Health Permits and Fees chapter, the same ordinance division that authorizes DEH's fixed food-facility and mobile-food-facility programs.
Medical Waste Generator Permit
Veterinary offices, clinics, hospitals and pet shops are explicitly named as facilities subject to California's medical waste regulations, and any Santa Clara County facility generating regulated medical waste — sharps, contaminated materials or other biohazardous waste from surgical or medical procedures — needs a DEH Medical Waste Generator Permit, a state Hazardous Waste ID Number, a CERS registration, and a filed Medical Waste Management Plan. Generators are classified as Large-Quantity (200 pounds or more of medical waste a month) or Small-Quantity (under 200 pounds a month), and the permit and its associated CERS reporting obligations apply regardless of which of the 15 cities or the unincorporated area the practice sits in, since DEH runs this program on the same countywide basis as its other environmental-health permits. The permit fee is set by Board of Supervisors resolution as part of DEH's fee schedule and varies by the facility's generator classification rather than a single flat figure across every veterinary practice.
Hazardous Materials Business Plan / CUPA Registration
Any business handling hazardous materials above state threshold quantities — auto-repair shops (solvents, used oil, refrigerant, parts-washer fluids), veterinary practices (waste anesthetic gas, chemicals), contractors (fuel and paint stored at a yard), and restaurants, coffee shops or retail stores storing threshold quantities of cleaning chemicals or other regulated products — must file a Hazardous Materials Business Plan and register through the state's CERS system with whichever agency is the Certified Unified Program Agency (CUPA) for its location. Santa Clara County has four independent CUPAs, not one countywide CUPA: Santa Clara County DEH's Hazardous Materials Compliance Division is the default CUPA for most of the county's cities and for the unincorporated area, while the City of Santa Clara Fire Department, the City of Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety, and the City of Gilroy (Community Development Department, Fire Prevention Division) each run their own independent CUPA within their own city limits. Three more cities operate as Participating Agencies handling hazmat and fire-code elements under a memorandum of understanding while County DEH remains the CUPA of record: the City of Palo Alto Fire Department, the City of Mountain View Fire Department, and, on somewhat weaker sourcing than the rest of this roster, likely the City of San Jose Fire Department's Bureau of Fire Prevention. The City of Milpitas is not an independent CUPA or Participating Agency: its fire department ceased that role effective July 1, 2018, when County DEH assumed responsibility for all Unified Program elements within Milpitas. A business should confirm which of these agencies actually holds jurisdiction over its specific address before filing. Each CUPA sets and bills its own registration fee annually through CERS rather than sharing one countywide fee schedule.
Underground Storage Tank (UST) Permit
An auto-repair shop with an underground fuel tank or waste-oil tank needs an Underground Storage Tank (UST) permit, one of the six Unified Program elements a CUPA administers alongside the Hazardous Materials Business Plan, hazardous waste generator registration, Aboveground Petroleum Storage Act compliance and the California Accidental Release Prevention program. As with the Hazardous Materials Business Plan, jurisdiction over a shop's UST permit follows the same CUPA roster: Santa Clara County DEH is the default CUPA for most cities and the unincorporated area, while the City of Santa Clara, City of Sunnyvale and City of Gilroy each run independent CUPAs within their own limits, and Palo Alto, Mountain View and, on weaker sourcing, San Jose operate as Participating Agencies under a memorandum of understanding while County DEH remains the CUPA of record. Milpitas is not an independent CUPA or Participating Agency as of July 1, 2018. UST permit fees are set annually by whichever CUPA holds jurisdiction over the tank's location as part of that agency's own Unified Program fee schedule, rather than a single flat countywide figure.
Food Facility Health Permit (fixed restaurant / retail food)
Any fixed food facility — a restaurant, cafe, market or other retail food operation — in Santa Clara County needs a DEH health permit before opening, with plan review required before construction or a tenant improvement. DEH's food-permitting program reaches every one of the county's 15 cities and the unincorporated area: a live query of the county's own open-data platform confirms DEH permits reach San Jose (which runs its own independent fire department but sits inside DEH's environmental-health jurisdiction), and no independent city retail-food-inspection program is published as operating anywhere else in the county, so DEH is the single environmental-health regulator for this program countywide. The permit fee is set under DEH's Property/Program-Element fee schedule, adopted by Board of Supervisors resolution; food-facility fee amounts were last adjusted effective March 1, 2026, after the Board approved the adjustment cycle on December 9, 2025 and January 27, 2026, and it varies by facility type, seating and risk category rather than a single flat figure. A third-party industry aggregator, foodservicenerd.com, publishes approximate current annual figures of roughly $664 to $2,839 by size and risk tier plus a $423 facility-evaluation fee, and states it cross-checked those figures against DEH's schedule in August 2026 — useful as a directional estimate, but DEH's own published fee table is the authoritative source for an exact current figure.
Contact
- Jurisdiction
- Santa Clara County
- Phone
- Not verified — use the website
- Website
- deh.santaclaracounty.gov/
Contact details are taken from the agency’s own site or its published fee schedule. Where we have not verified a phone number we leave it blank rather than guess.
Sources
Every fee and term above was read from one of these government pages on the date shown.
- Application for a New Food FacilityCounty of Santa Clara Department of Environmental Health · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-28
- Apply for a Medical Waste Management PermitCounty of Santa Clara Department of Environmental Health · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-28
- Apply for a Mobile Food Facility (MFF) PermitCounty of Santa Clara Department of Environmental Health · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-28
- Apply for a Temporary Events Food Facility PermitCounty of Santa Clara Department of Environmental Health · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-28
- Apply for Body Art Practitioner Registration or Establishment PermitCounty of Santa Clara Department of Environmental Health · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-28
- County of Santa Clara Permitted Body Art Facilities (open-data dataset; sample records include San Jose addresses, confirming DEH's body-art jurisdiction reaches San Jose)County of Santa Clara (Socrata open-data platform) · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-28
- Environmental Health Fee Adjustment 2026 — Board approval December 9, 2025 and January 27, 2026; food-facility and body-art fees effective March 1, 2026; plan-check fees effective January 15, 2026County of Santa Clara Department of Environmental Health · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-28
- Hazardous Materials and Waste Programs (CUPA, Hazardous Materials Business Plan, Underground Storage Tank program)County of Santa Clara Department of Environmental Health · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-28
- Santa Clara County 2022 Unified Program Final Statement of Operations Filing (FSOF), listing the county's Unified Program agenciesCalifornia Environmental Protection Agency · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-28
Other offices serving Santa Clara County
The full permit list for this jurisdiction
Industry permit lists that include this agency
California jurisdictions
Commercial Compliance Hub publishes information, not legal advice. Requirements change — confirm anything you rely on with the issuing agency before you file.