Dover
City of Dover Planning and Inspections Department
In short
City of Dover Planning and Inspections Department issues 17 permits we publish for Dover, last verified 2026-09-12. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| City of Dover Business License — Motor Vehicle Serviceman | City of Dover Planning and Inspections Department | $96 per license year (license year runs August 1 to July 31) | annual — August 1 through July 31 (Dover Code §26-40); fee due by August 1, with a 10%-per-month penalty after August 31 (Dover Code §26-42) | 2026-09-12 |
| City of Dover Business License — Veterinarian | City of Dover Planning and Inspections Department | $320 per licensed veterinarian, per license year (license year runs August 1 to July 31) | annual — August 1 through July 31 (Dover Code §26-40); fee due by August 1, with a 10%-per-month penalty after August 31 (Dover Code §26-42) | 2026-09-12 |
| Zoning Board of Adjustment Variance / Planning Commission Conditional Use (fee not published)only if it applies to you | City of Dover Planning and Inspections Department | No fee | one-time per application; the City's published documents state no specific term | 2026-09-12 |
| City of Dover Business License — Health Spa or Health Club | City of Dover Planning and Inspections Department | $192 per license year (license year runs August 1 to July 31) | annual — August 1 through July 31 (Dover Code §26-40); fee due by August 1, with a 10%-per-month penalty after August 31 (Dover Code §26-42) | 2026-09-12 |
| Food Safety Permit — Delaware Office of Food Protection (Dover)only if it applies to you | City of Dover Planning and Inspections Department | No fee | not applicable | 2026-09-12 |
| Public Occupancy Permit | City of Dover Planning and Inspections Department | Fee is set by the applicant's building-code occupancy classification: Assembly occupancy with an occupant load under 75 persons, no charge; 75 or more, $100.00 (plus $10.00 per each additional 50 fixed seats beyond the first 200); Day Care, $50.00 for a family day care home (6 or fewer children) or large family day care home (7-12 children) as defined at Zoning Appendix B, Article 5, §§14.22-14.23, otherwise $100.00; Health Care, $100.00 for the first 25 rooms plus $5.00 per additional room; Educational, Ambulatory Health Care, Residential Board and Care, and Industrial occupancies, $100.00 each; Residential, $100.00 per building; Mercantile, Business, and Storage occupancies of 10,000 square feet or more, $100.00 each. The published schedule states no fee for Mercantile, Business, or Storage occupancies under 10,000 square feet. | not stated in the published fee schedule; the City's own Annual Fire and Life Safety Inspection checklist verifies this permit's status as an ongoing item, but the City's published documents state no renewal cycle or expiration date | 2026-09-12 |
| City of Dover Business License — Eating Establishment/Operator | City of Dover Planning and Inspections Department | $128 per license year (license year runs August 1 to July 31) | annual — August 1 through July 31 (Dover Code §26-40); fee due by August 1, with a 10%-per-month penalty after August 31 (Dover Code §26-42) | 2026-09-12 |
| City of Dover Business License — Food Truck | City of Dover Planning and Inspections Department | $180 per license year (license year runs August 1 to July 31) | annual — August 1 through July 31 (Dover Code §26-40); fee due by August 1, with a 10%-per-month penalty after August 31 (Dover Code §26-42) | 2026-09-12 |
| City of Dover Business License — Eating Establishment/Operator | City of Dover Planning and Inspections Department | $128 per license year (license year runs August 1 to July 31) | annual — August 1 through July 31 (Dover Code §26-40); fee due by August 1, with a 10%-per-month penalty after August 31 (Dover Code §26-42) | 2026-09-12 |
| City of Dover Business License — Merchant | City of Dover Planning and Inspections Department | $64.00 minimum to open. On renewal, the license fee is 0.00046 of the licensee's own aggregated gross purchases for resale from the prior period, never below the same $64.00 minimum. | annual — August 1 through July 31 (Dover Code §26-40); fee due by August 1, with a 10%-per-month penalty after August 31 (Dover Code §26-42) | 2026-09-12 |
| City of Dover Business License — Contractor | City of Dover Planning and Inspections Department | $128.00 minimum to open. On renewal, the license fee is 0.00046 of the licensee's own aggregated gross receipts from the prior period, never below the same $128.00 minimum. | annual — August 1 through July 31 (Dover Code §26-40); fee due by August 1, with a 10%-per-month penalty after August 31 (Dover Code §26-42) | 2026-09-12 |
| Building Permit | City of Dover Planning and Inspections Department | $25.00 for the first $1,000 of construction value, plus $8.00 for each additional $1,000 of value up to $10,000,000; $6.00 per $1,000 of value from $10,000,000 to $20,000,000; and $5.00 per $1,000 of value above $20,000,000. | one-time, per project; expiration not stated in the published fee schedule | 2026-09-12 |
| Certificate of Occupancy | City of Dover Planning and Inspections Department | $75.00 for the first 20,000 square feet of a non-residential occupancy, plus $15.00 for each additional 10,000 square feet, for a permanent Certificate of Occupancy. A Temporary Certificate of Occupancy for the same non-residential use costs $100.00, capped at 45 days. | one-time — issued after final inspections confirm code compliance; a temporary C of O is capped at 45 days | 2026-09-12 |
| Sign Permitonly if it applies to you | City of Dover Planning and Inspections Department | $0.75 per square foot of sign area for each sign, with a minimum fee of $50.00 for all signs. | not stated in the published fee schedule | 2026-09-12 |
| Zoning Verification Letteronly if it applies to you | City of Dover Planning and Inspections Department | $60 one-time, per Zoning Verification Letter | one-time, per request; not further specified in the source form | 2026-09-12 |
| City of Dover Business License — Barber/Beautician | City of Dover Planning and Inspections Department | $64.00 for the first two chairs (Barber or Beautician category), plus $4.00 for each additional chair beyond two. | annual — August 1 through July 31 (Dover Code §26-40); fee due by August 1, with a 10%-per-month penalty after August 31 (Dover Code §26-42) | 2026-09-12 |
| City of Dover Business License — Day Care Operator | City of Dover Planning and Inspections Department | $52 per license year (license year runs August 1 to July 31) | annual — August 1 through July 31 (Dover Code §26-40); fee due by August 1, with a 10%-per-month penalty after August 31 (Dover Code §26-42) | 2026-09-12 |
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
City of Dover Business License — Motor Vehicle Serviceman
Dover's own fee schedule has no category explicitly named 'Auto Repair Shop' or 'Gas Station' the way some other Delaware cities do; 'Motor Vehicle Serviceman' ($96.00) is the closest analogous named category in the fee table, a category mapping rather than an exact-name match. A business owner should confirm the correct classification directly with Planning and Inspections at (302) 736-7010. A shop also doing spray-coating or painting work separately needs Delaware's own state Auto Body Shop Air Quality Permit, listed on the Delaware state page.
City of Dover Business License — Veterinarian
Confirmed at $320.00 from the City's own current fee table, listed under the application's own 'Professional Services (per individual unless noted)' heading — meaning this fee is assessed per licensed veterinarian practicing at a location, not per practice premises, a genuinely different structure than a flat per-business fee. A veterinary practice employing several veterinarians may owe multiple $320.00 licenses. This is distinct from the individual veterinarian licensure Delaware's own state Board of Veterinary Medicine issues (listed on the Delaware state page).
Zoning Board of Adjustment Variance / Planning Commission Conditional Use (fee not published)
No current fee is published in the City's current fee documents, so no fee is recorded here. The most recent adopted schedule with published text is Ordinance #2015-22, adopted December 14, 2015 and effective January 1, 2016, which deleted Appendix F (Fees and Fines) in its entirety and substituted a replacement schedule; its figures are given here as background rather than as today's fee: under Appendix B Zoning Article 9 (Board of Adjustment) §3.4, all variance requests for residential uses were set at $300.00, all variance requests for nonresidential uses at $600.00, and all appeals from an order, requirement, decision or determination of an administrative official, board or agency at $300.00, with the Board given discretion to refund part or all of the fee where an interpretation appeal under §2.1 succeeds and with variance fees under §2.2 expressly non-returnable regardless of outcome; under Article 10 (Planning Commission) §1.52, a conditional use permit was set at $425.00 plus $25.00 per acre of the area or multiple thereof involved in the application. Those 2015 figures are not today's fee: the City's own chronological ordinance list shows Appendix F amended repeatedly since, including Ordinance #2016-16 (comprehensive amendments touching both Appendix B Zoning and Appendix F together) and Ordinance #2018-01 (zoning and fee amendments), and the currently codified Appendix F is not publicly viewable on the City's Municode code site. The Zoning Board of Adjustment and the Planning Commission are both sitting bodies. A business owner should confirm the current application and fee directly with Planning and Inspections at (302) 736-7196 (zoning).
City of Dover Business License — Health Spa or Health Club
Confirmed at $192.00 from the City's own current fee table under the 'Health Spa or Health Club' category, the closest and only named category matching a fitness studio. The license year runs August 1 to July 31, with the fee due by August 1 and a 10%-per-month penalty after August 31 (Dover Code §§26-40, 26-42).
Food Safety Permit — Delaware Office of Food Protection (Dover)
No fee applies at the city level. Food-establishment permitting for Dover businesses is by the Delaware Division of Public Health's Office of Food Protection, listed on the Delaware state page. The Business License Application's own printed ordinance text requires licensed premises to stay open to inspection by 'the Executive Officer of the Board of Health,' and the City's own Code Chapter 54 is titled 'Health and Sanitation,' but the substantive content listed under that chapter in the City's code table of contents is a smoking-regulations ordinance rather than a food-establishment permitting program. Both references are read here as pointing to Delaware's statewide Office of Food Protection permit rather than a distinct Dover-run inspection.
Public Occupancy Permit
This is a separate, newer local credential from the Certificate of Occupancy listed elsewhere on this page — issued jointly by Planning and Inspections and the Fire Marshal's Office and priced by building-code occupancy classification rather than by construction activity or square footage alone. A typical small retail store, salon, or fitness studio under 10,000 square feet in a Mercantile or Business occupancy classification falls into the schedule's own unpriced gap; a business owner should confirm the applicable fee directly with Planning and Inspections or the Fire Marshal's Office.
City of Dover Business License — Eating Establishment/Operator
$128.00, as published in the City's own current Business License Application. Layered on top of (not instead of) Delaware's own state business license and state Office of Food Protection permit, both listed on the Delaware state page. The application's own printed ordinance text requires every licensed premises to stay 'open to inspection of the Fire Marshal and the Executive Officer of the Board of Health during all business hours' — that reference points to the state's own food-safety authority (see the dedicated food/health record elsewhere on this page).
City of Dover Business License — Food Truck
Confirmed at $180.00 from the City's own current fee table — this is Dover's own confirmed local requirement for a food truck, a flat category within the same general Business License every other business type uses. Unlike Wilmington, Dover publishes no separate mobile-food-vendor program, ordinance or curbside-reservation system layered on top of this license.
City of Dover Business License — Eating Establishment/Operator
A coffee shop preparing and serving food or beverages on-site licenses under the same 'Eating Establishment and/or Eating Establishment Operator' category as a restaurant, confirmed at $128.00 from the City's own current fee table. Dover's own schedule has no separate lower-priced category for a coffee shop or cafe distinct from a full-service restaurant.
City of Dover Business License — Merchant
A general retail store licenses under the 'Merchant' category. The $64.00 minimum and the 0.00046-of-gross-purchases renewal rate are confirmed from two independent City documents — the Business License Application itself, and a separate 2024 ordinance (#2024-25, adding a marijuana-retail license category) that quotes the identical Sec. 26-35 language and rate. Layered on top of Delaware's own state business license, listed on the Delaware state page.
City of Dover Business License — Contractor
This City license is layered on top of Delaware's own state Contractor Business License ($75.00/year, listed on the Delaware state page). Electrical and plumbing contractors specifically must submit a copy of their current State of Delaware professional license and a certificate of insurance for the business as part of this City application — a further local documentation requirement on top of Delaware's own state Board of Electrical Examiners and Board of Plumbing/HVACR Examiners licenses.
Building Permit
Neither the City's own Building Permit Application nor its Sign Permit Application carries a fee table on the form itself; this figure comes from a separate 'Permit Fees' brochure dated 7/2022. The application must be filled out by a City-licensed contractor or by the property owner directly. A separate Fire Prevention Permit (listed elsewhere on this page) applies on top of this permit for fire alarm, sprinkler, or suppression-system work. A $50.00 demolition permit and separate mechanical/plumbing/heat-pump trade-permit fees appear on the same brochure but are not separately recorded here.
Certificate of Occupancy
This is the Certificate of Occupancy tied to the Building Permit / construction process, distinct from the separate 'Public Occupancy Permit' listed elsewhere on this page, which is priced by building-code occupancy classification rather than square footage and is jointly administered with the Fire Marshal's Office. A one-family residential C of O is priced separately and lower ($60.00 permanent, $75.00 temporary) but does not apply to the commercial industries covered here.
Sign Permit
The City's own Sign Permit Application form itself leaves the fee line blank for staff to calculate; the $0.75-per-square-foot rate and $50.00 minimum come from the separate Permit Fees brochure (7/2022). A sign requiring structural or electrical work would separately require the standard Building Permit listed elsewhere on this page. A temporary sign (inflatable, under 100 square feet) is capped at 90 continuous days per calendar year per the City's own Planning FAQ.
Zoning Verification Letter
The City's own current Zoning Verification Request Form states plainly: 'There is a $60.00 fee per Zoning Verification Letter.' This confirms whether a proposed use is allowed at a given parcel under Dover's own zoning ordinance (Appendix B) before a business commits to a location.
City of Dover Business License — Barber/Beautician
Confirmed at $64.00 plus $4.00 per additional chair from the City's own current fee table, listed as separate Barber and Beautician categories priced identically. This City license is layered on top of Delaware's own state Cosmetology or Barbering Establishment License ($142.00/2 years, listed on the Delaware state page).
City of Dover Business License — Day Care Operator
Confirmed at $52.00 from the City's own current fee table for a 'Day Care Operator.' The same fee table separately prices a 'Home Day Care Operator' (a smaller family child care home) at $28.00. Layered on top of Delaware's own state Child Care License (Office of Child Care Licensing, no fee, listed on the Delaware state page). A separate Public Occupancy Permit fee also applies to a day care's physical space (listed elsewhere on this page).
Contact
- Jurisdiction
- Dover
- Phone
- (302) 736-7010
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 Public Occupancy Permit (effective 1/1/2022) — fee schedule by building-code occupancy classificationCity of Dover, Planning and Inspections Department and Office of the Fire Marshal · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-12
- Building Permit Application — permit process and licensed-contractor requirements (no fee table on the form itself)City of Dover, Planning and Inspections Department · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-12
- City of Dover — Ordinances, Resolutions and Tributes, full chronological list by year (showing Appendix F amended repeatedly after Ordinance #2015-22, including #2016-16 and #2018-01)City of Dover, City Clerk's Office · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-18
- City of Dover Business License Application (fillable) — full fee schedule by occupation/business-type categoryCity of Dover, Planning and Inspections Department · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-12
- City of Dover Ordinance #2015-22, adopted December 14, 2015 and effective January 1, 2016 — deletes Appendix F (Fees and Fines) in its entirety and substitutes a replacement schedule, including the Appendix B Zoning Article 9 (Board of Adjustment) §3.4 variance and appeal fees and the Article 10 (Planning Commission) §1.52 conditional use permit feeCity of Dover, Delaware · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-12
- Code of Ordinances — table of contents confirming Chapter 26 (Businesses), Chapter 22 (Buildings and Building Regulations), Appendix B (Zoning), Chapter 46 (Fire Prevention and Protection), and Chapter 54 (Health and Sanitation) as current chapter titlesCity of Dover, via Municode · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-12
- Permit Fees brochure (dated 7/2022) — Building Permit, Certificate of Occupancy, Sign Permit, Demolition, and trade-permit fee schedulesCity of Dover, Planning and Inspections Department · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-12
- Sign Permit Application (effective 8/14/2012)City of Dover, Planning and Inspections Department · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-12
- Zoning Verification Request Form — confirms the $60.00 fee per Zoning Verification LetterCity of Dover, Planning and Inspections Department · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-12
Other offices serving Dover
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