Orange County
Orange County Zoning Division
In short
Orange County Zoning Division issues 3 permits we publish for Orange 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail Store / Fitness Studio Licensing — Orange County General Layers Onlyonly if it applies to you | Orange County Zoning Division | No fee | not applicable | 2026-09-28 |
| Use Permit (zoning / Certificate-of-Use equivalent) | Orange County Zoning Division | $27 flat fee, Use Permit with one inspection (Division of Building Safety) | one-time per occupancy, use change, or change of business ownership at a commercial location; no periodic renewal | 2026-09-28 |
| Alcoholic Beverage License Review (zoning-distance compliance)only if it applies to you | Orange County Zoning Division | $8–$273 flat fee by application type: $273.00 when distance measurement is required, $8.00 for processing-only applications (including temporary 1-3 day applications) with no distance measurement | one-time per alcoholic beverage license application, ahead of state ABT licensing | 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
Retail Store / Fitness Studio Licensing — Orange County General Layers Only
There is no separate fee under this record. Orange County's Permits & Licenses list (orangecountyfl.net/PermitsLicenses/Permits.aspx) names building, zoning, environmental, alcoholic-beverage and business-tax items but no retail-store- or fitness-studio-specific license, so these businesses meet the general-purpose layers that reach every business: the countywide Local Business Tax Receipt; the Use Permit and any building permit for a location in unincorporated Orange County; and, within Orange County Fire Rescue's own service territory, the standard fire-occupancy plans review and inspection recorded separately. A handful of exceptions for specific retail circumstances are recorded as their own separate requirements rather than folded into this one: a retail store selling dogs, cats or rabbits falls under the county's pet-store sale prohibition and, if it deals in pets more broadly, the Commercial Kennel and Pet Dealer registration; a retail store selling alcohol needs the Alcoholic Beverage License Review zoning-distance clearance; and a retail store that qualifies as a 'large retailer' generating hazardous waste (a category the county's Environmental Protection Division names explicitly) would trigger the Hazardous Waste Generator surcharge. For a fitness studio with a pool or spa, Fla. Stat. §514.011 counts pools serving health spas as public pools and §514.031 requires a state operating permit from the Florida Department of Health; at the county level the physical installation goes through building permitting and fire-code review.
Use Permit (zoning / Certificate-of-Use equivalent)
A business occupying a building or space in unincorporated Orange County, changing its use, or changing ownership at a commercial location needs a Use Permit — the county's rough equivalent of a Certificate of Use — reviewed sequentially by the Business Tax Receipt office, the Zoning Division and finally the Division of Building Safety, which issues it. This applies only in unincorporated Orange County: Orlando, Winter Park, Apopka, Maitland, Winter Garden, Ocoee and the other incorporated cities each run their own separate zoning and Certificate-of-Use process, out of scope here. The Division of Building Safety's own Fee Directory (effective July 2025) sets the fee at a flat $27.00 for a Use Permit with one inspection. A separate, second fee applies when the same use-permit change affects hazard classification: Orange County Fire Rescue's Office of the Fire Marshal charges its own $39.00 Use Permit Review fee (effective October 2025) on top of the Building Safety fee — two distinct fees from two different departments, both payable when Fire Rescue review is triggered, not one fee split between them. Apply through the county's Fast Track online portal.
Alcoholic Beverage License Review (zoning-distance compliance)
A restaurant, coffee shop or retail store applying for a state alcoholic beverage license must first clear a zoning-distance review from the Orange County Zoning Division. The county's own Fee Directory confirms two fee tiers: $273.00 for 'Processing and Distance Measurement' when the application requires a distance measurement, and $8.00 for processing-only applications, including temporary 1-3 day permits, that need no distance measurement. Processing takes up to 21 days. The zoning-distance rules themselves have a conditional structure, not a single flat number. The general rule under §38-1415 is a 1,000-foot separation from a religious institution or a school, with a stated exception for restaurant licenses. A separate rule under §38-1414 sets a 200-foot minimum separation between a package store and an adult-entertainment establishment. A further carve-out applies only to a place of business on property zoned Activity Center Mixed-Use: if that business is licensed for on-premises consumption only and derives less than 51% of its gross revenue from food and nonalcoholic beverages, it may locate as close as 500 feet from a school under the general Activity Center Mixed-Use carve-out, or as close as 300 feet from a school under a further, more specific carve-out — it is not a flat 300-foot rule for all Activity Center Mixed-Use properties, and a business should confirm which of the two applies to its own license type and revenue mix with the Zoning Division before relying on either distance.
Contact
- Jurisdiction
- Orange County
- Phone
- 407-836-5550
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.
- Alcoholic Beverage License ReviewOrange County, Florida · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-29
- Orange County Code, Chapter 38, Article XIV — Alcoholic Beverage Establishments (§§38-1414, 38-1415)Municode / Orange County, Florida · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-29
- Orange County Fee Directory, FY2025-26 (103 pages; Building Safety fees effective July 2025, Fire Rescue and Animal Services fees effective October 2025) — directly re-extracted page by page on independent verificationOrange County, Florida · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-29
- Use PermitOrange County, Florida · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-29
Other offices serving Orange County
- Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation
- Orange County Fire Rescue, Office of the Fire Marshal
- Orange County Division of Building Safety, Permitting Services
- Florida Department of Children and Families, Office of Child Care Regulation
- Orange County Animal Services
- Orange County Environmental Protection Division
- Orange County Tax Collector, Business Tax Section
The full permit list for this jurisdiction
Industry permit lists that include this agency
Florida jurisdictions
Commercial Compliance Hub publishes information, not legal advice. Requirements change — confirm anything you rely on with the issuing agency before you file.