Hawaii County
County of Hawai'i Planning Department (and Planning Commission)
In short
County of Hawai'i Planning Department (and Planning Commission) issues 4 permits we publish for Hawaii County, last verified 2026-09-11. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Use Permitonly if it applies to you | County of Hawai'i Planning Department (and Planning Commission) | $500 one-time, per application, paid via EPIC | one-time, per application | 2026-09-11 |
| Special Management Area (SMA) Use Permit (Major)only if it applies to you | County of Hawai'i Planning Department (and Planning Commission) | $500 one-time, per application, paid via EPIC | one-time, per project | 2026-09-11 |
| Special Permitonly if it applies to you | County of Hawai'i Planning Department (and Planning Commission) | $500 one-time, per application, paid via EPIC | one-time, per application | 2026-09-11 |
| Plan Approvalonly if it applies to you | County of Hawai'i Planning Department (and Planning Commission) | No fee | one-time, per project — remains valid so long as the approved plan is followed | 2026-09-11 |
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
Use Permit
Required only when a proposed non-agricultural use is not permitted outright in its zoning district and the property is not zoned Agricultural or Rural (the Special Permit recorded below covers that case instead); whether a specific business needs it depends on the exact use and zoning district. The Planning Commission's own current application form states directly: 'A filing fee of five hundred dollars ($500) to be paid via EPIC.' A childcare facility whose proposed location is not a permitted use outright would use this same pathway, layered on top of, not instead of, Hawaii's own state Child Care License recorded at the state layer.
Special Management Area (SMA) Use Permit (Major)
Applies only to a proposed development on a property within the state-defined coastal Special Management Area, not islandwide. The Planning Commission's own current Major SMA Use Permit application states directly: 'A filing fee of five hundred dollars ($500) to be paid via EPIC,' matching the 'Five hundred ($500) dollars filing fee' in Planning Commission Rule 9-11(b)(5). There is no separately priced Minor permit application. Under Rule 9 as amended in June 2023, a project first goes through a Special Management Area Assessment, whose only fee is 'A fifty dollar ($50) filing fee' (Rule 9-10(b)(12)), and the Planning Director then declares it exempt, issues a Special Management Area Minor Permit for development valued at not more than $500,000 with no cumulative impact or significant adverse effect (Rules 9-4(x) and 9-10(d)-(e)), or requires this Major permit. An applicant who already knows the project exceeds $500,000 or may have a significant adverse effect can skip the assessment and apply for the Major permit directly (Rule 9-10(a)).
Special Permit
Hawaii County's own current Special Permit Application states directly: 'A filing fee of five hundred dollars ($500) to be paid via EPIC' — the same figure charged for the Use Permit above. This is the Planning Commission's pathway for an 'unusual and reasonable' non-agricultural use of land zoned Agricultural or Rural — common on the Big Island, where a large share of land carries that zoning — and applies to any of the ten industries covered here proposing to operate on such land where the use is not permitted outright.
Plan Approval
No fee applies — none is published anywhere on the Planning Department's own current Application for Plan Approval form. This site-plan and zoning-compliance review requires a scaled site plan, building elevations, a Public-Works-approved drainage plan, and a real-property-tax clearance from the Director of Finance, and is the Planning Department's own product for confirming a proposed commercial use and site layout comply with the Zoning Code before construction proceeds.
Contact
- Jurisdiction
- Hawaii County
- Phone
- (808) 961-8288
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 Plan Approval, County of Hawai'i Planning Department (Rev. 9/19/2014) — a site-plan and zoning-compliance review under Zoning Code (Hawai'i County Code Chapter 25), Article 2, Divisions 1 and 7; states no dollar fee anywhere on either pageCounty of Hawai'i Planning Department · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-11
- Planning Commission Rules, Rule 9 (Special Management Area) — the 29-page rule linked from the Planning Department's own SMA page, as amended by the Windward and Leeward Planning Commissions and filed with the County Clerk on June 22, 2023: Rule 9-4(x) (Minor Permit: valuation not in excess of $500,000), Rule 9-10(b)(12) ('A fifty dollar ($50) filing fee' for the SMA Assessment), Rule 9-10(d)-(e) (the Director issues the Minor Permit from the assessment), Rule 9-11(b)(5) ('Five hundred ($500) dollars filing fee' for the Use Permit)County of Hawai'i Windward and Leeward Planning Commissions · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Special Management Area (SMA) Use Permit Application (Major), County of Hawai'i Planning Commission (Rev. 12/8/2022) — a $500 EPIC filing fee, citing Hawaii Revised Statutes §§205A-2, 205A-26 and 205A-29 directlyCounty of Hawai'i Planning Commission · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-11
- Special Management Area Use Permit Assessment Application, County of Hawai'i Planning Department — 'A filing fee of fifty dollars ($50). (Checks shall be made payable to the County Director of Finance)'County of Hawai'i Planning Department · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Special Permit Application, County of Hawai'i Planning Commission (Rev. 12/8/2022) — a $500 EPIC filing fee for a non-agricultural, 'unusual and reasonable' use of land zoned Agricultural or Rural, citing chapter 205, HRS directlyCounty of Hawai'i Planning Commission · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-11
- Use Permit Application, County of Hawai'i Planning Commission (Rev. 12/8/2022) — states directly 'A filing fee of five hundred dollars ($500) to be paid via EPIC'County of Hawai'i Planning Commission · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-11
Other offices serving Hawaii County
The full permit list for this jurisdiction
Industry permit lists that include this agency
Hawaii jurisdictions
Commercial Compliance Hub publishes information, not legal advice. Requirements change — confirm anything you rely on with the issuing agency before you file.