St. Paul
City of Saint Paul, Department of Safety and Inspections
In short
City of Saint Paul, Department of Safety and Inspections issues 9 permits we publish for St. Paul, last verified 2026-09-08. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fire Certificate of Occupancy | City of Saint Paul, Department of Safety and Inspections | Commercial: $228 base up to 13,999 sq ft; $17 per 1,000 sq ft from 14,000–48,999 sq ft; $886 flat from 49,000–117,999 sq ft; $1,048 flat at 118,000+ sq ft. Re-inspection is 50% of the renewal fee; a missed-appointment no-entry fee is $89. | recurring, by occupancy type — Assembly and Institutional every 2 years; Business, Education, Factory, Mercantile, and Storage every 3 years; Hazardous every 1 year | 2026-09-08 |
| Commercial Building Permit | City of Saint Paul, Department of Safety and Inspections | Valuation-based, starting at $36 for $0–$500 and scaling through a detailed per-tier table to the $100,000 mark; from $100,001–$500,000, $1,499 plus $8 per additional $1,000 (or fraction); from $500,001–$1,000,000, $4,899 plus $7 per additional $1,000; above $1,000,000, $8,463 plus $5 per additional $1,000. A Plan Check Fee of 65% of the permit fee applies for valuations over $1,000, plus a separate Minnesota state surcharge under Minn. Stat. 326B.148. | one-time, per project | 2026-09-08 |
| Conditional Use Permit for Day Care in a Residential Zoneonly if it applies to you | City of Saint Paul, Department of Safety and Inspections | $800 for up to 1 acre of land, plus $200 for each additional acre; an additional $180 applies for a river corridor conditional use permit. | one-time | 2026-09-08 |
| Auto Repair Garage / Auto Body Repair Shop License | City of Saint Paul, Department of Safety and Inspections | $507 a year | annual | 2026-09-08 |
| Mobile Food Unit — Fire Department Permit Position (Saint Paul)only if it applies to you | City of Saint Paul, Department of Safety and Inspections | No fee | not applicable | 2026-09-08 |
| Business Sign Permit | City of Saint Paul, Department of Safety and Inspections | Wall and projecting signs: $3.00/sq ft, $85 minimum. Freestanding and roof signs: $3.00/sq ft, $91 minimum. Awnings: $2.00/linear ft, $85 minimum. Temporary/portable sign: $85 flat. A marquee over public property is $167. | one-time, per sign | 2026-09-08 |
| Trade Worker Registration | City of Saint Paul, Department of Safety and Inspections | By experience tier: Tier 1 (0–4 years) $37; Tier 2 (5–6 years) $70; Tier 3 (7+ years) $59. The firm's own Business Trade License (Chapter 369) is a separate $188.00 per trade annually, covering the company rather than the individual worker. | annual | 2026-09-08 |
| Salon/Barbershop Licensing — City of Saint Paul positiononly if it applies to you | City of Saint Paul, Department of Safety and Inspections | No fee | not applicable | 2026-09-08 |
| General Business License — City of Saint Paul positiononly if it applies to you | City of Saint Paul, Department of Safety and Inspections | No fee | not applicable | 2026-09-08 |
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
Fire Certificate of Occupancy
This is a recurring inspection/certificate program, not a one-time issuance — the required renewal cadence depends on occupancy classification.
Commercial Building Permit
DSI's own Building Permits & Inspections page currently links two documents under the identical label 'Building Permit Fee Schedule': the February 2022 schedule this record originally cited, and a later one effective February 25, 2023 — also issued under Legislative Code section 33.04 — with higher figures across the same valuation table ($36 rather than $33.01 for $0–$500, rising to $1,499 plus $8 per additional $1,000 above $100,000 rather than $1,388.25 plus $7.86). This record now follows that later, currently-published schedule; DSI's page still also links the 2022 copy, which reads as an uncleaned legacy link rather than a second operative fee table.
Conditional Use Permit for Day Care in a Residential Zone
Family day care, group family day care, and child care centers need a Conditional Use Permit in residential zoning districts, unless operated by a religious institution, other tax-exempt organization, or government agency. The fee document is dated 2016 — the figures were independently cross-checked against a separate source and matched, but currency for 2026 could not be fully confirmed.
Auto Repair Garage / Auto Body Repair Shop License
The same $507 fee applies whether licensed as an Auto Repair Garage, an Auto Body Repair Shop, or an Auto Body Repair or Painting Shop — confirmed directly in the city's own published fee table.
Mobile Food Unit — Fire Department Permit Position (Saint Paul)
No separate fee applies from the St. Paul Fire Department for mobile food units, per the City's Pop Up Vendor handout: for food trucks it lists only a Minnesota Department of Health and/or Department of Agriculture food license, a DSI Zoning review for private property, a Public Works right-of-way permit, and (for park operation) a Parks and Recreation permit.
Business Sign Permit
Confirmed via the department's rendered page content rather than a byte-for-byte raw-HTML cross-check; flagged for a light manual spot-check.
Trade Worker Registration
St. Paul has no single 'general contractor' license — firms instead need trade-specific Business Trade Licenses (concrete/masonry, elevator, gas burner, plumbing/gasfitter, sign contractor, and others) under Chapter 369 of the Legislative Code, and individual tradesworkers separately need this annual registration under section 370.02. The firm-level Business Trade License carries its own flat fee, confirmed directly on the City's own trade-license pages: $188.00 per trade annually, expiring every December 1 regardless of issue date — a firm holding several trades pays $188.00 for each. Tier 2's registration fee ($70) is unusually higher than Tier 3's ($59) despite representing fewer years of experience — confirmed identically from the same city source twice, but this non-monotonic pricing may reflect a source error and is disclosed as found rather than corrected. The City publishes no city-specific contractor bond requirement; city materials point only to the state Department of Labor and Industry's bond lookup tool.
Salon/Barbershop Licensing — City of Saint Paul position
Per the City's Business License Fees page, no license fee applies. That page lists Massage Center, Massage Practitioner, Tanning Facility and Steam Room/Bath House as its personal-care-adjacent license types and names no salon, barbershop or cosmetology category, so no City salon license fee is listed for a salon, barbershop or cosmetology business.
General Business License — City of Saint Paul position
The City's Business License Fees page lists activity-specific licenses (alcohol, automotive, entertainment, health/sports club, animal, merchandise, professional services/trades, transportation and others) and names no blanket business license, so there is no fee for one; the city offers roughly 200 activity-specific license types instead.
Contact
- Jurisdiction
- St. Paul
- Phone
- (651) 266-8989
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.
- City of Saint Paul — Building Permit Fee Schedule (effective February 2022)City of Saint Paul, DSI · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-08
- City of Saint Paul — Building Permit Fee Schedule, effective February 25, 2023 (Section 33.04 of the Saint Paul Legislative Code) — currently linked alongside the February 2022 edition from DSI's Building Permits & Inspections page, with higher figures across the same valuation tableCity of Saint Paul, DSI · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-18
- City of Saint Paul — Business Licenses and Permits (consolidated fee table)City of Saint Paul, DSI · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-08
- City of Saint Paul — Business Sign PermitCity of Saint Paul, DSI · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-08
- City of Saint Paul — Competency Cards and Trade Worker RegistrationCity of Saint Paul, DSI · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-08
- City of Saint Paul — Fire Certificate of Occupancy Information (revised February 2023)City of Saint Paul, DSI Fire Safety Inspection Division · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-08
- City of Saint Paul — Pop-Up Vendor HandoutCity of Saint Paul, DSI · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-08
- City of Saint Paul — Zoning Fees (updated March 2, 2016)City of Saint Paul, DSI · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-08
- City of Saint Paul Planning Commission — Religious and Accessory Uses, Day Care Conditional UseCity of Saint Paul · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-08
- City of Saint Paul, DSI — Building Permits & Inspections page, whose own links confirm both the 2022 and the February 25, 2023 Building Permit Fee Schedule documents are currently publishedCity of Saint Paul, DSI · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-18
- City of Saint Paul, DSI — Gas Burner Business Trade License page, stating the $188.00 annual per-trade fee and citing Chapter 369 of the Saint Paul Legislative Code (the fee and chapter citation apply identically across DSI's named Business Trade License categories)City of Saint Paul, DSI · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-18
Other offices serving St. Paul
The full permit list for this jurisdiction
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