Manchester
City of Manchester, Planning & Community Development Department
In short
City of Manchester, Planning & Community Development Department issues 7 permits we publish for Manchester, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Certificate of Occupancy | City of Manchester, Planning & Community Development Department | The same 1% (0.01) of the estimated cost of the associated work applied to building permits generally — the Building Division's own current Building Fees page names 'occupancy permits' directly inside its alterations/renovations/repairs pricing bullet rather than pricing a Certificate of Occupancy as a separate, flat product. The $25.00 application fee applies here as well. | one-time — issued for a new occupancy or a change of business use | 2026-09-12 |
| Conditional Use Permitonly if it applies to you | City of Manchester, Planning & Community Development Department | $150.00 base fee for a Conditional Use Permit application before the Planning Board, plus the City's flat $25.00 non-refundable application/processing fee, per the City's own Application & Permit Fee Schedule. | one-time, per application | 2026-09-12 |
| Commercial Building Permit | City of Manchester, Planning & Community Development Department | 1% (0.01) of the estimated cost of the work for all new commercial or multi-family construction and additions, and for alterations, renovations, or repairs to existing buildings and structures (the City's own examples include decks, sheds, pools, siding, windows, roofing, and occupancy permits); new one- and two-family dwellings are priced lower at 0.6% (0.006) of cost. Every building permit also carries a flat $25.00 non-refundable application fee, and multi-family/commercial applications carry a further plan review fee of $0.02 per square foot. | one-time, per project — not stated in the published fee schedule | 2026-09-12 |
| General Contractor Registration (not found)only if it applies to you | City of Manchester, Planning & Community Development Department | No fee | not applicable | 2026-09-12 |
| Sign Permitonly if it applies to you | City of Manchester, Planning & Community Development Department | $25.00 non-refundable application fee, plus: on private property, $50.00 per sign up to 50 sq ft of face area or $1.50 per sq ft above 50 sq ft; over public property, the identical $50.00/$1.50-per-sq-ft structure; a temporary outdoor sign is $35.00 each instead. | not applicable | 2026-09-12 |
| Zoning Board of Adjustment Application (Variance, Special Exception, Appeal)only if it applies to you | City of Manchester, Planning & Community Development Department | $350.00 for a Non-conforming Use Variance, Non-conforming Multi-Use Variance, Non-conforming Planned Development, Non-Conforming Subdivision, or Unaccepted Way application; $200.00 for All Other Variances, a Special Exception, an Administrative Appeal, an Equitable Waiver, or a Rehearing; $35.00 for a Subsequent Application or a Motion for Rehearing — each also carrying the City's flat $25.00 non-refundable application/processing fee, per the City's own Application & Permit Fee Schedule. | one-time, per application | 2026-09-12 |
| Site Plan / Planned Development Review (Planning Board)only if it applies to you | City of Manchester, Planning & Community Development Department | $250.00 base fee for a Site Plan/Planned Development application, plus $100.00 for each new dwelling unit (residential) or $100.00 for each 1,000 square feet of new gross floor area (non-residential); plus the City's flat $25.00 non-refundable application/processing fee, per the City's own Application & Permit Fee Schedule. | one-time, per application | 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
Certificate of Occupancy
Required before a business with a physical location can obtain its City Clerk Business License and Health Department food permit, per the restaurant checklist's own Final Phase ('Return to Planning and Community Development – Obtain Certificate of Occupancy and completed Sign-off Sheet'). It is recorded as its own line item to make the requirement explicit; Manchester publishes no separate, flat Certificate of Occupancy dollar figure distinct from the general building permit formula recorded above.
Conditional Use Permit
Required when a proposed use is conditionally, rather than outright, permitted in its zoning district. This record states the fee itself; which zoning districts require a Conditional Use Permit for each of these five industries is set by the Zoning Ordinance's district use tables, so confirm the trigger for a specific address with Planning and Community Development.
Commercial Building Permit
A genuine, confirmed valuation-based fee, read directly from the Building Division's own current Building Fees page rather than assumed to mirror a flat schedule. The restaurant checklist's own Pre-Construction Phase confirms this permit (along with electrical, plumbing, heating/mechanical, and zoning permits) is obtained from Planning & Community Development after Health Department plan approval, and before construction begins.
General Contractor Registration (not found)
No fee applies. New Hampshire has no statewide general contractor license (confirmed at this project's own state layer), and Manchester's own City Clerk Business License Application names no general-contracting category either. A Manchester contractor's local obligation is the same commercial building permit and plan review process recorded above, pulled per project, rather than a standing local registration — a genuinely different structure from a city that layers its own contractor class system on top of the building permit (as this project has found elsewhere).
Sign Permit
Corrected from an earlier 'unpublished' finding: the City's own general Application & Permit Fee Schedule cross-references 'the Planning & Community Development website under Building Regulations and Permit Applications' for this fee, and the Building Division's own general Building Fees page does not itemize it — but the City's own dedicated Sign Permit application form itself (linked from that same Permit Applications page) carries the complete, current fee table quoted above, confirmed directly from the form. A sign permit is a genuine, mandatory requirement — the restaurant checklist's own Pre-Construction Phase lists 'sign' among the permits obtained from Planning & Community Development.
Zoning Board of Adjustment Application (Variance, Special Exception, Appeal)
In the fee schedule's own layout, each dollar figure is a shared group fee covering several listed application types together, rather than five missing figures next to only the last item in each group. A Request for Rezoning is a separate $300.00 fee payable at the City Clerk's Office rather than to Planning & Community Development directly, per the same schedule.
Site Plan / Planned Development Review (Planning Board)
Triggered by new construction or a significant addition rather than every business opening; a small tenant fit-out inside an existing building typically proceeds under the building permit process recorded above instead. The Planning Board's own separate 'Fees' page independently mentions a $10.00-per-abutter notice-mailing cost on top of these figures.
Contact
- Jurisdiction
- Manchester
- Phone
- (603) 624-6450
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 & Permit Fee Schedule — Planning Board (Site Plan, Subdivision, Conditional Use Permit), Zoning Board of Adjustment (variances, special exceptions, appeals), and Request for Rezoning fees, plus the $25.00 processing fee on every applicationCity of Manchester, Planning & Community Development Department · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-12
- Application for Sign Permit (effective 09/02/14) — Building Regulations Division's own itemized fee table: $25.00 non-refundable application fee, plus per-sign charges by size and locationCity of Manchester, Planning & Community Development Department, Building Regulations Division · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-12
- Building Fees — the Building Division's own current page pricing building permits (valuation-based formula), the $25.00 application fee, the $0.02/sq ft commercial plan review fee, bazaars, tent sales, and yard salesCity of Manchester, Planning & Community Development Department, Building Division · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-12
- Business License Application — the City Clerk's own current form, listing every licensable Business Activity, the square-footage license fee worksheet, and the Peddler/Hawker fee scheduleCity of Manchester, Office of the City Clerk · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-12
Other offices serving Manchester
The full permit list for this jurisdiction
Industry permit lists that include this agency
New Hampshire jurisdictions
Commercial Compliance Hub publishes information, not legal advice. Requirements change — confirm anything you rely on with the issuing agency before you file.