Hamilton County Planning + Development, Development Services (Hamilton County Rural Zoning Commission)

Zoning Certificate — new tenant, commercial alteration or facade change

The new tenant line is the one that catches an ordinary change of occupant — a restaurant, salon, fitness studio, childcare centre or repair shop taking over an existing unit — and whether it costs $163.80 or $423.15 turns on one question: whether the change requires a parking analysis. The county's zoning fee schedule for 2026, updated 11/19/2025, prices a new tenant with no parking analysis at $163.80 and commercial alterations, facade changes or a new tenant requiring a parking analysis at $423.15, each figure already including the $46.00 inspection fee and the 5 per cent technology fee. Before using either, establish which zoning authority the address answers to, because the county administers only one of three regimes. The county's own page states that 'Zoning in Hamilton County is broken into three general categories of jurisdiction: zoning adopted for cities or villages, zoning adopted for townships under township trustee jurisdiction, and zoning adopted for townships under county commissioner jurisdiction', and that Development Services handles the third, covering 'all of Columbia and Harrison Townships and the majority of Green and Miami Townships', plus 'the Village of North Bend and Symmes Township' by contract with the Regional Planning Commission. Anderson, Colerain, Crosby, Delhi, Springfield, Sycamore and Whitewater Townships zone through their own trustees under ORC Chapter 519, and each of the county's 37 cities and villages zones for itself. Sequence matters: the county's development-process page states that a zoning certificate from the local zoning authority is required before a building permit application can be submitted, so this is the first county filing on most fit-outs, and Hamilton County Public Health separately requires written zoning approval before it will license a body art facility. Where the use is not permitted outright, the Board of Zoning Appeals route applies instead, at a materially higher fee.