City of Rapid City Finance Office, Licensing Division

What this agency issues

Permits required, with issuing agency, fee, renewal term and the date each record was last verified against its source
Permit	Issuing agency	Fee	Renews	Last checked
General Business License — City of Rapid City positiononly if it applies to you	City of Rapid City Finance Office, Licensing Division	No fee	not applicable	2026-09-14
Fitness Studio Licensing — City of Rapid City positiononly if it applies to you	City of Rapid City Finance Office, Licensing Division	No fee	not applicable	2026-09-14
Auto Repair Shop Licensing — City of Rapid City positiononly if it applies to you	City of Rapid City Finance Office, Licensing Division	No fee	not applicable	2026-09-14
Mobile Food Vending (street vending from a vehicle prohibited)only if it applies to you	City of Rapid City Finance Office, Licensing Division	RCMC Chapter 5.48 (Peddlers) contains a prohibition rather than a license, and the City's license list names no mobile food license. The routes that exist are: a mobile ice cream vendor license under Chapter 5.50, which is a $50.00 nonrefundable application fee under §5.50.060 payable on both an initial and a renewal application, for a 24-month term under §5.50.080, with public liability cover of not less than $1,000,000 per occurrence; and sidewalk vending under Chapter 5.56, where §5.56.050 sets an annual sidewalk vendor license fee of $100.00 and the Development Application Fee Schedule adds a Sidewalk Vendor Permit at $250.00 with a $100.00 annual renewal fee. A state mobile food service license applies to the unit itself at $38.00 a year under SDCL 34-18-16. Operating on private property or at a permitted special event carries no separate city vending fee.	24 months from the date of issuance for a mobile ice cream vendor license under §5.50.080; annual for a sidewalk vendor license under §5.56.060	2026-09-14
Kennel / Pet Business License (veterinary hospitals and clinics expressly exempt)only if it applies to you	City of Rapid City Finance Office, Licensing Division	Resolution No. 2023-088, effective January 1, 2024, prices four separate licenses at $50.00 per year each: a Kennel License (RCMC §6.08.050), a Pet Daycare License (§6.08.052), a Pet Grooming Business License (§6.08.054) and a Pet Store License (§6.08.056). Where one person or entity applies for more than one of these four license types, the fee for each additional type is $25.00 rather than $50.00. All four are administered by the Humane Society on behalf of the City. Hospitals, clinics and other premises operated by a licensed veterinarian for the care and treatment of animals are expressly exempt from the kennel license under §6.08.050. A separate permit to harbor a potentially dangerous animal is $100.00 per year. Individual animal licenses are $15.00 per neutered/spayed dog, $20.00 per unneutered/unspayed dog, $10.00 per neutered/spayed cat and $15.00 per unneutered/unspayed cat, each the owner's obligation rather than the business's, with a $1.00 duplicate tag fee.	kennel licenses are issued for one year beginning January 1 under §6.08.050; the other three license types are not separately timed in the sections read	2026-09-14
Salon Licensing — State Board License Applies (Rapid City)only if it applies to you	City of Rapid City Finance Office, Licensing Division	No fee	not applicable	2026-09-14

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

General Business License — City of Rapid City position

The City's Licenses, Permits, Parking & Land Use Applications page lists the business types the Finance Office licenses and then states: 'If you DO NOT have one of these businesses, the Finance Office does not require you to have a business license through their office.' Because that page names no general license, no city fee applies to a business merely for operating in Rapid City. The list is verbatim: 'Adult Oriented Business, Central Station Service, Ice Cream Vendor, Pawn /Precious Metals and Gems/ Second Hand, Refuse Hauling, Security, Sidewalk Vending, Taxi, Transportation Network, or Alcohol Related Business/Event.' Callers outside that list are referred onward — 'Please contact the Department of Revenue at 605-394-2332 if you need help getting a business license other than what is listed under Finance.' Chapter 5.04 supplies the machinery rather than a license: §5.04.010 makes it unlawful to engage in any activity for which a license is required 'without first having obtained a license therefor,' §5.04.040 requires the fee be paid to the Finance Officer before issue and that 'all license fees shall be paid on the basis of a full year,' and §5.04.060 provides that licenses 'shall take effect when issued and shall terminate on December 31 in the year for which issued.' Title 5's chapter list — 5.04, 5.08, 5.12, 5.16, 5.20, 5.24, 5.26, 5.32, 5.36, 5.48, 5.50, 5.52, 5.56, 5.60, 5.64, 5.65, 5.70 and 5.74, with 5.28, 5.40 and 5.44 repealed — names no chapter for food, salons, veterinary practice, fitness or auto repair. The point to keep in mind is that the lack of a general business license is not the lack of regulation: food, childcare and most trades are licensed, just not by the City.

Fitness Studio Licensing — City of Rapid City position

The City's Licenses, Permits, Parking & Land Use Applications page lists the business types the Finance Office licenses, names no fitness, gym or health club category, and states that other businesses need no Finance Office license, so no city fee applies to a fitness studio as such. That makes the building and fire layers the whole of its regulatory picture, and they are not trivial: a studio's occupant load may push it into an assembly classification under the International Building Code, which changes exit, sprinkler and restroom requirements and can make a modest fit-out considerably more expensive than the lease implies. Confirm the occupancy classification with Building Services before signing. If the studio sells memberships in advance, South Dakota's general consumer protection law applies through the Attorney General rather than through any license.

Auto Repair Shop Licensing — City of Rapid City position

The City's Licenses, Permits, Parking & Land Use Applications page lists the business types the Finance Office licenses, names no auto repair category, and states that other businesses need no Finance Office license, so no city fee applies to a repair shop as such — a contrast with Sioux Falls, which charges an annual fire license of $46.00 or $58.00 by bay count for the same premises. What still binds a Rapid City shop is the zoning and environmental layer rather than a license: repair uses are conditional in several districts, so check the use table before leasing; waste oil, solvents and parts washers bring the shop under South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources rules; and a spray booth triggers fire permits and mechanical review. A shop that sells vehicles as well as repairing them crosses into dealer licensing under SDCL ch. 32-6B, which is a state credential with bonding and premises requirements of its own.

Mobile Food Vending (street vending from a vehicle prohibited)

The prohibition is the headline and it should be checked before anything else: RCMC 5.48.010 makes selling from a vehicle on a public street unlawful, so the familiar model of parking a truck on a downtown kerb and serving a lunch queue is not available in Rapid City. Chapter 5.48 is titled PEDDLERS and contains that one section only — it is a prohibition, not a license scheme, so there is nothing to apply for. What is available is private property with the owner's consent, permitted special events, and the sidewalk vending scheme in Chapter 5.56, which is a license plus a permit rather than a single fee: $100.00 a year for the license and $250.00 for the permit, renewing at $100.00. The mobile ice cream vendor license in Chapter 5.50 is the one true vehicle-based exception, named in §5.48.010's own exception clause, and is priced unusually — a $50.00 nonrefundable fee covering 24 months rather than an annual figure, charged again on renewal, with $1,000,000 per-occurrence liability cover required. Chapter 5.44 is repealed. Whichever route the operator takes, the unit still needs the state mobile food service license ($38.00 a year under SDCL 34-18-16), because RCMC 8.32.020 sets no city food license and requires compliance with state law and county health regulations instead.

Kennel / Pet Business License (veterinary hospitals and clinics expressly exempt)

§6.08.050 is headed 'Kennel license' and reaches kennels only, but pet daycare, pet grooming and pet store premises are each licensed too, under their own adjacent sections (§§6.08.052, .054 and .056) rather than folded into §6.08.050, and all four license types are priced at $50.00 a year by the same resolution that sets the kennel fee, with a $25.00 discount for an additional type held by the same applicant. The veterinary exemption is express rather than incidental and remains exactly as before: §6.08.050 removes hospitals, clinics and other premises operated by a licensed veterinarian from the kennel license by name. The boundary still matters as a business-model question — a clinic that adds boarding, grooming or retail pet sales as a distinct service may cross into one of the other three license types even though the exemption covers the kennel license itself — and issuance is gated on inspection: no kennel license issues until an Animal Control Officer has reported in writing that the premises meets all city ordinances and state statutes and is being operated humanely. All four licenses are administered by the Humane Society rather than the Finance Office. The substantive veterinary credential remains the individual veterinarian's state license from the Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners. The later Resolution No. 2024-106 (effective February 1, 2025) amends only Public Works Department landfill tipping fees, not §6.08.050 or its neighbouring sections, so the four license fees above are unchanged by it.

Salon Licensing — State Board License Applies (Rapid City)

The City's Licenses, Permits, Parking & Land Use Applications page lists the business types the Finance Office licenses, names no salon or barber category, and states that other businesses need no Finance Office license, so no city fee applies to a salon or barber shop as such. The operative credentials are state ones and they are two-tier: the South Dakota Cosmetology Commission licenses both the individual practitioner and the salon premises, and barbering runs on a parallel track under the Board of Barber Examiners. A salon's Rapid City obligations are the building permit for fit-out — which for a nail salon usually means mechanical ventilation review — the certificate of occupancy, the sign permit and the fire inspection. The Finance Office's list also names no tattoo category, whereas Sioux Falls licenses tattooing at $60.00 for an artist and $173.00 for an establishment.

Contact

Jurisdiction: Rapid City
Phone: (605) 394-4143
Website: www.rcgov.org/how-to/how-to-apply-for/licenses-permits-157.html

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.