Burlington
City of Burlington Department of Permitting and Inspections
In short
City of Burlington Department of Permitting and Inspections issues 11 permits we publish for Burlington, last verified 2026-09-14. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Child Care Facility — State-Licensed; City Zoning Only (Burlington)only if it applies to you | City of Burlington Department of Permitting and Inspections | No fee | not applicable at city level | 2026-09-14 |
| Contractor Licensing — Vermont State Trade Licenses (Burlington)only if it applies to you | City of Burlington Department of Permitting and Inspections | No fee | not applicable at city level | 2026-09-14 |
| Fitness Studio — City Zoning and Permits Only (Burlington)only if it applies to you | City of Burlington Department of Permitting and Inspections | No fee | not applicable | 2026-09-14 |
| Conditional Use Permit / Variance / Development Review Board Applicationonly if it applies to you | City of Burlington Department of Permitting and Inspections | A conditional use permit or a variance is $195.00, charged in addition to any applicable Certificate of Appropriateness fee rather than instead of it. Other Development Review Board matters, including time extensions and Master Sign Plans, are $155.00, and an appeal to the Board is $250.00. A sketch plan review is $300.00 per board per visit initially and $250.00 per board per visit thereafter. A major impact review is $250.00 plus $1.21 per $1,000 of estimated construction cost. A zoning compliance report is $35.00 standard, $70.00 expedited or $17.00 to renew. | one-time per application | 2026-09-14 |
| Salon and Barber Shop — State-Licensed; City Zoning Only (Burlington)only if it applies to you | City of Burlington Department of Permitting and Inspections | No fee | not applicable | 2026-09-14 |
| Zoning Permit (required for change of use, not only construction) | City of Burlington Department of Permitting and Inspections | A basic zoning permit, an awning permit without signage, a fence permit or a Certificate of Appropriateness Level I — the level covering a change of use or a project with an estimated construction cost below $29,000 — is a $15.00 filing fee plus $107.00, so $122.00 in total. A Certificate of Appropriateness Level II, for an estimated construction cost of $29,000 or more, is $15.00 plus $140.00 plus $2.20 per $1,000 of estimated construction cost, with a development review fee of $4.50 per $1,000 charged on top. An administrative determination is $15.00 plus $140.00. All fees are capped at $165,000 in 2026 dollars and adjusted by CPI. | not stated in the published fee schedule | 2026-09-14 |
| Zoning Certificate of Occupancy | City of Burlington Department of Permitting and Inspections | A final zoning certificate of occupancy is $30.00 plus ten percent of the total application fees, charged within the application fees themselves and refundable if the permit is not enacted. A temporary certificate of occupancy is $150.00 each. An after-the-fact certificate is charged on a separate schedule. A building certificate of occupancy, where the project requires one, adds a further $10.00. | one-time; a temporary certificate is time-limited by its own terms | 2026-09-14 |
| Building Permit | City of Burlington Department of Permitting and Inspections | Charged at $8.50 for every $1,000 of the estimated cost of the work. The minimum is stated inconsistently across City documents and both readings are recorded: Code §8-28(a) sets 'a minimum charge of twenty dollars ($20.00) per permit' while the City's own Permit Applications and Forms page states 'a minimum permit fee of thirty ($30.00) dollars.' No permit and no fee is required for alterations or repairs costing $1,000 or less. Electrical work is charged at the same $8.50 per $1,000 but with a $50.00 minimum, and plumbing at $8.50 per $1,000 with a $30.00 minimum that includes the land records recording fee. An enforcement processing fee applies where work proceeds without a permit: $30.00 where the estimated cost is $3,000 or less, otherwise one percent of the estimated cost. Electrical work started without a permit carries $75.00 up to $6,000 or one percent above that, and each re-inspection for code violations is $100.00. | a building permit becomes invalid after three years under Code §8-27 | 2026-09-14 |
| Sign Permitonly if it applies to you | City of Burlington Department of Permitting and Inspections | A $15.00 filing fee plus $118.00 for one sign, plus $80.00 for each additional sign. Signs forming part of an approved Master Sign Plan are charged at half price per sign. An application to establish or amend a Master Sign Plan is treated as another Development Review Board matter at $155.00, and a sign-related variance is charged as a variance at $195.00. | not stated in the published fee schedule | 2026-09-14 |
| Auto Repair Shop — City Zoning and Permits Only (Burlington)only if it applies to you | City of Burlington Department of Permitting and Inspections | No fee | not applicable | 2026-09-14 |
| Veterinary Practice — State-Licensed; City Zoning Only (Burlington)only if it applies to you | City of Burlington Department of Permitting and Inspections | 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
Child Care Facility — State-Licensed; City Zoning Only (Burlington)
No city fee applies: the Clerk/Treasurer's Business Licenses page lists only cannabis, liquor, peddler and taxi licenses, and childcare is licensed by the Vermont Department for Children and Families Child Development Division. The City's involvement is zoning only: the CDO use table carries rows for 'Daycare' and 'Daycare – Family Home,' so the questions a Burlington operator faces are whether the use is permitted outright or conditional in the district, and whether the space needs a change-of-use zoning permit and a zoning certificate of occupancy. Where the use is conditional the $195.00 conditional use fee applies on top of the $122.00 zoning permit. A childcare facility is also subject to the fire and life safety inspection listed elsewhere for this jurisdiction, whose first inspection and first re-inspection are free of charge.
Contractor Licensing — Vermont State Trade Licenses (Burlington)
No fee applies for a city contractor license: the Clerk/Treasurer's Business Licenses page lists no contractor license, and the Code defers explicitly to the State for the two trades it regulates: §12-57 requires 'a masters license therefore, as provided in the Vermont Electrical Safety Rules currently adopted by the State of Vermont,' and §25-3 requires that a person 'shall have first obtained and holds a valid master plumber license from the State of Vermont Plumbers' Licensing Board.' What the City requires instead is per-project trade permits — building at $8.50 per $1,000 with a $20.00 or $30.00 minimum, electrical at the same rate with a $50.00 minimum, and plumbing at the same rate with a $30.00 minimum. The penalties for skipping them are where the real exposure sits: a $30.00 or one percent enforcement processing fee on building work, $75.00 or one percent on electrical, and $100.00 for each re-inspection prompted by a code violation.
Fitness Studio — City Zoning and Permits Only (Burlington)
No fee applies: the Clerk/Treasurer's Business Licenses page lists no fitness license, and 24 V.S.A. § 2291 grants no municipal power to license fitness businesses. The nearest chapter is Chapter 4, AMUSEMENTS, and it is essentially empty — §§4-1 through 4-3, 4-5 through 4-7 and 4-11 through 4-30 are all reserved. A gym appears in the CDO use table as 'Health Club.' A studio's city obligations are therefore the universal set: zoning permit for the use, zoning certificate of occupancy, building and trade permits for fit-out, sign permit, and the fire and life safety inspection, whose first inspection and first re-inspection are free of charge. Where the district makes a health club a conditional use, the $195.00 conditional use fee applies on top of the zoning permit.
Conditional Use Permit / Variance / Development Review Board Application
The $195.00 is additive, not substitutional — the schedule states it applies 'In addition to any applicable COA fees,' so a business needing conditional use approval for a change of use pays the $122.00 Level I certificate of appropriateness and the $195.00 conditional use fee together. Whether a given use is permitted outright or conditional in a given district is set by the CDO's Appendix A use table, which is not reproduced here; check the table for the district concerned before assuming this fee applies. The $35.00 zoning compliance report is the cheapest way for a prospective tenant to establish an address's zoning status in writing before committing to a lease.
Salon and Barber Shop — State-Licensed; City Zoning Only (Burlington)
No fee applies: 24 V.S.A. § 2291 grants Burlington no power to license salons, and the Clerk/Treasurer's Business Licenses page lists no salon license. The trade appears in the CDO use table as 'Salon/Spa' and nowhere else in the City's ordinances. Practitioners and shops are regulated by the Vermont Office of Professional Regulation's Board of Barbers and Cosmetologists. A salon's city obligations are the zoning permit, the zoning certificate of occupancy, building and trade permits, the sign permit and the fire and life safety inspection.
Zoning Permit (required for change of use, not only construction)
The reach of this permit is what matters for a new business, and the ordinance is explicit that it is not limited to construction: §3.1.1 requires a zoning permit for 'the following types of exterior and interior work: … 3. Change of use or expansion of use.' Taking over a former retail space as a café triggers it even with no building work at all. The Department's own Permit Fees page confirms the arithmetic with a worked example of a '$122 Zoning Permit Application Fee,' which is the $15.00 filing fee plus the $107.00 base. The $15.00 component is not a City charge in substance — the schedule's own note explains that 'Permit fees include a $15 filing fee assessed by the Burlington Clerk/Treasurer's office as required by state statute.' Card payments carry a further $3.00 processing fee plus 2.65 percent for transactions over $123.00. The CDO's per-district use table determines whether a given use is permitted outright or needs conditional use approval; it is not reproduced here, so check the table for the district concerned.
Zoning Certificate of Occupancy
This is the step that legally permits occupancy, and like the zoning permit it is triggered by a change of use rather than only by construction. CDO §3.2.11 provides that 'It shall be unlawful to use or occupy… any land or structure… wholly or partly altered or enlarged in its use or structure… without a zoning certificate of occupancy issued by the administrative officer.' The fee is structured unusually: rather than a flat charge it is $30.00 plus ten percent of whatever the application fees came to, collected up front within those fees and refundable if the permit is never enacted. A business needing to open before final sign-off pays $150.00 for a temporary certificate, which is a materially larger charge than the final one for most small projects.
Building Permit
A genuine conflict between the City's own documents is recorded here rather than averaged away. The rate of $8.50 per $1,000 is agreed everywhere. The minimum is not: the codified ordinance says $20.00 and the City's current web page says $30.00. Both figures are given here because the ordinance is the adopted instrument while the web page is the more recently maintained one; confirm the minimum with the Department of Permitting and Inspections. The $1,000 exemption at §8-28(d) is worth noting for small fit-outs — 'No permit or fee shall be required for any alterations or repairs, the cost of which is not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000.00)' — and the three-year expiry at §8-27 for long projects. Trade permits are separate and each carries its own higher or lower minimum, so a restaurant fit-out involving building, electrical and plumbing work pays three minimums rather than one.
Sign Permit
The per-sign structure rewards planning ahead: a business installing three signs at once pays $15.00 plus $118.00 plus two lots of $80.00, and a business operating under an approved Master Sign Plan pays half the per-sign rate thereafter. Sign standards themselves sit in CDO Article 7. The fees are those of the FY2027 Fee Schedule, effective July 1, 2026.
Auto Repair Shop — City Zoning and Permits Only (Burlington)
No fee applies: 24 V.S.A. § 2291 grants Burlington no power to license the trade, and the Clerk/Treasurer's Business Licenses page lists no auto repair license. Auto repair appears in the CDO use table only as the zoning categories 'Automobile/Vehicle Repair' and 'Automobile Body Shop.' A shop's city obligations are the zoning permit for its use, the zoning certificate of occupancy, building and trade permits for fit-out, the sign permit, the fire and life safety inspection, and a conditional use permit at $195.00 where the district makes the use conditional rather than permitted.
Veterinary Practice — State-Licensed; City Zoning Only (Burlington)
No fee applies: 24 V.S.A. § 2291 grants Burlington no power to license veterinary premises, and the Clerk/Treasurer's Business Licenses page lists no veterinary license. Veterinary practice appears in Burlington's ordinances only as the CDO use-table row 'Animal Hospitals/Veterinarian Office.' Practitioners are licensed by the Vermont Office of Professional Regulation at state level. A clinic's city obligations are the same universal set every business faces: zoning permit, zoning certificate of occupancy, building and trade permits, sign permit and fire inspection.
Contact
- Jurisdiction
- Burlington
- Phone
- (802) 863-0442
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.
- Business Licenses — the Clerk/Treasurer's own current index, listing the only four licenses the City issues (cannabis, liquor, peddler, taxi) and establishing that Burlington has no general business licenseCity of Burlington · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-14
- City of Burlington FY2027 Fee Schedule, effective July 1, 2026 — zoning permits, sign permits, conditional use and variance fees, Development Review Board fees, zoning certificates of occupancy and the $15.00 state-mandated filing feeCity of Burlington Department of Permitting and Inspections · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-14
- Code of Ordinances, City of Burlington, current through Ord. 7-15-26 — Chapter 8 §8-28 (building permit fee and minimum), Chapter 12 §12-26 (electrical), Chapter 19 §§19-2 and 19-18 (licenses and entertainment permits), Chapter 13 §13-22 (fire re-inspection fees), Chapter 23 §23-6 (peddler license fees) and Chapter 25 §25-12 (plumbing)City of Burlington, codified by General Code · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-14
- Permit Fees — the Department of Permitting and Inspections' own current page, giving the worked example of a $122.00 zoning permit application fee ($15.00 filing plus $107.00)City of Burlington Department of Permitting and Inspections · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-14
Other offices serving Burlington
The full permit list for this jurisdiction
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Commercial Compliance Hub publishes information, not legal advice. Requirements change — confirm anything you rely on with the issuing agency before you file.