15 published records
Business licenses and permits in Juneau, Alaska
The City and Borough of Juneau is a unified home rule municipality with the thinnest licensing layer of the three Alaska municipalities covered on this site and the only general sales tax among them. Title 20, Business Regulations, is enumerated and short — secondhand dealers, hotels, micromobility, alcohol, marijuana and commercial passenger vehicles — with no chapter for food, contractors, salons, childcare, veterinary practice, auto repair or fitness. What replaces a business license is a compulsory but free sales tax registration under CBJC 69.05.170, required before making any sale, service or rental, with no fee, expiry or renewal. The sales tax itself is the substantive obligation: five percent generally, eight percent on alcohol and marijuana and fourteen percent on rooms, with a $25.00 late filing fee, a five percent monthly late payment penalty to a twenty-five percent maximum and twelve percent annual interest. From October 1, 2026 the single-item cap rose from $14,300 to $50,000 and the $30 online filing discount ended. Building permits run a valuation table from $54.00 to $4,706.34 for the first $1,000,000 plus $2.64 per additional $1,000, with plan review at fifty percent of the permit fee for buildings under the residential code and sixty-five percent for all others. Land use fees are modest: a sign permit is $50.00 for the first two signs plus $20.00 each thereafter, a conditional use permit runs $350.00 for a Class I use such as a day care home, $500.00 for Class II including day care centres and commercial premises under 10,000 square feet, and up to $1,600.00 for Class V, with an administrative variance at $120.00 and a zoning compliance letter at $150.00. Fire permits are activity-based, including a $50.00 childcare inspection; the fire fee table lists no fee for the annual commercial inspection the Fire Marshal performs. Food is licensed by Alaska DEC — the City and Borough's contact directory lists no health department. Street and sidewalk vending are the real food truck obligations, at $50.00 filing plus $150.00 or $200.00 per month.
What are you opening in Juneau?
- RestaurantsFull-service restaurants carry the densest permit load of any small business: food, fire, occupancy, waste, and usually alcohol.See the full permit list
- Coffee shopsCafés are permitted as food service establishments even where no cooking happens, and the plan review step catches most operators by surprise.See the full permit list
- Retail storesRetail is the lightest common permit load, but the sales tax permit and the certificate of occupancy are non-negotiable in every jurisdiction.See the full permit list
- Salons and barbersPersonal care is licensed at state board level as well as locally, so the shop license and the practitioner licenses are separate obligations.See the full permit list
- Food trucksMobile food is the one category with no certificate of occupancy — but it gains a commissary agreement, and the unit itself is inspected rather than the premises.See the full permit list
- Fitness studiosPrepaid memberships trigger state registration and often a surety bond, which catches operators who budgeted only for the fit-out.See the full permit list
- Childcare centresThe heaviest permit load of any small business: state agency licensing, per-person background checks, and a stricter fire standard than ordinary commercial use.See the full permit list
- Contractors and tradesLicensed at state board level rather than locally, and the only common category with no premises permits at all — the bond is usually the long pole.See the full permit list
- Auto repair shopsOrdinary commercial permitting plus an environmental layer: waste oil, solvents and stormwater are each registered separately.See the full permit list
- Veterinary clinicsA state facility permit, controlled substances registration at both state and federal level, and a medical waste manifest — none of which a general business license covers.See the full permit list
Permits that apply to every type of business in Juneau
| Permit | Issuing agency | Fee | Renews | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Development Permit / Conditional Use Permitonly if it applies to you | City and Borough of Juneau, Community Development Department | Conditional use permits are banded by use class under CBJC 49.85.100(3). Class I at $350.00 covers mobile homes on single lots, agricultural uses under 50,000 square feet, residential structures of four or fewer units, transient structures of twelve or fewer rooms and day care and child care homes. Class II at $500.00 covers commercial, mixed use or enclosed industrial uses with less than 10,000 square feet of building space using less than an acre, residential structures of five to ten units, transient structures of thirteen to thirty rooms, day care and child care centres, and churches and schools. Class III at $750.00 covers commercial or enclosed industrial uses of 10,000 to 20,000 square feet or one to three acres. Class IV at $1,000.00 covers 20,001 to 40,000 square feet or three to six acres. Class V at $1,600.00 covers over 40,000 square feet or six acres and above. An extension of a permit is $250.00 for any class. A non-administrative variance is $400.00 and an administrative variance $120.00. A zone change or comprehensive plan amendment is $600.00, a certification of zoning compliance letter $150.00, a certification of nonconforming status $150.00 and a parking waiver $400.00. Minor development staff review carries no charge where a building permit is required. | not stated in the published fee schedule; an extension is priced at $250.00 | 2026-09-14 |
| Building Permit | City and Borough of Juneau, Community Development Department | A valuation table under CBJC 19.01.108.8: $54.00 from $1.00 to $500.00; $54.00 for the first $500.00 plus $2.64 per additional $100.00 to $2,000.00; $93.60 for the first $2,000.00 plus $11.88 per additional $1,000.00 to $25,000.00; $366.84 for the first $25,000.00 plus $8.58 per $1,000.00 to $50,000.00; $581.34 for the first $50,000.00 plus $5.94 per $1,000.00 to $100,000.00; $878.34 for the first $100,000.00 plus $4.62 per $1,000.00 to $500,000.00; $2,726.34 for the first $500,000.00 plus $3.96 per $1,000.00 to $1,000,000.00; and $4,706.34 for the first $1,000,000.00 plus $2.64 per additional $1,000.00. Plan review is charged separately and in addition: fifty percent of the building permit fee for buildings falling under the International Residential Code and sixty-five percent for all other buildings, reduced to sixty percent of that otherwise payable for an identical or mirror-image structure by the same applicant. A pre-manufactured building not inspected by the City and Borough during construction pays fifty percent of the site-built fee. Inspections outside normal business hours are $54.00 per hour or actual cost with a two-hour minimum, and re-inspections, late-requested inspections, additional plan review for revisions and any service with no fee specified are each $54.00 per hour. Grading is priced by volume under 19.01.108.10 to .10.6, for work primarily for grading or grading authorised ahead of a full building permit. Grading plan review is free at 50 cubic yards or less, $25.77 from 51 to 100, $40.57 from 101 to 1,000 and $54.00 from 1,001 to 10,000; then $54.00 for the first 10,000 plus $24.50 per additional 10,000 to 100,000, $274.50 for the first 100,000 plus $13.25 per additional 10,000 to 200,000, and $407.00 for the first 200,000 plus $7.25 per additional 10,000. The grading permit is $25.77 at 50 cubic yards or less and $40.57 from 51 to 100; then $54.00 for the first 100 plus $17.50 per additional 100 to 1,000, $54.00 for the first 1,000 plus $14.50 per additional 1,000 to 10,000, $274.50 for the first 10,000 plus $66.00 per additional 10,000 to 100,000, and $407.00 for the first 100,000 plus $36.50 per additional 10,000 above that. Additional grading plan review and grading inspections with no listed fee are $54.00 per hour with a half-hour minimum, and grading inspections outside business hours and grading re-inspections $54.00 per hour with a two-hour minimum, in each case or the City and Borough's total hourly cost if greater. A permit reviewed under a third-party plan review program approved by the building official has its plan review fee reduced by $500.00, but not below $250.00, under 19.01.108.14. | not stated in the published fee sections | 2026-09-14 |
| Business Registration with the Sales Tax Office (free) | City and Borough of Juneau, Finance Department — Sales Tax Office | No fee | the registration itself does not expire and carries no renewal; returns are filed every reporting period regardless of activity | 2026-09-14 |
| Fire Operational Permit and Annual Inspectiononly if it applies to you | Capital City Fire/Rescue, Fire Marshal's Office | Activity-based under CBJC 19.01.108.15.1. A childcare or daycare inspection is $50.00 and a courtesy inspection $50.00. Hot work is $50.00 for welding, $25.00 for roof or tar kettle work and $25.00 general. Material storage is $50.00 for flammable or combustible materials, $100.00 for hazardous materials and $50.00 for high-pile storage, none of which apply where the review accompanies a building permit. A paint booth is $50.00, open flame for displays or performances $50.00, special event structures $50.00 and events in mall hallways $75.00. Fireworks or pyrotechnics are $100.00. Blasting is $50.00 on an individual lot and $100.00 for subdivision, road development or quarry work. A subdivision or commercial development land clearing burn is $200.00. Out-of-hours work is $54.00 per hour with a two-hour minimum, and re-inspections and unspecified services are $54.00 per hour. | per permit; the Fire Marshal inspects buildings open to the public annually | 2026-09-14 |
| Certificate of Occupancy | City and Borough of Juneau, Community Development Department | No fee | one-time; a temporary certificate is time-limited and is not a substitute for an approved final inspection | 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.
What do these permits involve in Juneau?
Development Permit / Conditional Use Permit
Juneau's land use fees are among the lowest of the Alaska municipalities covered on this site — a Class II conditional use permit covering a commercial premises under 10,000 square feet is $500.00, against $4,720.00 for the equivalent band in Anchorage. The banding is by floor area and site size rather than by trade, so the same fee reaches a restaurant, a shop, a salon and a fitness studio of comparable size. Childcare is explicitly split across two bands and the distinction is worth noting before choosing premises: a day care or child care home is Class I at $350.00 while a day care or child care centre is Class II at $500.00. Two further provisions catch businesses out. CBJC 49.85.100(22) prices a fee in lieu of parking at $10,000.00 per required off-street space, which dwarfs every other figure on the schedule. And a wireless communication facility is $350.00 plus $500.00 where a special use permit is needed, plus actual costs for technical expert review. Where a fee is not listed, 49.85.100(16) directs the community development director to charge the fee for the most similar listed action, and 49.85.100(17) allows a refund less ten percent where an application is cancelled before review is complete.
Building Permit
The permit trigger expressly includes a change of use, so taking over an existing commercial space for a different purpose needs one even without construction. Valuation is comprehensive under 19.01.108.3, covering 'the total value of all construction work, including materials and normal market labor costs, … including finish work, painting, roofing, electrical, gas, plumbing, heating, air conditioning, elevators, mechanical, fire extinguishing systems, and any other permanent work or permanent equipment.' The plan review split is the detail most likely to be missed: fifty percent for residential-code buildings against sixty-five percent for everything else, charged on top of rather than within the permit fee. The figures date from 2009 — the valuation table, the grading sections and the third-party section all carry the annotation '(Serial No. 2009-16(b), § 2, 9-21-2009)' — and remain the codified text in the Municode version of June 26, 2026. They are also what CBJ itself publishes: the Building Permit Fee Table on juneau.org, marked 'EFFECTIVE: October 22, 2009,' works the valuation table through step by step and matches it at every tier boundary — $54.00 at $500, $878.34 at $100,000, $2,726.34 at $500,000 and $4,706.34 at $1,000,000 — with a commercial plan review column at sixty-five percent of each. The Department's current documents and handouts pages publish no other fee schedule. The grading permit tiers are recorded exactly as codified although they do not join up: the 101 to 1,000 cubic yard tier reaches $211.50 at 1,000 cubic yards while the next tier restarts at $54.00 for the first 1,000, so a project near a tier boundary should ask the Permit Center which figure it applies. Third-party review earns a discount under 19.01.108.14, which provides that the plan review fee 'shall be reduced by $500.00 unless such reduction would result in a fee of less than $250.00 in which case the plan review fee shall be $250.00.' Applications are now filed only through the Civic Access portal.
Business Registration with the Sales Tax Office (free)
No fee applies — the registration is free of charge, does not expire and has no renewal, so it is a registration rather than a business license. It is nonetheless compulsory and prior: the Finance Department states that 'Any person, firm, or business entity must register with the sales tax administrator before making sales, rendering services, or making rentals within the City and Borough of Juneau.' Title 20 (Business Regulations) of the City and Borough Code has chapters only for secondhand dealers, hotels, micromobility devices, alcoholic beverages, marijuana and commercial passenger vehicles, and none for a general business license. The State of Alaska business license at $50 per year applies separately and is listed on this site's Alaska state page. The obligations that follow registration are where the cost sits: a return must be filed 'for each reporting period regardless of the level of sales or the amount of tax due,' a late return incurs a $25.00 fee 'including those reporting no business activity,' late payment carries five percent per month to a twenty-five percent maximum, and interest accrues at twelve percent annually. A business collecting more than $1,000 in tax in a month must deposit the estimated tax by the fifteenth of the following month, and a closing business must file a final return within fifteen days.
Fire Operational Permit and Annual Inspection
The fee table at CBJC 19.01.108.15.1 lists no fee for the routine annual inspection. The Fire Marshal's page states its scope plainly — 'Every building in the City & Borough of Juneau where the public works, plays or spends time is subject to annual inspections. Private residences are not' — and the only inspection entries in the table are the $50.00 childcare or daycare inspection and the $50.00 courtesy inspection. No provision expressly waives a fee, so ask the Fire Marshal whether any charge applies. The permits that do cost money are activity-based and land unevenly across trades: an auto repair shop storing flammable or combustible materials pays $50.00 and $50.00 again for a paint booth, rising to $100.00 if its materials are classified hazardous; a restaurant with an open-flame display pays $50.00; a childcare centre pays the $50.00 inspection. One qualification in the code is worth noting because it prevents over-reading the IFC: 19.01.105.1.5 states that 'not all of the permits identified in IFC 105.6 and IFC 105.7 are required.'
Certificate of Occupancy
The City and Borough code publishes no separate fee for this certificate. The requirement itself is unambiguous — 19.01.110.1 bars use or occupancy and any change in occupancy classification until the building official issues the certificate, and 19.01.110.2 adds that 'No change in the character of the occupancy of a building shall be made without a certificate of occupancy.' Code § 19.01.110.1 through .4 and the § 19.01.108 fee series list no certificate of occupancy fee, and no provision expressly waives one; ask the Permit Center whether any charge applies beyond the building permit fee. A temporary certificate is available where 'no substantial hazard will result from occupancy … before the same is completed,' and the code is explicit that it 'is not a substitute for an approved final inspection of the entire building.'
Sources
Every figure in the table above was read from one of these government pages on the date shown.
- City and Borough of Juneau Code of Ordinances, Supplement 167, codified through Serial No. 2026-14 — Title 20 (Business Regulations) and its complete chapter list; Title 36 (Health and Sanitation), which contains no food chapter; CBJC 69.05.020 (sales tax rates and sunsets), 69.05.170 (registration requirement); 19.01.105.1.1 and 19.01.110.1 (permits and certificates of occupancy); 19.01.108.8 (building permit fee table), 19.01.108.4 (plan review percentages) and 19.01.108.15.1 (fire permit fees); 49.15.110 (development permit) and 49.85.100 (the complete land use fee schedule); 62.10.050 and 62.10.070 (street and sidewalk vending)City and Borough of Juneau · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-14
- Community Development — the department's own current page for building permits, development permits, certificates of occupancy and the Civic Access permitting portal through which applications are now filedCity and Borough of Juneau, Community Development Department · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-14
- CBJC 19.01.108.10 to 19.01.108.10.6, grading fees (Serial No. 2009-16(b)), read in the Municode version of June 26, 2026 — the grading plan review and grading permit tables by cubic yards, and the $54.00 hourly charges for additional grading plan review, grading inspections outside business hours, grading re-inspections and grading inspections with no listed feeCity and Borough of Juneau · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-18
- CBJC 19.01.108.14, third party plan review fee (Serial No. 2009-16(b)) — the $500.00 reduction in the plan review fee, floored at $250.00, for permits reviewed under a third party plan review program approved by the building officialCity and Borough of Juneau · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Building Permit Fee Table, effective October 22, 2009 — the City and Borough's own published table of the permit fee and the residential and commercial plan review fees at each valuation step from $500 to $2,000,000, matching CBJC 19.01.108.8 and 19.01.108.4 at every tier boundaryCity and Borough of Juneau, Community Development Department · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Sales Tax — the Finance Department's own current page requiring every business to register before making sales, rendering services or making rentals, and stating the 5 percent general rate, the 8 percent alcohol and marijuana rates, the 14 percent room rate, the $25 late filing fee, the 5 percent monthly late payment penalty to a 25 percent maximum and 12 percent annual interestCity and Borough of Juneau, Finance Department · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-14
- Business Licensing Forms and Fees — the State of Alaska's own $50 per year business licence required of every business under AS 43.70.020(a), with the $25 senior and disabled veteran rates and the December 31 expiryAlaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development, Division of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-14
- Fire Marshal — Capital City Fire/Rescue's own current page stating that every building in the City and Borough where the public works, plays or spends time is subject to annual inspection, and that private residences are notCity and Borough of Juneau, Capital City Fire/Rescue · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-14
- Plan Review — the Alaska State Fire Marshal's own list of communities holding deferrals and handling plan review locally, which includes the Anchorage Fire Department and Anchorage Building SafetyAlaska Department of Public Safety, Division of Fire and Life Safety · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-14
Who issues business permits in Juneau?
Permitting in Juneau is split across 3 agencies we hold records for, with tax registration handled at state level. No single office issues everything, which is why an opening usually means filing in several places rather than one.
Juneau issuing agencies
- City and Borough of Juneau, Community Development DepartmentBuilding, plumbing, mechanical and electrical permits and certificates of occupancy · Development permits, conditional use permits and variances · Sign permits · Marijuana establishment local licensing9 permits
- Capital City Fire/Rescue, Fire Marshal's OfficeAnnual fire and life safety inspection of buildings open to the public · Fire operational permits for hot work, hazardous materials, open flame and land clearing burns · Childcare and daycare inspections3 permits
- City and Borough of Juneau, Finance Department — Sales Tax OfficeBusiness registration — the de facto local registration, required before making sales · Sales tax collection, returns and exemption cards · Hotel-motel and tobacco excise taxes3 permits
Other Alaska jurisdictions we cover
Commercial Compliance Hub publishes information, not legal advice. Requirements change — confirm anything you rely on with the issuing agency before you file.