9 published records

Business licenses and permits in Madison County, Alabama

Madison County (county seat Huntsville) runs a countywide business/privilege license through an independently elected License Department (Ala. Code §45-45-201) — not the Probate Judge, not the Revenue Commissioner — that applies inside every city in the county as well as outside them, stacking with each city's own municipal license rather than replacing it. Food-service and environmental-health permitting is a county-only function throughout Madison County, including inside Huntsville, run by the Madison County Health Department's Environmental Health Division (a hybrid ADPH field office plus a local-law Board of Health with its own fee-setting power under §45-45-172). Building-permit and zoning authority through the Inspection Department and Public Works reaches unincorporated Madison County only; every incorporated city runs its own. The County Commission's alcohol local-approval role likewise reaches unincorporated Madison County only — inside Huntsville, Madison, New Hope, Gurley, Owens Cross Roads or Triana, that city's own governing body plays the analogous role, and the state ABC Board's own wet-cities list confirms the entire county, incorporated and unincorporated alike, is 'Wet.' The county's own published classification-fee schedule (filed annually with the Alabama Dept. of Revenue) covers general contractors, veterinary practices and salon/barbershop chair counts by specific code, but has no identifiable line item for restaurant, coffee shop, food truck, retail store, childcare, fitness-studio or auto-repair classifications — a gap in the published document itself. General contractors are licensed by the state Alabama Licensing Board for General Contractors; the county's own touchpoints for a contractor are its classification tax and a $20 residential-permit surcharge; the state's own commercial-contractor dollar threshold is $100,000 as of October 1, 2024 (Act 2024-277). Veterinary practice is licensed entirely by the state veterinary board, with the county's only touchpoint being a $1.00 statutory license-filing fee at the Probate Office. Cosmetology/barbering is likewise a state (ABOC) function, except that ABOC maintains a Madison-County-specific 'Class I Barber' exemption and reciprocity path tracing to the county's own former local-law Barber Board.