What do these permits involve in San Bernardino County?

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Sign Permit — Building & Safety Construction Fee

This is the physical construction/inspection permit for a sign, charged by Building & Safety in addition to — not instead of — the separate Planning Division sign land-use review fee recorded separately for the County. A wall sign or a monument/pole sign of 30 feet or less costs $296.00; a monument or pole sign taller than 30 feet costs $335.00, per the County Fee Ordinance's Building & Safety fees effective July 1, 2026. A business installing a new sign in the unincorporated area needs both this fee and the Planning sign-permit fee before the sign may go up; a reface of an existing sign is priced separately under the Planning fee ($223.00), and the Building & Safety sign lines cover only new monument/pole and wall signs.

Home Occupation Permit

Required of any business run from a residence in the unincorporated area. LUS Code Enforcement's own page states this 'applies only to the unincorporated areas of San Bernardino County, categorized by three geographical regions: the Valley, the Mountain, and the Desert,' with regional differences in how the permit is obtained. The fee is $594.00 for the initial application and $423.00 for each biennial renewal under the County Fee Ordinance effective July 1, 2026. This is most plausible for a contractor's home office, an in-home personal trainer or a home-based stylist, but the County's own page frames it as reaching any home-based business in the unincorporated area, so it is listed broadly here; a full restaurant, food truck commissary or veterinary clinic run from a residence would still need to clear the underlying Development Code use restrictions, which are not itemized here. Licensed family day care homes are excluded from this list because California's Family Day Care Homes preemption statutes bar a discretionary local permit for that specific use (see the child care licensing record).

Sign Permit — Planning Division Land-Use Review

A business installing exterior signage on unincorporated-area property needs this Planning Division land-use/location approval in addition to — not instead of — the separate LUS Building & Safety construction permit recorded separately for the County. A single new sign costs $454.00; a sign location plan for a subdivision or commercial complex costs $671.00; refacing an existing sign costs $223.00; and a sign location plan the Planning Division refers up to the Planning Commission is billed at Actual Cost rather than a flat fee. These figures are from the County Fee Ordinance's Planning fees (County Code §16.0215A), effective July 1, 2026. This applies in the unincorporated area only; incorporated cities run their own sign ordinances.

Commercial Building Permit (Valuation-Based Fee)

Applies to any of the ten industries constructing, remodeling or changing the occupancy of a physical space in the unincorporated area. Every figure above is from the County's FY 2026/27 Construction Fee Schedule: a restaurant is IBC Class A-2, a retail store is Class M, an animal hospital is a specific Class B use, a barber or beauty shop (salon) is a different specific Class B use, a stand-alone day care is either Class E or Class I-4 depending on whether it serves ambulatory-only or assisted clients, and a repair garage (auto-repair) is Class S-1. Fitness studios and contractors' own offices/yards fall under whichever occupancy class their actual use matches, not separately tabulated here. Fees fall as construction type moves from IA/IB (most fire-resistive, highest fee) toward VA/VB (least fire-resistive, lowest fee), and rise with project square footage past each occupancy's base threshold. This is a plan-check-and-inspection fee combined into one figure, not a construction-permit fee layered on top of a separate plan-review charge. Incorporated cities run their own building departments and fee schedules.

On-Site Wastewater (Septic) and Well Construction Permits

This is a location-dependent trigger, not an industry-specific one: it applies to any of the ten industries only if the physical business location is not served by public sewer and water, which is realistically most common in the County's large unincorporated desert and mountain areas. A commercial development's perc (percolation) test review costs $532, a new commercial or industrial water-supply well costs $772 to construct and certify, and where an existing individual septic system is already on the parcel, the DMA Individual Septic System Permit renews biennially at $107. Every figure is from the current EHS Fee Schedule (Data Date 6/30/2026). A business connected to public sewer and water needs none of these.

Annual Fire Code Inspection / Operational Permit

SBCoFD's own page states it inspects 'businesses, factories, restaurants, churches, schools, senior citizen housing, and other buildings that could pose significant risks,' explicitly including 'care facilities' — reaching most of the commercial industries covered here. The fee is a Base Inspection Fee that scales with facility square footage ($255 up to $1,589), plus a separate Annual Operational Permit fee keyed to hazard category (Low $53, Medium $108, High $164); a day care center is instead billed a flat mandated-inspection fee of $425 (Group E Occupancy), and any commercial occupancy can be billed a flat $134 'Business License/Occupancy Inspection.' Every figure is the FY 2026-27 figure in SBCoFD's Fee Schedule (Attachment A), effective July 1, 2026. SBCoFD's own page cites 'the 2016 California Fire Code' as its enforced edition — California's current fire code is the 2025 edition (based on the 2024 IFC), effective January 1, 2026, so the edition named on SBCoFD's page is out of date. This program reaches unincorporated San Bernardino County plus the SBCoFD partner cities (Adelanto, Fontana, Grand Terrace, Hesperia, Needles, San Bernardino, Twentynine Palms, Upland, and the Town of Yucca Valley) — do not assume it reaches every one of the County's 24 incorporated cities; any city not on that list runs its own fire department and inspection fees.

General Business License — San Bernardino County position

No fee applies. San Bernardino County's own County Business Information document states verbatim: 'The Clerk of the Board of Supervisors does not issue licenses for businesses operating in the unincorporated area of the County... ' The Clerk of the Board's County Business Information sheet, revised 02/05/2026, states in the same passage that San Bernardino County does not issue a business license that covers the entire County, and the Clerk's Business Licenses page repeats both statements. A business inside any of the County's incorporated cities must instead check that city's own licensing. An earlier version of the Assessor's FAQ page (April 2025) said the Clerk's office still licensed four narrow categories (peddler, solicitor, private patrol, taxicab) in the unincorporated area; the FAQ as updated June 26, 2026 instead states that as of 2025 the Clerk of the Board no longer issues licenses for businesses in the unincorporated area. The Business Information sheet routes taxicab enquiries to the Sheriff's Department and lists the businesses handled by Land Use Services Code Enforcement, and the County Fee Ordinance prices the peddler/secondhand-dealer license and the home occupation permit under Code Enforcement, recorded separately for San Bernardino County. The Clerk's statement does not extend to Land Use Services, Environmental Health Services or the Fire Protection District, each of which charges its own specific fees recorded separately for the County.

Permit	Issuing agency	Fee	Renews	Last checked
Sign Permit — Building & Safety Construction Feeonly if it applies to you	San Bernardino County Land Use Services Department, Building & Safety Division	Illuminated and non-illuminated sign — Monument/pole 30 feet in height or less, $296.00; Monument/pole over 30 feet in height, $335.00; All wall signs, $296.00.	one-time, per sign	2026-09-27
Home Occupation Permitonly if it applies to you	San Bernardino County Land Use Services Department, Code Enforcement Division	Initial permit application $594.00; biennial renewal $423.00, per the County Fee Ordinance effective July 1, 2026.	biennial renewal	2026-09-27
Sign Permit — Planning Division Land-Use Reviewonly if it applies to you	San Bernardino County Land Use Services Department, Planning Division	Sign permits — single new sign, $454.00. Sign location plan — subdivisions and commercial complexes, $671.00. Reface existing sign, $223.00. Sign location plan referred to the Planning Commission is billed at Actual Cost.	one-time per sign or sign location plan	2026-09-27
Commercial Building Permit (Valuation-Based Fee)	San Bernardino County Land Use Services Department, Building & Safety Division	Plan check and inspection fees combined, by IBC occupancy class, construction type and project size (base cost at a threshold size, plus a per-additional-100-sq-ft rate beyond it), Construction Types IA/IB shown first, IIA-IV and VA/VB priced lower: A-2 Assembly-Food & Drink/Restaurant, Night Club, Bar — $14,851/$12,376/$9,901 base @1,000 sf. M Mercantile-Retail or wholesale store — $21,753/$18,128/$14,502 base @4,000 sf. B Business-Animal Hospital — $10,062/$8,385/$6,708 base @1,000 sf. B Business-Barber Shop/Beauty Shop — $7,977/$6,647/$5,318 base @200 sf. E Educational-Day Care — $7,605/$6,338/$5,070 base @500 sf. I-4 Institutional-6+ persons, day care — $14,622/$12,185/$9,748 base @500 sf. S-1 Storage-Moderate Hazard, Repair Garage — $6,844/$5,703/$4,563 base @500 sf. Each band then adds a per-100-sf increment as the project grows past its threshold.	one-time, per project	2026-09-27
On-Site Wastewater (Septic) and Well Construction Permitsonly if it applies to you	San Bernardino County Department of Public Health, Division of Environmental Health Services	Commercial Development Perc Test Review $532.00 (one-time). Well Construction — Commercial/Industrial Water Supply $772.00 (one-time); Well Construction — Individual $501.00; Well Certification Letter $265.00. DMA Individual Septic System Permit (Biennial) $107.00. Septic Certification Review $122.50.	varies — most fees are one-time per project; the DMA Individual Septic System Permit is biennial	2026-09-27
Annual Fire Code Inspection / Operational Permit	San Bernardino County Fire Protection District	Base Inspection Fee by facility size: 1-5,000 sf $255, 5,001-10,000 sf $322, 10,001-50,000 sf $401, 50,001-100,000 sf $609, 100,001-500,000 sf $773, 500,001-1,000,000 sf $1,058, over 1,000,000 sf $1,589. PLUS an Annual Operational Permit fee by hazard category: Low Hazard $53 (e.g. places of assembly 50-299), Medium Hazard $108 (e.g. dry cleaning, motor vehicle fuel dispensing), High Hazard $164 (e.g. flammable/combustible liquids storage, high-piled combustible storage) — total charged is the Base Fee plus the applicable category fee. Separately, Section D mandated inspections: Day Care Facility — Group E Occupancy $425; Business License/Occupancy Inspection $134; General Field Inspection $243.	annual	2026-09-27
General Business License — San Bernardino County positiononly if it applies to you	San Bernardino County Clerk of the Board of Supervisors	No fee	not applicable — per the Clerk of the Board, the County does not issue a business license covering the entire County	2026-09-27

Business licenses and permits in San Bernardino County, California

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Permits that apply to every type of business in San Bernardino County