20 published records
Business licenses and permits in Hennepin County, Minnesota
Hennepin County is almost entirely incorporated into cities, with the sole exception of the tiny unorganized territory of Fort Snelling (about 6.7 square miles, population 322). The county's own ordinance index runs to five categories — Health; Law enforcement; Licenses, property, and roads; Solid waste; and Special taxes — and carries no building or zoning ordinance at all, so building permits and zoning for ordinary commercial sites come from each city instead. What the county does regulate runs through three separate city-by-city delegation rosters that do NOT match each other: food/pool/lodging licensing excludes six cities (Minneapolis, Bloomington, Edina, Richfield, Minnetonka, Brooklyn Park), body art licensing excludes a different seven (the same six plus New Hope), and septic (SSTS) permitting excludes a third, unrelated five (Dayton, Independence, Medina, Orono, Woodland) — Wayzata is covered by the county for all of these, having joined the county's food/pool/lodging program on February 1, 2025. Family child care home licensing and the hazardous waste generator license apply countywide with no city exclusion at all, Minneapolis included. Retail tobacco licensing runs the other way: the county's own jurisdiction is narrow, reaching only a handful of small cities and unincorporated pockets without their own compliant ordinance. Hennepin County's own business licenses and certificates page lists no general business license, no contractor license or registration, no animal-control/kennel/veterinary programme and no salon/cosmetology license, and Minn. Stat. §340A.404, subd. 6 confines the county board's liquor-licensing authority to the unorganized or unincorporated area — for Hennepin, essentially only Fort Snelling — so each of these is a city or a state function instead.
What are you opening in Hennepin County?
- 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 Hennepin County
| Permit | Issuing agency | Fee | Renews | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Business License — Hennepin County Positiononly if it applies to you | Hennepin County Licenses & Certificates | No fee | not applicable — the county's business licenses and certificates page lists no general business license | 2026-09-28 |
| Subsurface Sewage Treatment System (SSTS) Permitonly if it applies to you | Hennepin County Public Health, Epidemiology and Environmental Health | Hennepin County's own septic-systems page states that SSTS permit fees are set 'from time to time' by resolution of the County Board rather than published as a fixed schedule; confirm the current dollar figure with Hennepin County Public Health Environmental Health, 612-543-5200, before budgeting. | per installation, alteration or compliance inspection; no fixed renewal term published | 2026-09-28 |
| Well Permit — Minnesota Department of Health Notification (Hennepin County)only if it applies to you | Hennepin County Public Health, Epidemiology and Environmental Health | No fee | not applicable at the county level — Minn. Stat. §103I.205 preempts county well permitting unless the Commissioner of Health has delegated it under §103I.111 | 2026-09-28 |
| Building Permit / Zoning Approval — City Issues (Hennepin County)only if it applies to you | Hennepin County Licenses & Certificates | No fee | not applicable — the county's ordinance index lists no building or zoning ordinance; each city issues building permits and zoning approvals | 2026-09-28 |
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 Hennepin County?
General Business License — Hennepin County Position
No fee applies. Hennepin County's 'Business' licenses and certificates page enumerates the county's business licenses, and that list names no catch-all general license: Auctioneer's License, Body Art License, Cannabis License, Estate Sale Conductor, Family Child Care License, Food/Pools/Lodging Licenses, Gambling Permit, Hazardous Waste Licensing, Liquor License, Notary Certificate, Notary Commission, Notary Services, Precious Metal Dealer License, Retail Tobacco License, Solid Waste Haulers, Swimming Pool License and Transient Merchant License. Each item on that list that reaches one of the ten industries this site tracks is listed separately for this jurisdiction, along with related records for building/zoning, contractor licensing, animal control, salon/cosmetology, liquor and well permitting. A business operating in Minneapolis or any other Hennepin County city should also check that CITY's own business-license requirements, which this county-level listing does not cover.
Subsurface Sewage Treatment System (SSTS) Permit
Any of the ten industries this site tracks, if sited on a commercial or rural-fringe parcel that runs on a septic system rather than municipal sewer, needs SSTS permit approval and compliance inspection before the city will issue its own building permit. This runs on a THIRD city-by-city roster, different from both the food/pool six-city list and the body-art seven-city list: only five cities currently run their own independent SSTS program instead of the county's — Dayton, Independence, Medina, Orono and Woodland — confirmed directly against the county's own current septic-systems page. Every other Hennepin County city, including Minneapolis, Edina, Minnetonka, Brooklyn Park, Bloomington and Richfield — all six of which are EXCLUDED from the food/pool program — IS under the county's SSTS jurisdiction for any unsewered parcel within it. Unsewered commercial parcels that do fall under the county's own SSTS program include pockets of Greenfield, Minnetrista and Maple Plain; Independence is not a valid example of county SSTS jurisdiction, since it runs its own program.
Well Permit — Minnesota Department of Health Notification (Hennepin County)
No fee applies at the county level: under Minn. Stat. §103I.205, well notification to the Minnesota Department of Health governs a well's construction, and the statute states that 'counties or home rule charter or statutory cities may not require a permit or notification for wells unless the commissioner has delegated the permitting or notification authority under section 103I.111.' Hennepin County does not appear on the Minnesota Department of Health's list of delegated well programs, so a restaurant, veterinary clinic, auto-repair shop or any other business needing a water well on a commercial site in the county files the state notification rather than a county permit. That same Department of Health list does name two Hennepin County cities, Bloomington and Minneapolis, as running delegated well programs, which provide local permitting and inspection and may charge their own fees; a well inside either city goes through that city's program.
Building Permit / Zoning Approval — City Issues (Hennepin County)
No fee applies. Hennepin County's own ordinance index lists no building code and no zoning ordinance, and building permits for the ten industries come from the cities. The index's five ordinance categories are Health; Law enforcement; Licenses, property, and roads; Solid waste; and Special taxes — no building or zoning category exists anywhere in it, and the 'Licenses, property, and roads' category contains only condominium plat approval, a criminal-penalty procedures ordinance, and the County Right-of-Way Use Ordinance (recorded separately for contractors). Zoning authority under Minnesota law applies to a county only in unorganized or unincorporated territory, which for Hennepin County means essentially only Fort Snelling; every city — Minneapolis, Bloomington, Plymouth, Minnetonka, Edina, St. Louis Park, Eden Prairie and the rest — issues its own building permits and runs its own zoning code for any of the ten industries sited there.
Sources
Every figure in the table above was read from one of these government pages on the date shown.
- Business licenses and certificates (master index of every county-issued business license)Hennepin County · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-29
- Ordinances (five-category master index: Health; Law enforcement; Licenses, property, and roads; Solid waste; Special taxes — no building/zoning category)Hennepin County · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-29
- Septic systems — states the current five-city SSTS exclusion list (Dayton, Independence, Medina, Orono, Woodland) and that fees are set 'from time to time' by County Board resolutionHennepin County · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-29
- Subsurface Sewage Treatment Systems Standards Ordinance (Ordinance 19), authorized under Minn. Stat. Chs. 115, 145A and Minn. Rules Chs. 7080–7082Hennepin County · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-29
- Minn. Stat. §103I.205 — state well-notification preemption ('counties ... may not require a permit or notification for wells')Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-29
- Licenses, property, and roads ordinances (category index)Hennepin County · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-29
Who issues business permits in Hennepin County?
Permitting in Hennepin County is split across 5 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.
Hennepin County issuing agencies
- Hennepin County Licenses & CertificatesThe county's complete, purpose-specific business-license list: Auctioneer, Body Art, Cannabis, Estate Sale Conductor, Family Child Care, Food/Pools/Lodging, Gambling Permit, Hazardous Waste, Liquor, Notary, Precious Metal Dealer, Retail Tobacco, Solid Waste Haulers, Swimming Pool, Transient Merchant — no catch-all general business license · Administers the Precious Metal Dealer and Transient Merchant licenses directly · The absence of a general business, building/zoning, contractor, animal-control/kennel/veterinary, salon/cosmetology or (outside Fort Snelling) liquor license at the county level is evidenced by this office's own enumerated list8 permits
- Hennepin County Public Health, Epidemiology and Environmental HealthFood establishment licensing (Ordinance 3) — every Hennepin County city except Minneapolis, Bloomington, Edina, Richfield, Minnetonka and Brooklyn Park · Public swimming pool licensing (Ordinance 4) — same six-city exclusion as food licensing · Body art establishment licensing (Ordinance 23) — a different seven-city exclusion: the same six plus New Hope · Subsurface sewage treatment system (SSTS/septic) permitting (Ordinance 19) — a third, different five-city exclusion: Dayton, Independence, Medina, Orono, Woodland · Retail tobacco sales ordinance compliance (Ordinance 21) in the county's own narrow jurisdiction8 permits
- Hennepin County Health and Human Services, Child Care LicensingFamily child care and group family child care home licensing — countywide, including Minneapolis (a human services licensing function, not environmental health, so the food/pool exclusion map does not apply here) · County-delegated intake, orientation, inspection and licensing recommendation for the state's family child care license · No role over child care CENTERS, which the state licenses directly2 permits
- Hennepin County Environmental Services (Public Works), Hazardous Waste LicensingHazardous waste generator licensing under the county's Hazardous Waste Management Ordinance (Ordinance 7) — confirmed countywide, including Minneapolis, with no city-carve-out mechanism1 permit
- Hennepin County Public Works, Transportation Department (Permits Office)County Right-of-Way Use Ordinance (Ordinance 22) utility/obstruction permits for work disturbing county state-aid highway or county road right-of-way — not city streets, which are that city's own right-of-way1 permit
Other Minnesota 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.