What permits do you need to open a retail store in Forsyth County Nc?

Refrigeration Unit Permit

Walk-in coolers and freezers, refrigerated display cases and any other commercial refrigeration installed in Forsyth County are permitted by compressor horsepower under Schedule V of Forsyth County Code § 7-52(b)(5): $25.00 up to 10 horsepower, $63.00 from 10.1 to 20 horsepower and $270.00 above 20 horsepower, with each refrigeration line a further $21.00. The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County INSPECTION FEES list of April 2026 prints the same amounts, which is why they are published here. The per-line charge is the part that adds up on a real fit-out, because a kitchen or a grocery aisle with several remote cases pays it repeatedly rather than once. The record reaches beyond restaurants: a retail store with refrigerated cases, a coffee shop with a walk-in, and a veterinary practice with refrigerated storage all meet it. It is charged in addition to the building permit, the non-residential plan review, any kitchen exhaust hood permit and any heat-producing equipment or heat pump permit on the same job, each listed separately. The county ordinance and the joint list state different minimum mechanical permit amounts, so no minimum is published here. The Inspections Division covers all of Forsyth County except the town and city limits of High Point, Kernersville and King, and a business inside one of those three deals with that municipality's own department. Contact: Suite 328, 100 East First Street, Winston-Salem, (336) 727-2624.

Forsyth County Fire Operational Permit

Forsyth County Code § 10-6(a) requires permits from the Forsyth County Fire Marshal as set forth in the North Carolina State Building Code: Fire Prevention Code, including all appendices, and § 10-6(c) provides that before a permit may be issued the Fire Marshal shall inspect and approve the receptacles, vehicles, buildings, structures, storage areas, devices, processes and conditions related to the permit — so the permit is not a paperwork step but a pre-approval. The county's own Fire Permit Application and Fees page prices most of these operational permits flat at $50.00: events and festivals, tents and canopies, hazardous operations, tank removals, blasting operations, bonfires and fireworks, with campfires at $0.00. Several of these are ordinary business events rather than exotic hazards, which is the point of recording them: a restaurant or brewery running an outdoor festival, a retail store putting up a sale tent, a food truck operator trading under a canopy at a county event, an auto-repair or fuel business having an underground tank removed, and a site contractor blasting rock all land here. The permits apply outside the town limits of Kernersville and the City of Winston-Salem, since that is the Fire Division's stated jurisdiction; inside those two the municipality's own fire programme applies. The fee mechanism is § 10-9(a), which directs that fees be determined by resolution of the Board of County Commissioners and that the schedule be filed with the clerk to the board and the fire marshal's office for public inspection, so the amounts here are published as the county's own current page states them. Failing to obtain a required permit carries a $100.00 fine and a stop work order until compliance on the same page. Forms go to fcfd9@forsyth.cc.

Shared with other businesses in Forsyth County Nc

• Forsyth County Fire ABC Inspection — Forsyth County Fire Department, Office of the Fire Marshal, $50 per inspection, as published on the Forsyth County Fire Department's Fire Permit Application and Fees page, for premises outside the town limits of Kernersville and the City of Winston-Salem, per inspection, carried out in support of an ABC permit application; a further application or a change of premises calls for a further inspection. Also required for restaurants and coffee shops; what it involves is set out on the restaurants page.
• ABC Local Government Opinion and Inspection/Zoning Compliance Form — Forsyth County Board of Commissioners, No county charge for signing the Local Government Opinion itself is published in the county's fee documents — the Forsyth County Public Health FY 26-27 Fee Schedule, the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County INSPECTION FEES list of April 2026 or the Forsyth County Fire Department's Fire Permit Application and Fees page. The adjacent published county charges are the Fire Department's $50.00 ABC inspection, which is on a Forsyth County page, and the Inspections Division's 'Zoning, DMV and ABC letters' charge, whose amount appears only on the combined Winston-Salem/Forsyth County list and is therefore not published here. Both are listed separately. Contact the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners' designated official for the current process., per application; the NC ABC Commission's own page states that designated officials are expected to process these forms within 15 days of receipt, and G.S. 18B-901(b) allows the local governing body 15 days from the mailing or delivery of the Commission's notice to file written objection. Also required for restaurants and coffee shops; what it involves is set out on the coffee shops page.
• Forsyth County Beverage License (county malt beverage and wine retail license) — Forsyth County Tax Collector (Tax Administration), $5–$25 a year per license, county-only, at the amounts G.S. 105-113.78 states and the Forsyth County Beverage License Application prints: on-premises beer $25.00, off-premises beer $5.00, on-premises wine $25.00, off-premises wine $25.00, annual; G.S. 105-113.70(b) provides that all licenses issued under the section are annual licenses for the period from May 1 to April 30, and (c) provides that a license may not be transferred from one person to another or from one location to another. Also required for restaurants, coffee shops and food trucks; what it involves is set out on the food trucks page.
• Zoning, DMV and ABC Compliance Letter — Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Planning and Development Services, Inspections Division, The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County INSPECTION FEES list dated April 2026 prints amounts for this permit as a single combined city-county list, headed for both jurisdictions with no separate Forsyth County column. Winston-Salem/Forsyth County UDO § 3.1 A provides that such fees shall be established and modified by the Elected Body — the legislative body of the adopting jurisdiction, which for Forsyth County is the Board of County Commissioners — and that the lists applicable to the Planning Board and the Inspections Division shall be maintained on file and available to the public in the respective offices. That mechanism establishes which body sets the fee and where the list is kept, so no amount from the combined list is published here as Forsyth County's own figure. Contact the Inspections Division on (336) 727-2624 for the amount charged at a Forsyth County address., per letter, issued for the application it supports; a further application calls for a further letter. Also required for restaurants, coffee shops and auto repair shops; what it involves is set out on the coffee shops page.