What permits do you need to open a retail store in Summit County Oh?

Food Plan Review

Building out or substantially remodelling a kitchen, coffee bar, deli counter or food-preparation area anywhere in Summit County triggers a plan review by Summit County Public Health before construction, and the license itself follows the approved plan. The charge is a single flat figure, $550.00 each occurrence, applied at every risk level and to commercial and non-commercial operations alike, as published in the 2026 APPROVED Environmental Health Fee Schedule at EHC 101.05(j) — Exhibit A to SCPH's Environmental Health Code Chapter 101, the adopted schedule for the 2026 calendar year, in effect through 31 December 2026. No state component is added to this item. Plan review sits alongside, not instead of, the annual Food Service Operation or Retail Food Establishment license, and alongside the Summit County Department of Building Standards commercial permits for the same fit-out; a restaurant, cafe or childcare centre building a kitchen typically runs both processes at once. SCPH asks for submission roughly 60 days before construction so that comments can be worked into the drawings rather than into finished work.

Food Vending Machine Location License

A gym with a snack or drink machine, a shop or waiting room with a vending bank, a childcare centre with a staff machine or an auto-repair lobby with one is licensed per location rather than per machine. The charge is $26.00 a year — $20.00 district fee plus a $6.00 state fee — as published at EHC 101.05(f) of the 2026 APPROVED Environmental Health Fee Schedule, Exhibit A to Summit County Public Health's Environmental Health Code Chapter 101, the adopted schedule for the 2026 calendar year, in effect through 31 December 2026. Like SCPH's other food licenses this runs on the 1 March licensing period, and SCPH being the combined general health district for the whole county, it applies at an Akron or Barberton address on the same terms as anywhere else in Summit County. A site that has moved beyond machines to an unattended self-checkout food operation uses SCPH's separate Micro Market application, published on the same food safety licensing page, rather than this license.

Food Protection Certified Training, Level 2

Ohio's food code requires food protection training at two levels, and Summit County Public Health runs the courses itself and prices them on its fee schedule: Level 1 at $0 and Level 2 at $100.00 per person plus materials, published at EHC 101.05(k)–(l) of the 2026 APPROVED Environmental Health Fee Schedule, Exhibit A to SCPH's Environmental Health Code Chapter 101, the adopted schedule for the 2026 calendar year, in effect through 31 December 2026. Level 2 is the manager-level certification that a risk level 3 or risk level 4 food service operation or retail food establishment needs a person on staff to hold, which in practice covers most restaurants, delis and full-service coffee shops; Level 1 is the shorter course for other staff and carries no charge. Because SCPH is the combined general health district for the whole of Summit County, an operator in Akron or Barberton takes the same courses at the same prices as one in a township. The training is a person-level credential and is separate from the operation's own annual license, which is listed separately, and from the food plan review required for a new or remodelled kitchen.

Solicitor / Peddler / Itinerant Vendor / Canvasser License

Codified Ordinances Chapter 775 licenses itinerant vendors, hawkers, peddlers, solicitors and canvassers. §775.02 provides that none of them 'shall sell or offer for sale any goods, merchandise, produce or anything of value in the County, or solicit or hawk any goods, merchandise or anything of value, without first obtaining a license therefor from the Office of Consumer Affairs,' and §775.09 extends the requirement to employees hired to peddle. §775.01 defines an itinerant vendor or hawker as one conducting 'a temporary or transient business of selling goods, wares and merchandise within the County' without intending to stay in one location more than four months, and a peddler as one selling 'at any place in, upon, along or through the streets, alleys or other public ways or places of the County or from house to house.' The fee and term are set in the ordinance text: §775.04 requires each applicant to 'pay to the office of Consumer Affairs the sum of thirty-five dollars ($35.00)' and provides that licenses run 'for a period of one (1) year or less which shall end on December 31 of that calendar year in which they are acquired.' Territory is settled inside the chapter and then narrowed by the county's own form. §775.16, 'Relation to Other Law,' states that 'this Chapter shall apply in all townships, villages and municipal corporations within the County of Summit,' with a township resolution regulating transient vendors or a village or municipal ordinance regulating peddlers and solicitors prevailing where one exists, and county applications required only where the locality has none; and the county's published application form (rev. 11/19) carries the acknowledgement that 'this is solely an application to solicit in the Bath Township, Richfield Township, Springfield Township, Northfield Center Township, and Twinsburg Township in Summit County, Ohio and cannot solicit until a license has been issued.' Those five townships are where the county license actually operates. The application itself requires a government photo ID, applicants to be 18 or over, about ten days' lead time, a BCI background check at the applicant's expense with fingerprinting by the Summit County Sheriff for a vendor 'operating out of and selling, bartering or exchanging goods from a motor vehicle to consumers, such as an ice cream, treats, and snacks vendor' (§775.03(c)), and, under §775.03(a)(10), 'if selling perishable food products, proof that they have obtained a certificate from the appropriate health department for their operation' — which for a food operation means the Summit County Public Health license listed separately. §775.06 excepts newspaper subscription solicitors, a manufacturer peddling its own article made within the county, court-ordered and bona fide auction sales, wholesale sales to a retail dealer, 'four or more itinerant vendors associated together in an enterprise such as a flea market, farmers market, craft show, stamp or coin collectors, bourse, trade show, or the like,' occasional fundraising sales by fraternal, civic, service or school organisations, political representatives and local religious groups. §775.07 limits peddling to the hours between 9:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m., bars a noise device audible beyond 500 feet and stopping to sell within 200 feet of a school between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. in term time, and requires a three-day right to cancel and disclosure of the seller's name, address and telephone number and its refund policy. §775.99 makes an offence a minor misdemeanour with a fine up to $100. Codified Ordinances §201.02 creates the issuing Office of Consumer Affairs as a Division of the Executive's Department of Law and Risk Management under a Deputy Director of Consumer Affairs; the county's department directory carries no page for the Office and no telephone number for it is published, so the codified chapter and the county's own application form are the operative sources for what this license requires.

Firewood Sales License

A garden centre, landscaper, farm stand, hardware store or general retailer that sells fireplace or stove wood in Summit County needs this license. §733.06 provides that 'no person, partnership, corporation or other entity, unless duly licensed as provided in this chapter, shall engage in the regular business of selling, advertising or offering for sale, fireplace or stove wood,' and §733.08 sets the amount and the term: 'Upon approval of the County Auditor or his designee and after a payment of twenty-five dollars ($25.00), the County Auditor or his designee shall issue a license to the applicant. The license shall expire annually on December 31.' The figure is the ordinance's own, from Ord. 86-486 as carried in the current American Legal codification. The Fiscal Office lists firewood licensing among its published services and states on that page that 'all persons selling firewood must also obtain a vendors license,' so a firewood seller holds both this license and the county vendor's license listed separately. The chapter also regulates how the wood may be sold: §733.03 and §733.04 allow fuel wood to be sold only by the cord of 128 cubic feet or a fraction of one, or in packaged form labelled in cubic feet or metres, and prohibit the terms 'face cord', 'rick', 'pile', 'truckload', 'rack', 'scoop' and 'bundle'; §733.05 requires a delivery ticket or sales invoice for every non-packaged sale, carrying the vendor's and purchaser's details, the date, the quantity, the price and the type and age of the wood; and §733.13 requires the license number in every advertisement. Method of sale for firewood is one of the things the Fiscal Office's Weights and Measures Division inspects, as its own page states. Chapter 733 runs from §733.01 to §733.99 with no territorial or nonapplicability clause of the kind Chapters 741 and 775 carry, and Charter §1.02 provides that in a conflict 'the exercise of powers by the municipality or township shall prevail.'

Kennel License

This license reaches a commercial dog breeding operation, not a veterinary practice as such. The county's own application quotes the statutory definition — a kennel 'keeps, houses, and maintains adult dogs … for the purpose of breeding the dogs for a fee or other consideration received through a sale, exchange, or lease and that is not a high volume breeder licensed under Chapter 956 of the Revised Code' — so unless a clinic also breeds dogs for sale, a veterinary practice providing medical care or ordinary boarding has no kennel license to obtain on that basis. The figures are taken from the Fiscal Office's current kennel license application form: $80.00 per kennel including five tags if bought by 31 January, $160.00 after that date (the fee plus a statutory penalty equal to it, which the form states is a flat amount and not prorated), and $8.00 per additional tag. The statutory framework is ORC 955.04, which sets the January filing date and the penalty, with ORC 955.14 giving the county authority to establish a higher registration fee than the statutory base. The Fiscal Office states on its kennel licensing page that 'kennel licenses can only be purchased at our Services Department … or you can mail your completed application and the appropriate fee,' at 1030 E. Tallmadge Ave., Akron. A breeder selling puppies at retail also needs the county vendor's license for its taxable sales, and rabies vaccination recordkeeping runs through Summit County Public Health's Environmental Health Code 601 and OAC 3701-3-28 to 3701-3-30 rather than through this license.

Junk Yard License (junk yard outside a municipality)

A salvage or scrap operation on an unincorporated Summit County parcel is licensed by statute rather than by county ordinance. ORC 4737.07 provides that 'no person shall operate and maintain a junk yard outside of a municipality, except in zoned or unzoned industrial areas adjacent to the interstate or primary systems, without first obtaining a license to do so from the county auditor of the county in which such junk yard is located,' sets the fee at twenty-five dollars, expires the license 'on the first day of January following the date of issue,' and prices each annual renewal at ten dollars paid to the county auditor. ORC 4737.05(B) defines a junk yard as 'an establishment or place of business that is maintained or operated for the purpose of storing, keeping, buying, or selling junk.' A yard adjacent to the interstate or primary systems that sits inside a municipality is licensed instead by that municipality's chief executive officer, and the statute makes its license additional to any municipal requirement. The statute assigns the function to the county auditor, whose statutory duties in Summit County sit with the Fiscal Officer under the charter. The Fiscal Office's published Services & Licensing menu runs dog licensing, dog search, vendor licensing, manufactured homes, fuel quality testing, firewood licensing, cigarette licensing, kennel licensing, weights & measures and state issued licensing, and junk yard licensing is not among those menu items, so this record rests on the statute rather than on a county page and an operator should approach the Fiscal Office directly about the filing. Codified Ordinances Chapter 743 is a different thing: it runs to two sections and imposes a record-book duty on every person dealing in scrap iron, metal, waste materials, junk or other secondhand articles, with a penalty section, rather than creating a license or a charge. An ordinary auto-repair shop doing mechanical work is outside this license unless it also operates as a salvage yard on the premises.

Retail Cigarette Dealer's License

A convenience store, grocery, gas station, bar, coffee shop or repair-shop counter selling cigarettes at retail in Summit County needs this license for each physical location. The Fiscal Office issues it in the county auditor's statutory role and states on its own cigarette licensing page that 'cigarette dealer licenses can be obtained at the Summit County Fiscal Office; the license must be renewed annually in May with a new application,' and that 'the new annual fee on all retail cigarette licenses will be $125 per physical location. There will no longer be a fee reduction for more than five licenses issued in a single county.' The figure is statutory rather than county-set: ORC 5743.15(B)(1) provides that 'every person desiring to engage in the retail business of trafficking in cigarettes shall pay an application fee in the sum of one hundred twenty-five dollars for each physical place where the person proposes to carry on such business.' The same section runs the license year from 1 June, prorates a license issued after that date down to a floor of $25 in any one year, and prices a duplicate license and an in-county transfer of location at $5 each. This license is separate from, and additional to, the county vendor's license a cigarette retailer also needs for its taxable sales.

Secondhand Dealer License

Codified Ordinances Chapter 741 reaches further than a precious-metals rule. §741.02(a) provides that 'no person, partnership, corporation or other entity, unless duly licensed as provided in this chapter, shall engage in the regular business of purchasing, selling, exchanging or receiving secondhand items, except as set forth in Section 741.16,' and §741.02(b) adds the separate limb for 'secondhand precious stones or any secondhand manufactured article composed wholly or in part of gold, silver, platinum or other precious metal.' 'Secondhand' means 'that which has been used, or which has been previously traded or sold by a retailer,' excluding trade-ins credited against similar new merchandise, and 'regular business' means dealing on more than three days in a calendar year. §741.16 exempts persons dealing primarily in furniture, primarily in secondhand automobiles or primarily in coins, pawnbrokers complying with state law, sales by governmental entities, Sheriff's sales and sales by a receiver in bankruptcy. The fees are set in the ordinance text: §741.05 issues the license 'after payment of a fee of twenty-five dollars ($25.00)' and provides that it 'shall expire annually on December 31,' and §741.06 sets a renewal fee of twenty-five dollars; the figures come from Ord. 81-285 and Ord. 2014-124 as carried in the current American Legal codification. Territory is settled inside this chapter: §741.17, 'Nonapplicability in Conflict,' provides that 'this chapter shall not apply within any municipality or township which has enacted a measure which regulates or prohibits the conducting of a secondhand dealer business' — so the county license does reach inside cities and villages that have not legislated on the subject. Two practical preconditions: §741.04 requires an inspection and test by the Summit County Division of Weights and Measures of every scale, balance and weighing or measuring device at the location, and provides that the application shall not be granted without that certification, which is valid only for the location on the application — the Division publishes its contact details on the Fiscal Office's Weights & Measures page; and §741.03(b)–(c) impose a thirty-day wait from application, two Summit County character references and disqualification for a felony involving fraud, theft or receiving stolen property in the preceding five years. Ongoing duties are substantial: a bound record book of every purchase (§741.10), a daily form to the Office of Consumer Affairs by noon of the following weekday, hand-delivered for the first forty-five days of business (§741.11), tagging of every article (§741.12), a ten-day hold before an article may be disassembled, altered, sold or removed from the county (§741.13), no purchases from anyone under 18 and none between 11:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. (§741.14), and the license number in every advertisement (§741.15). Codified Ordinances §201.02 creates the issuing Office of Consumer Affairs and organises it 'as a Division of the Executive's Department of Law and Risk Management,' supervised by a Deputy Director of Consumer Affairs; the county's department directory carries no page for the Office and no telephone number for it is published, so the codified chapter above is the operative statement of what the license requires. Buying precious metals from the public also requires a separate state precious metals dealer license from the Ohio Department of Commerce under ORC Chapter 4728.

Vendor's License

The fee doubled from $25 to $50 on 9 April 2025 under House Bill 366, and the Department's own older PDF guidance still prints $25 — check the date on anything you read. One license per fixed location, so a second shop means a second $50. The license number is keyed to the county, but the fee is statutory and identical in all eighty-eight; the county auditor is a filing channel, not a separate charge. It is not only for goods: certain taxable services, including landscaping, building maintenance and janitorial work, private security and dry cleaning, need one too. An out-of-state seller with economic nexus registers free.

Shared with other businesses in Summit County Oh

• Food Service Operation / Retail Food Establishment License — Summit County Public Health, Total = SCPH district fee + state fee, per EHC 101.05(a)–(d). Commercial under 25,000 sq ft: risk 1 $256 + $28 = $284; risk 2 $288 + $28 = $316; risk 3 $552 + $28 = $580; risk 4 $700 + $28 = $728. Commercial 25,000 sq ft and over: risk 1 $370 + $28 = $398; risk 2 $390 + $28 = $418; risk 3 $1,384 + $28 = $1,412; risk 4 $1,468 + $28 = $1,496. Non-commercial under 25,000 sq ft: risk 1 $128 + $14 = $142; risk 2 $144 + $14 = $158; risk 3 $276 + $14 = $290; risk 4 $350 + $14 = $364. Non-commercial 25,000 sq ft and over: risk 1 $185 + $14 = $199; risk 2 $195 + $14 = $209; risk 3 $692 + $14 = $706; risk 4 $734 + $14 = $748. The $28 and $14 components are the state fee, not a county charge. Late payment adds 25% of the district fee from 2 March., annual, keyed to 1 March; ORC 3717.43(C)(1)(a) provides that a license issued to a new operation after the first day of December does not expire until the end of the next succeeding licensing period. Also required for restaurants, coffee shops, childcare centres and fitness studios; what it involves is set out on the coffee shops page.
• Fire Suppression and Fire Alarm Permits — Summit County Department of Building Standards, §1307.07: sprinkler, alternative automatic fire-extinguishing and standpipe systems, new construction and alterations alike, $102.00 plus $1.50 per 100 sq ft; fire alarm systems, new construction and alterations alike, $102.00 plus $1.00 per 100 sq ft. Added to every permit: the $2.00 non-refundable technology fee under §1307.15 and the 3% Ohio Board of Building Standards surcharge on commercial fees under §1307.04(e), a state pass-through., per project; §1307.02 requires new permit fees on all expired permits, and §1307.10 charges re-inspections at $30.00, $30.00, $60.00 and $80.00 for the first through fourth. Also required for restaurants, coffee shops, childcare centres, fitness studios and contractors and trades; what it involves is set out on the contractors and trades page.
• Temporary Food Operation License — Summit County Public Health, $80–$160 per event — $160.00 for a commercial operation, $80.00 for a non-commercial food operation; no state component is added to either, single event only: one event, one location, no longer than five consecutive days, not renewable and not transferable. Also required for restaurants, coffee shops and food trucks; what it involves is set out on the restaurants page.
• Commercial Accessory Structure Permit (signs, canopies, awnings, kiosks, tents, decks, retaining walls) — Summit County Department of Building Standards, §1307.08 commercial: $67.00 non-refundable application fee plus $72.00 per accessory structure. Added to the permit: the $2.00 non-refundable technology fee under §1307.15 and the 3% Ohio Board of Building Standards surcharge on commercial fees under §1307.04(e), a state pass-through. Plan review of an accessory structure listed in §1307.08 is a further $60.00 under §1307.04(c), and a sign including electrical is $60.00 on that same plan review line., per structure; a temporary structure or tent permit under §1307.08 covers 30 days. Also required for restaurants, coffee shops and food trucks; what it involves is set out on the coffee shops page.
• Transient Vendor's License — Ohio Department of Taxation, $50 one-time, valid statewide, no renewal — stays in effect until cancelled. Also required for food trucks; what it involves is set out on the food trucks page.