What permits do you need to open a retail store in Lancaster County Pa?

Precious Metals Dealer License

A retail-store business in Lancaster County that buys precious metals from the general public for resale or refining — a pawn-shop or jewelry-buyer type operation — needs this annual license from the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office under the Precious Metal Sale Regulation Law (Act 17 of 1984), 73 P.S. §1932(a), which requires a license 'from the sheriff of each... county.' The fee is $50 per year, confirmed both on Lancaster County's own current Precious Metals Dealer Application ('Application Fee - $50.00 Payable to the Sheriff of Lancaster County') and in the implementing regulation, 37 Pa Code §501.5, which sets the figure at $50 annually. The two sources differ only on an administrative detail, not the amount: 37 Pa Code §501.5 directs the fee to be paid to the county treasurer, while Lancaster County's own current application form instead directs payment to the Sheriff of Lancaster County directly — the dollar amount is unaffected, and the county's own current form controls for an applicant deciding who to pay.

Weights & Measures Device Registration (State Program, No Fee)

Lancaster County terminated its own weights-and-measures program in 2011, and the county's own current FAQ states directly: 'Weights & Measures is now controlled by the State of Pennsylvania.' Any Lancaster County business with a commercial scale, meter, or other weighing/measuring device — including restaurant, coffee-shop, food-truck, retail-store, and auto-repair industries — is now inspected by PDA's Bureau of Ride and Measurement Standards rather than a county office, confirmed by PDA's own 2010 Annual Report, which states the Department 'will have to assume inspection responsibilities for Lancaster and Elk Counties, as they have terminated their weights and measures programs,' adding 6,736 devices to the state's inspection roster in 2011. The Consolidated Weights and Measures Act, 3 Pa.C.S. §4114, ends with this sentence: 'Nothing in this section shall be construed to authorize the department to impose a fee for the registration of any weighing and measuring device.' So there is no per-device registration or inspection fee anywhere in the applicable statute, and none may be charged.

Retail Food Facility License

$241 for a new facility, or $103 if it is owner-operated with fewer than fifty seats — a genuine small-operator discount worth checking you qualify for. Renewal is $82, and so is a change of ownership. Plan review is free, and due at least sixty days before opening. The license interval is risk-based rather than flatly annual: 24, 18, 12 or 6 months depending on the risk factors in the Model Food Code, so a higher-risk operation is re-licensed more often. Follow-up inspections escalate — the second is $150 and the third $300. Fees are collected at the compliant licensing inspection rather than with the application. The jurisdiction question matters more here than in most states: the Department does not license in Allegheny, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Erie, Montgomery or Philadelphia counties, nor in the city health departments of Allentown, Bethlehem, Wilkes-Barre and York, and roughly ninety-nine further municipalities run their own licensing. There is no reciprocity between them, so a business crossing a boundary licenses twice.

Food Employee Certification

Pennsylvania sets no fee and no renewal term for this, because it neither issues the certificate nor runs the programme — the state charges none and the only cost is whatever the accredited provider asks. What the law requires is one certified food protection MANAGER per licensed facility, not a food handler card for everyone, and the Department is explicit that enrolling in a food handler course instead of a management course does not satisfy it. There is no statewide food handler card in Pennsylvania at all. Anyone reading older material should be careful: the state used to issue its own certificate for $20 with a five-year renewal and continuing education under Chapter 76 of the Pennsylvania Code, and that chapter was rescinded on 12 May 2014. It is the single most likely source of a wrong Pennsylvania figure. In practice: the certified employee must be available during all hours of operation and is the person in charge when present, the certificate is posted publicly, a new facility has ninety days to comply, three months to replace a certified employee who leaves, and one person may only serve as certified manager for one facility. Prepackaged-only operations, non-profit-managed facilities, volunteer fire and ambulance groups, agricultural fairs and school booster organisations are exempt.

Shared with other businesses in Lancaster County Pa

• Retail Food Facility License — Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Food Safety and Laboratory Services, $14–$300 annual license — new (under 50 seats, owner-operated) $103; new (all other facilities) $241; change of ownership $82; annual renewal $82; duplicate license $14; 2nd follow-up inspection $150; 3rd or subsequent follow-up inspection $300; courtesy inspection $150; remodel plan review no charge, annual. Also required for restaurants, coffee shops and childcare centres; what it involves is set out on the restaurants page.
• Temporary Food Facility License — Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Food Safety and Laboratory Services, $14–$300 flat $14 for a new license, change of ownership, or annual renewal; $150 for a 2nd follow-up inspection; $300 for a 3rd or subsequent follow-up inspection; $14 duplicate; $150 courtesy inspection; a Type 1 (prepackaged, non-potentially-hazardous food only) facility is exempt from the license fee, per event or operating period, maximum 14 days per calendar year (consecutive or non-consecutive). Also required for restaurants, coffee shops and food trucks; what it involves is set out on the coffee shops page.