What permits do you need to open a childcare centre in Plano?

There is no single figure, and any site quoting one is rounding away the part that matters. Of the 11 records listed for a childcare centre in Plano, TX, 7 apply to every business of this type and 4 are conditional. Adding every fee on the page together would overstate what most operators pay, because it would include permits they never need.

Of the 7 that always apply, 3 carry a flat fee, coming to $215.00. That is a floor, not a total. 6 of the 11 are charged as a range or a formula set by the issuing agency, and 0 have no fee published at all. The ones particular to this business that vary:

Fire Plan Check: $0.039 per sq ft of building area up to 100,000 sq ft (minimum $66); $3,850 for the first 100,000 plus $0.019 per additional sq ft to 300,000; $7,590 for the first 300,000 plus $0.011 per additional sq ft above that

Child Care License: $35 application, then an annual fee of $35 plus $1 per child of licensed capacity

The other 4 variable fees belong to permits that apply to every type of business here; their formulas are set out on the Plano permits page and the TX state page.

Comparing like with like — only the permits charged as a single flat fee, since a valuation formula has no figure to rank — Plano sits where the table below puts it against every other TX jurisdiction covered here that publishes the same permit.

Certificate of Occupancy: Plano charges $140. Across 22 jurisdictions it runs from $50 in Waco to $425 in Universal City, with a median of $105. 14 charge less and 7 charge more.

Read the spread rather than the rank. Certificate of Occupancy varies by $375 between the cheapest and dearest jurisdiction here, which is the sort of gap worth knowing before you sign a lease on one side of a city line rather than the other.

• Childcare centres in Waco, TX
• Childcare centres in Universal City, TX

Permits for a childcare centre in Plano, TX come from 5 separate offices: City of Plano Building Inspections Department, Plano Fire-Rescue, Fire Prevention, Texas Secretary of State, Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Texas Health and Human Services. No single office issues them all, which is why an opening means filing in several places rather than one.

• City of Plano Building Inspections DepartmentIssues 6 permits on this page, including Commercial Trade Permit (Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing), Commercial Building Permit, Certificate of Occupancy1520 K Avenue, Plano, TX 75074www.plano.gov/building-inspections
• Plano Fire-Rescue, Fire PreventionIssues 1 permit on this page: Fire Plan Check4120 W Plano Parkway, Plano, TX 75093www.plano.gov/existing-building-fire-inspections
• Texas Secretary of StateIssues 2 permits on this page: Certificate of Formation, Assumed Name Certificate (DBA)www.sos.state.tx.us
• Texas Comptroller of Public AccountsIssues 1 permit on this page: Texas Sales and Use Tax Permitcomptroller.texas.gov/taxes/permit
• Texas Health and Human ServicesIssues 1 permit on this page: Child Care Licensewww.hhs.texas.gov

2 of the 3 permits particular to a childcare centre here apply to no other business type we cover in Plano: In-Home Daycare Permit and Child Care License.

The other 5 local permits in the tables apply to every type of business in Plano, TX; what each one involves is set out on the Plano permits page. The 3 state-level registrations apply to every type of business across TX and are covered on the TX state page.

The closest match is a fitness studio, which shares 1 of these permits. A childcare centre also needs In-Home Daycare Permit and Child Care License. A fitness studio needs Swimming Pool, Spa and Water Feature Permit, Backflow Prevention Annual Test Report Fee and Health Spa Certificate of Registration, which a childcare centre does not.