What permits do you need to open a restaurant in Salt Lake City?

There is no single figure, and any site quoting one is rounding away the part that matters. Of the 15 records listed for a restaurant in Salt Lake City, UT, 9 apply to every business of this type and 6 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 9 that always apply, 1 carry a flat fee, coming to $124.00. That is a floor, not a total. 7 of the 15 are charged as a range or a formula set by the issuing agency, and 4 have no fee published at all. The ones that vary:

General Business Licence: A base Commercial licence fee of $193/year (risen from $187 before September 2025), plus $28/year for every full- or part-time employee once the business has more than one. Several specific trades owe a further named-category fee on top — see the individual industry records below.

Building Permit (Commercial): Priced by total project valuation on a stepped table: $54.55 flat up to $500; $54.55 plus $4 per additional $100 (or fraction) from $500.01-$2,000; $114.55 plus $20 per additional $1,000 (or fraction) from $2,000.01-$25,000; $574.55 plus $14 per additional $1,000 from $25,000.01-$50,000; $924.55 plus $10 per additional $1,000 from $50,000.01-$100,000; $1,424.55 plus $8 per additional $1,000 from $100,000.01-$500,000; $4,624.55 plus $7 per additional $1,000 from $500,000.01-$1,000,000; and $8,124.55 plus $5 per additional $1,000 (or fraction) above $1,000,000. A plan review fee of 65% of the building permit fee applies separately.

Sign Permit: Priced on the same valuation-based Building Permit Fee Schedule as the general building permit, plus a plan-checking fee of $0.15 per dollar of the calculated building permit fee (roughly a 15% surcharge) and a $16 inspection tag fee per inspection.

Zoning Verification Letter: $84 filing fee, plus $61 per hour of additional research time if the review extends beyond the first hour.

Food Establishment Permit: Priced by risk level, assigned by the Food Protection Bureau at application: Risk Level 1 (includes Shaved Ice Stand, Self-Service Mobile, Venue Cart) $275; Risk Level 2 (includes Venue Cart) $405; Risk Level 3 (includes Venue Cart) $555; Risk Level 4 $770. A new, converted or remodeled facility separately owes a plan review fee: Level 1 $580, Level 2 $870, Level 3 $1,140, Level 4 $1,345. A failed inspection or follow-up inspection is $155.

Place of Assembly Permit (Fire): Tiered by floor area, annual: 0-5,000 sq ft $287; 5,001-10,000 sq ft $427; 10,001-25,000 sq ft $611; 25,001-50,000 sq ft $824; 50,001-80,000 sq ft $1,037; 80,001-125,000 sq ft $1,295; 125,001-200,000 sq ft $1,648; plus $140 for each additional 20,000 sq ft above 200,000.

Food Handler Card: Fee set by the training provider and the local health department — not independently confirmed here

Permits for a restaurant in Salt Lake City, UT come from 8 separate offices: City of Salt Lake City Finance Department, Business Licensing Division, City of Salt Lake City, Department of Community and Neighborhoods, Building Services Division, City of Salt Lake City, Planning Division, Salt Lake County Health Department, Environmental Health Division (Food Protection Bureau), Salt Lake City Fire Department, Fire Prevention Bureau, Utah Division of Corporations and Commercial Code, Utah State Tax Commission, Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, Regulatory Services Division. No single office issues them all, which is why an opening means filing in several places rather than one.

• City of Salt Lake City Finance Department, Business Licensing DivisionIssues 2 permits on this page: General Business Licence, Business Licence Add-On — Restaurants/Cafeterias451 South State Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84111 · (801) 535-6644www.slc.gov/Finance/business-licensing
• City of Salt Lake City, Department of Community and Neighborhoods, Building Services DivisionIssues 3 permits on this page: Building Permit (Commercial), Sign Permit, Certificate of Occupancy451 South State Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84111 · (801) 535-6000www.slc.gov/buildingservices/building-permits
• City of Salt Lake City, Planning DivisionIssues 1 permit on this page: Zoning Verification Letter451 South State Street, Room 406, Salt Lake City, UT 84111 · (801) 535-7757www.slc.gov/planning/zoning
• Salt Lake County Health Department, Environmental Health Division (Food Protection Bureau)Issues 1 permit on this page: Food Establishment Permit788 East Woodoak Lane (5380 South), Murray, UT 84107 · (385) 468-3845www.saltlakecounty.gov/health/food-protection
• Salt Lake City Fire Department, Fire Prevention BureauIssues 1 permit on this page: Place of Assembly Permit (Fire)475 South 300 East, Salt Lake City, UT 84111 · (801) 799-3473fire.slc.gov/salt-lake-city-fire-prevention-bureau
• Utah Division of Corporations and Commercial CodeIssues 4 permits on this page: General Business Licence (not required by Utah), Certificate of Organization (LLC), Articles of Incorporation, Annual Renewal160 East 300 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84111 · (801) 530-4849corporations.utah.gov
• Utah State Tax CommissionIssues 1 permit on this page: Sales and Use Tax Licence210 North 1950 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84134 · (801) 297-2200tax.utah.gov
• Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, Regulatory Services DivisionIssues 2 permits on this page: Food Service Establishment Permit (local, not state), Food Handler Card4315 South 2700 West, Taylorsville, UT 84129 · (385) 332-1499ag.utah.gov/regulatory-services/retail-food-regulatory-program

Mandatory for anyone conducting business — even temporarily — within Salt Lake City's corporate limits, per the Finance Department's own description; the licensing review itself is what confirms zoning, fire-code and building-code compliance rather than a separate stand-alone certificate. A commonly repeated '$100 non-refundable application fee' appears on several third-party small-business sites but does not match the city's own Consolidated Fee Schedule, which is used here instead.

Risen from $121 before September 2025. Applies to any restaurant or cafeteria; the fee schedule has no separate 'coffee shop' category, so a coffee shop preparing and serving food or beverages for immediate consumption is treated under this same line. A current, valid Salt Lake County Health Department food permit is required before this licence issues.

Applied for through the Citizen Access Portal, with plans submitted through ProjectDox. Electrical, plumbing and mechanical permits are priced on their own separate tables within the same Consolidated Fee Schedule rather than folded into this figure. New structures, additions, commercial changes of use, and historic-district work should start at the Planning Counter (801-535-7700) before applying.

Starting work before the permit is issued can double the fee, per the same code section. Available as a fillable form on the Building Services applications-forms page.

No fee is published for this certificate anywhere this research could find — Building Services' own page confirms the office issues Certificates of Occupancy and gives a direct contact (801-535-6000), but neither that page nor a section-by-section read of the Community and Neighborhoods portion of the Consolidated Fee Schedule (which otherwise itemizes building, electrical, plumbing, mechanical, fencing and boarding-registration fees individually) names a separate dollar figure for it. It may be folded into the building permit fee already paid rather than charged again; confirm treatment for a specific project directly with Building Services before assuming it is free of charge.

An advisory letter documenting a property's current legal use, whether that use conforms to current zoning, and whether the building can be rebuilt, open permits, or associated variances exist — most often requested by lenders, buyers or appraisers rather than required to open a business. Submitted through the Citizen Access Portal; the Planning Division's own process states a 1-2 day turnaround once a planner is assigned. The Consolidated Fee Schedule prices a similarly-scoped 'Administrative Interpretation' at a slightly lower $81, which this file records as a related but distinct product rather than assuming it is the same fee under a different name.

Salt Lake City has no health department of its own; this is the real, delegated local food-permitting authority — the Salt Lake County Health Department, confirmed as the department's current name since 2013 despite the city's own Mobile Food Business page still using the retired 'Salt Lake Valley Health Department' label. Plan review requires a minimum of 10 working days and must be approved before construction or remodeling begins. A city business licence application also requires this permit to be on file. A coffee shop preparing and serving food or beverages for immediate consumption is licensed the same way as a restaurant.

Applies to dining and service space classified as a place of public assembly under the fire code (occupant-load-dependent, per the Fire Prevention Bureau's own IFC-based standard). This file lists it for restaurants and coffee shops/cafes because that is what this research could directly corroborate; retail, fitness or other high-occupancy commercial space could also be classified as assembly occupancy depending on layout and occupant load, but that determination is made case by case by the Fire Marshal's office rather than asserted here for every industry.

No fee, because Utah's state-level structure is entity registration rather than business licensing — the Division of Corporations frames the question as whether another unit of government requires registration, not as a licence the state itself grants for the right to operate. A city or county licence is the thing that actually functions as a general business licence for most Utah businesses.

Fifty-nine dollars, the same figure whether the entity is domestic or registering in from out of state. A corporation costs the identical $59 to form.

The same $59 as an LLC, and a nonprofit corporation costs the same again.

Eighteen dollars a year, the same figure for an LLC or a corporation, due in the entity's own anniversary month rather than a single date shared statewide. Missing it is not immediately fatal: the statute gives sixty days from the division's notice to cure before administrative dissolution follows, and reinstating after dissolution costs $54 for an LLC or a corporation. A dissolved entity's name, and any assumed names filed under it, cannot be reused by anyone else for two years afterward.

No fee — the state's own combined business and tax registration form lists a line for the sales and use tax licence alongside every other tax account a business might need, and nowhere on the form does a dollar amount attach to it. Once registered, a business is assigned a filing cycle, monthly, quarterly or annual, and must file on that cycle even in a period with no sales.

No state fee, because a food establishment engaged primarily in service for immediate consumption is placed by the state agriculture department's own published guidance under the jurisdiction of the local health department where it operates, not under the state's own retail food registration. Utah has thirteen local health department jurisdictions, each setting its own fee under a shared statewide minimum sanitation standard. Confirm the figure with the specific local health department rather than assuming a statewide number, because none exists.

A food handler card is required, and it must come from a provider on the state's own approved list — the agriculture department publishes that list directly and states plainly that a card from an unapproved source will not be accepted by a local health department. What is not recorded here as confirmed fact is a specific dollar figure or validity period: both a roughly $15 fee and a three-year term are widely repeated online, but neither could be verified against the rule's own text, so no number is asserted here. Confirm the current fee and term with a specific approved provider or the local health department before budgeting for it.