15 published records
Business licenses and permits in Cheyenne, Wyoming
The City Clerk's current fee page lists no general business license; Cheyenne instead licenses twenty-eight enumerated categories under Code §5.04.030, and three of the ten industries covered here are among them: a restaurant or coffee shop pays $115.00 annually as a food service establishment, a garage, auto dealer or car lot pays $65.00, and a barber or beauty shop pays $65.00. Food is a two-step process because Laramie County is among the six local health departments the Wyoming Department of Agriculture lists — CMC §8.40.040(B) requires the applicant to apply first to the Cheyenne-Laramie County Health Department and for a state sales tax permit, then obtain the city license. A food truck is $75.00 per year per unit, or $50.00 for a fourteen-day period, with reduced rates of $25.00 and $10.00 for nonprofit, charitable and youth organisations. Contractor licensing is extensive, and the Wyoming Secretary of State refers general-contractor questions to the local jurisdiction: Class A is $600.00 initially and $200.00 to renew, Class B and Class R $400.00 and $100.00, Class C-1 $200.00 and $75.00, Classes C-2, C-3 and D $200.00 and $50.00, and Classes E, F and S $300.00 and $75.00, each on a $50.00 application fee, with insurance from $300,000 per occurrence for subcontractors to $1,000,000 for Class A and no bond required. Building permits run a valuation table from $23.50 with plan review at sixty-five percent of the permit fee and re-inspections at $250.00. Planning fees include a $825.00 conditional use permit, a $675.00 zoning variance, a $1,500.00 special use permit, a $1,800.00 new site plan and a $375.00 child care application. Signs need a building permit plus a $50.00 review fee. Cheyenne Fire Rescue's Fire Inspection page and the citywide Schedule of Fees publish no fire inspection or fire operational permit fee; contact Cheyenne Fire Rescue for any charge.
What are you opening in Cheyenne?
- RestaurantsFull-service restaurants carry the densest permit load of any small business: food, fire, occupancy, waste, and usually alcohol.See the full permit list
- Coffee shopsCafés are permitted as food service establishments even where no cooking happens, and the plan review step catches most operators by surprise.See the full permit list
- Retail storesRetail is the lightest common permit load, but the sales tax permit and the certificate of occupancy are non-negotiable in every jurisdiction.See the full permit list
- Salons and barbersPersonal care is licensed at state board level as well as locally, so the shop license and the practitioner licenses are separate obligations.See the full permit list
- Food trucksMobile food is the one category with no certificate of occupancy — but it gains a commissary agreement, and the unit itself is inspected rather than the premises.See the full permit list
- Fitness studiosPrepaid memberships trigger state registration and often a surety bond, which catches operators who budgeted only for the fit-out.See the full permit list
- Childcare centresThe heaviest permit load of any small business: state agency licensing, per-person background checks, and a stricter fire standard than ordinary commercial use.See the full permit list
- Contractors and tradesLicensed at state board level rather than locally, and the only common category with no premises permits at all — the bond is usually the long pole.See the full permit list
- Auto repair shopsOrdinary commercial permitting plus an environmental layer: waste oil, solvents and stormwater are each registered separately.See the full permit list
- Veterinary clinicsA state facility permit, controlled substances registration at both state and federal level, and a medical waste manifest — none of which a general business license covers.See the full permit list
Permits that apply to every type of business in Cheyenne
| Permit | Issuing agency | Fee | Renews | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conditional Use Permit / Zoning Variance / Site Plan Reviewonly if it applies to you | City of Cheyenne, Planning and Development Department | From the City's Schedule of Fees, set by Resolution 6213: a conditional use permit is $825.00, a special use permit $1,500.00, a zoning variance $675.00, a zone change $850.00 and an administrative use $500.00. A new site plan is $1,800.00, a site plan modification of twenty-five percent or more $900.00 and under twenty-five percent $450.00, while site plan change of use documentation with no proposed exterior modifications is $100.00. An administrative adjustment is $100.00, an appeal of an administrative decision $850.00, a temporary use permit $600.00, an accessory dwelling unit $600.00 and a home occupation $50.00. A zoning verification letter is $25.00 standard or $100.00 non-standard, and a building permit review fee $50.00. | one-time per application | 2026-09-14 |
| Building Permit | City of Cheyenne, Compliance Department — Building Safety | A valuation table under CMC §15.08.030: $23.50 from $1.00 to $500.00; $23.50 for the first $500.00 plus $3.05 per additional $100.00 to $2,000.00; $69.25 for the first $2,000.00 plus $14.00 per additional $1,000.00 to $25,000.00; $391.75 for the first $25,000.00 plus $10.10 per $1,000.00 to $50,000.00; $643.75 for the first $50,000.00 plus $7.00 per $1,000.00 to $100,000.00; $993.75 for the first $100,000.00 plus $5.60 per $1,000.00 to $500,000.00; $3,233.75 for the first $500,000.00 plus $4.75 per $1,000.00 to $1,000,000.00; and $5,608.75 for the first $1,000,000.00 plus $3.65 per additional $1,000.00. Plan review is sixty-five percent of the associated permit fee. Inspections outside normal business hours are $85.00 per hour with a two-hour minimum, a re-inspection is $250.00, and any inspection with no fee specified is $85.00 per hour with a half-hour minimum. Outside consultants are charged at actual cost plus two percent. Renewing an expired permit costs fifteen percent of the original permit valuation. | not stated in the published schedule; renewal of an expired permit costs fifteen percent of the original permit valuation | 2026-09-14 |
| General Business License — City of Cheyenne position (twenty-eight enumerated categories)only if it applies to you | City of Cheyenne, City Clerk's Office | No fee | not applicable to a general license; enumerated licenses expire annually, one year from the date of issuance, with a thirty-day grace period and a $25.00 late renewal fee | 2026-09-14 |
| Fire Inspection and Operational Permit (fee not published) | Cheyenne Fire Rescue | No fee | not stated in any published source | 2026-09-14 |
| Certificate of Occupancy (final certificate free; temporary and change of use charged) | City of Cheyenne, Compliance Department — Building Safety | A final certificate of occupancy carries no separate fee — it is issued on final inspection. A temporary certificate is charged and partially refundable on a sliding scale: $300.00 for a residential structure, refunded $300.00, $200.00 or $100.00 if converted within thirty, sixty or ninety days, and $1,250.00 for a commercial structure, refunded $1,250.00, $1,000.00 or $500.00 across the same periods. A change of use permit where no work is being done carries a minimum fee of $250.00. A penalty of $750.00 applies for failing to convert a temporary certificate of occupancy on a commercial structure, and the same for a one- or two-family structure. | a temporary certificate is converted within thirty, sixty or ninety days on the refund scale | 2026-09-14 |
Fees shown as a range or formula are set that way by the issuing agency — we do not average them into a single number.
What do these permits involve in Cheyenne?
Conditional Use Permit / Zoning Variance / Site Plan Review
The $100.00 line for 'Site Plan Change of Use Documentation with No Proposed Exterior Modifications' is the one worth knowing for a business simply taking over an existing space — it is a fraction of the $1,800.00 new site plan fee and covers the common case where a tenant changes but the building does not. The $25.00 standard zoning verification letter is likewise the cheapest way to establish in writing that an intended use is permitted at an address before committing to a lease. A currency caveat applies to this whole schedule: the document's internal title is 'City of Cheyenne Fees 7.31.23.xls,' a later re-export rather than a new legislative act. The planning fees it carries were last set by Resolution 6213 (adopted March 14, 2022), and the City's own FY2027 Planning and Development budget request (presented May 15, 2026) lists an 'Application fee review — 5-year review pursuant to Res. 6213 (March 2022)' as still-upcoming work, confirming no newer planning-fee resolution has superseded it as of that budget cycle; its business license rows also match the Clerk's live table exactly, corroborating the same conclusion.
Building Permit
The $250.00 re-inspection fee is notably high relative to the permit itself — on a small commercial fit-out it can exceed the original permit fee — so scheduling inspections only when work is genuinely ready matters here more than in most cities. Development impact fees apply separately and are charged before the permit issues: the City's Non-Residential Development Fee Worksheet revised January 28, 2026 adds a $50.00 planning and development review fee to all building permits, a park land acquisition and infrastructure fee of $700 per acre with a $250.00 minimum, a commercial enhancement fee of $1,100 per acre with the same minimum, and a public safety fee of $654.56 per 1,000 square feet of finished floor area for commercial and service uses, $562.58 for industrial, $320.01 for civic and public service and $1,086.55 for employment, agriculture and other uses. The worksheet states that 'Fees are due prior to issuance of a building permit.'
General Business License — City of Cheyenne position (twenty-eight enumerated categories)
The City Clerk's current fee table lists every business the Clerk licenses and names no general business license, so this record carries no fee; Cheyenne's enumerated list is longer than most and reaches three of the ten industries covered here directly — restaurants and coffee shops, garages and car lots, and barber and beauty shops each have their own record. Categories that could reach other businesses include a nicotine retail license at $65.00 annually per location under §5.08.240, a secondhand dealer at $80.00, a pawnbroker at $155.00 with a $1,000 surety bond, a body art establishment at $165.00 or $100.00 for a temporary up to fourteen days, a body artist at $75.00, a massage establishment at $135.00 per location under §5.52.040 with a massage therapist permit at $115.00, and an alarm permit at $100.00 which remains valid for as long as the permittee owns or occupies the property. Two general rules apply across all of them: §5.04.090(A) provides that licenses 'shall expire annually, one year from the date of issuance,' so renewal dates are staggered by issue date rather than aligned to a calendar year, and §5.04.060(B) and §5.04.070(B) each charge $30.00 for a transfer of ownership or of location. Section 5.04.040(A)(1) makes zoning compliance a precondition: 'No business shall be licensed or permitted, or conducted from any location unless the same is in compliance with the provisions of the city's zoning ordinance.'
Fire Inspection and Operational Permit (fee not published)
This fee is not published on the Fire Inspection page or in the citywide Schedule of Fees, so this record lists no fee. The obligation itself is real and current: Cheyenne adopts the 2024 International Fire Code and its amended §105.1.1 requires a license or permit before conducting a regulated operation or installing regulated equipment. Those sources publish no price. The Fire Inspection page, the Cheyenne Fire Rescue forms and department pages, Code chapters 8.12 and 8.16 and the complete citywide Schedule of Fees state no fire inspection or operational permit amount. The only fire-related figures published anywhere are three City Clerk license rows that fall on servicing contractors rather than on inspected businesses — fire extinguisher and hose station servicing and testing at $90.00 annually, a fireworks permit at $115.00 per event for supervised public displays, and hood system cleaning at $90.00 annually. A business should schedule an inspection on (307) 637-6311 and ask what, if anything, it costs.
Certificate of Occupancy (final certificate free; temporary and change of use charged)
The final certificate is genuinely free — the City describes it as 'a formal document that is issued when a new building construction project or change of use to a structure has been completed according to the approved plans and approved by the building inspector,' and the City's fee schedules carry no fee line for it. The costs sit on the two exceptions. A commercial temporary certificate is $1,250.00, which is high for such a charge, though the refund scale returns the whole amount if the permanent certificate is obtained within thirty days and half of it within ninety. And a change of use with no construction still costs a minimum of $250.00, with the ordinance providing that 'No building undergoing a change of use shall be used or occupied until the building has been inspected, approved and a certificate of occupancy/completion has been obtained' — so a business taking over an existing space for a different purpose cannot avoid the charge by doing no work.
Sources
Every figure in the table above was read from one of these government pages on the date shown.
- City of Cheyenne Schedule of Fees, set by Resolution 6213 — the planning application fees, contractor license fees, building and construction miscellaneous fees and the City Clerk business license rowsCity of Cheyenne · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-14
- City of Cheyenne Unified Development Code — §1.3.12 (fees required at filing), §6.5 (signs, requiring that no sign be erected without a building permit), §5.7.2 (home occupations) and §5.7.4 (family child care homes and child care centers, each requiring compliance with Wyoming Department of Family Services requirements)City of Cheyenne Planning and Development Department · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-14
- Planning and Development Department Proposed Budget Requests, presented May 15, 2026 — lists a 5-year review of application fees pursuant to Resolution 6213 (March 2022) as still-upcoming FY2027 work, confirming no newer planning-fee resolution has superseded itCity of Cheyenne · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Cheyenne Municipal Code, Supplement 73, codified through Ordinance 4662 (3-23-2026) — §5.04.030 (the twenty-eight enumerated license categories), §5.04.090 (annual expiry and the $25.00 late renewal fee), §5.08.030 (barber and beauty shop), §5.08.240 (nicotine retail), §5.20.030 (garage and car lot), §5.44.020 (contractor licensing requirement), §5.52.040 (massage establishment), §5.76.030 (transient merchant), §8.12.020 (2024 International Fire Code adoption), §8.40.040 (county health application precondition), §8.40.060 (food service establishment fee) and §8.40.070 (mobile food vendor fees), and §15.08.030 (building permit fees)City of Cheyenne · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-14
- Building Permit Fee Schedule — the Compliance Department's own current page and the valuation lookup table published September 11, 2026 giving permit, plan review and total figuresCity of Cheyenne Compliance Department · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-14
- Business Licensing Applications — the City Clerk's own live 'Current Fee' table listing every business and activity the Clerk licenses and its fee, including the $115.00 restaurant license, the $65.00 garage and auto dealer license and the $65.00 barber and beauty shop licenseCity of Cheyenne, City Clerk's Office · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-14
- Fire Inspection — Cheyenne Fire Rescue's own current page for scheduling inspections, which publishes no inspection or operational permit feeCity of Cheyenne, Cheyenne Fire Rescue · primary source · retrieved 2026-09-14
Who issues business permits in Cheyenne?
Permitting in Cheyenne is split across 4 agencies we hold records for, with tax registration handled at state level. No single office issues everything, which is why an opening usually means filing in several places rather than one.
Cheyenne issuing agencies
- City of Cheyenne, City Clerk's OfficeThe twenty-eight enumerated business licenses, including food service establishments, garages, barber and beauty shops · Mobile food vendor and transient merchant licenses · Alcoholic beverage licenses · Alarm permits8 permits
- City of Cheyenne, Compliance Department — Building SafetyBuilding permits, plan review and inspections · Contractor and building trade licensing through the Contractor Licensing Board · Certificates of occupancy, including temporary certificates3 permits
- City of Cheyenne, Planning and Development DepartmentConditional use, special use and temporary use permits · Zoning variances, zone changes and site plan review · Child care applications and home occupation permits · Development impact fees3 permits
- Cheyenne Fire RescueFire inspections under the 2024 International Fire Code as adopted · Fire code enforcement1 permit
Other Wyoming jurisdictions we cover
Commercial Compliance Hub publishes information, not legal advice. Requirements change — confirm anything you rely on with the issuing agency before you file.
