Business Tax Receipt
(formally Occupational Licensing)
Every business that is operated from a location within the City of Sarasota
City limits, must have a Local Business Tax Receipt. The office is located
on the 2nd floor of the Annex building
of City Hall.
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Local Business Tax Receipt
for Contractors Required inside City Limits
Every business that is operated from a location within the City of Sarasota
City Limits must have a Local Business Tax Receipt.
For most contractors, your Local Business Tax Receipt will cost between $48.00
and $54.00 per year depending on its location and classification.
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Contractor Registration
Changes
The City of Sarasota no longer requires State Certified contractors and State
Registered contractors to file a separate registration with the City of Sarasota.
Any registered or certified contractor can choose to appear in person and present
his or her credentials (State License, Local Business Tax receipt if located
in the City of Sarasota, proof of Workers Comp. Insurance and a Certificate
of Liability insurance) each time he or she wishes to obtain a permit. However,
the City of Sarasota will provide contractor registration for records keeping
as a service to those state registered or certified contractors who prefer
to file a copy of their credentials with the City, or prefer not to appear
in person for each permit.
The fee for records keeping will be $25.00 for State Certified or Registered
Contractors. Your registration is good for one (1) year starting on October
1st and ending on September 30th each year. Keeping your records on file
with this
office also allows you to use agents (4) to pick up permits for you or to sign
Subcontractor forms.
If you have any questions concerning this procedure you may contact Paula Mello,
Manager of Permits & Licensing for the City of Sarasota at (941)954-4156.
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Specialty Trades person
Registration
(those people not registered by the State of Florida)
If you work within the City of Sarasota limits you MUST register with us and
provide your Local Business Tax receipt, (if your primary place of business
is within the City limits) a copy of your Workers Compensation insurance
and your Certificate of Liability insurance ($50,000. per person / $100,000.
per occurrence). The fee for registering as a Specialty Trades Person is
$75.00.
If you have any questions concerning this procedure you may contact Paula
Mello, Manager of Permits & Licensing for the City of Sarasota at
(941)954-4156.
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Commercial Vehicles
Please remember that the City of Sarasota Commercial Vehicle Ordinance is
in effect. Please call our Code Compliance Inspectors at 941-954-4125 for details.
In general, large or heavy equipment cannot be parked or stored in residential
zones at all (except when in active use), and there are specific limits on
signage, weight, length and height of commercial motor vehicles and trailers
parked in residential zones.
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Plan Size Limited
to 24” x 36”
Please remember that the City of Sarasota's Building, Zoning & Code Compliance
Department will not accept plans that use a format larger than 24” x 36” for
any new permit applications. There are still a number of projects that filed
their initial application prior to the size restrictions, and you may still
submit transmittals in the original size. However, no plans for new applications
will be accepted in the larger sizes.
Staging Plan
All new construction will be required to submit a Staging Plan along with the
building permit and no permit will be issued until the staging plan has been
approved.
CD Rom disks
We are requesting that all as built drawings submitted at the end of a project
for construction of a commercial building be submitted on a CD Rom Disk in
PDF format. You will see that listed as a condition on your permit when it
is issued to you.
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Sarasota County has adopted
3 new Impact fee ordinances for residential and commercial properties
and 5 more are pending.
Impact fees are charges assessed against newly developed property to recover
the cost incurred by a local government in providing the community with public
facilities. Impact fees are collected to support the county infrastructure,
such as roads, libraries, parks, utilities, and other county sustained services.
The
newly adopted changes to road, park and library impact fees (3
Fees) will
start on
June 18, 2007. The major change
is that the fees will be based upon the actual size of the living area within
a dwelling unit as opposed to a flat fee per dwelling unit. Most of the
fees have also increased significantly. There will be an additional increase
next year to the road impact fees.
On July 24, 2007 the County
will begin collecting new Impact fees in the following areas:
General government, Justice, Law
Enforcement (only Sarasota County residences will pay the Law
Enforcement fee.), EMS and Fire Rescue. These fees (5
Fees) will be based
upon the actual size of the living area within a dwelling unit as opposed
to a
flat fee per dwelling unit.
The building department will be posting notices of these pending increases
in the lobby and we offer a link to Sarasota County's web site below to
help educate our customers in advance.
Sarasota County's web site has a very informative section outlining the details
of the fees and the ordinances themselves. If after reviewing their site you
have more questions the contacts for each group of fees is listed below.
Sarasota
County Impact Fee Information
3 Fees Questions Contact -
Clarke Davis, Tel: (941) 861-9022 CbDavis@scgov.net
5 Fees Questions Contact
- Gene Engman, Tel: (941) 861-5244 GEngman@scgov.net
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Tree Permit
Application Form
We now have a separate permit application for tree removal or relocation.
To complete this permit application, you will need to know the species and
size
of each tree to be removed or relocated so we can review the application correctly
and charge appropriately under the Tree Protection ordinance. The form is shorter
than the building permit application (it is only two pages long), but it must
be signed by either the property owner (acting as his or her own contractor)
or by a contractor registered by the City to perform this type of work.
On the
Tree Permit Application, you can use either the common name (like “Laurel
Oak” or “Norfolk Pine”) or the scientific name (“Quercus
laurifolia” or “Araucaria
heterophylla”). You may NOT use a generic term like “oak tree” or “pine” – you
need to provide the specific species. When measuring trees, the number you
will
need when applying for a permit is the diameter (in inches) at breast height
(the “DBH”). This is the “through” measurement about
four and a half feet from the ground. You can estimate the DBH by measuring
around the trunk at breast
height and dividing that number of inches by 3.14. While not precise, this
will get you within about an inch of the true DBH depending on the shape
of the tree.
Several tree species, like Banyan trees or oaks that split below
breast height, may require more complicated measurements. The City of
Sarasota has an arborist
on staff to assist our Code Compliance team in accurately measuring such specimens.
For your permit application, please use the formula above on the largest
or
most-central trunk and note the special circumstances on the permit application.
Please
remember that the fines for failing to obtain a permit are considerable (as
much as $250.00 per inch for grand oaks), and actually obtaining the permit
is easy and inexpensive. When issuing the permit, we waive all fees for dead
and fatally diseased trees, as well as species designated as nuisance trees
(like Melaleucas) and citrus trees. You still must obtain a permit and an inspection
to verify the health and species of the tree prior to removal.
You can download
a copy of the new Tree
Permit Application form, but it must be submitted in person along with
your site plan and other documents that may be required.
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Building Department
Hours
Front Counter
Office hours are between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. and all money transactions
cease at 4:00 p.m.
Inspector Hours
Glenn Bliss, Building Official is in the office from 8am to 4 pm and can be
reached during that time at 941-954-4112.
Gary Belle, Residential Plans Examiner, Ext. 4241 & Joe Agriesti Ext.,
4445 Commercial Plans Examiner can be reached between the hours of 9am and
3 pm. They are all out to lunch between 11:30 am and 12:30pm.
They all can be reached at 941-954-4156.
The inspectors are in the office between 7am and 7:30 am and come back in at
lunch between 12:30 pm and 1pm. To speak to an inspector at those times please
call 941-954-4126.
Also you may call inspections into the office starting at 7:30 am until 5pm
daily at 941-954-4126.
Plans Examiners
Glenn Bliss, Building Official is in the office from 8am to 4 pm and can
be reached during that time at 941-954-4112.
Gary Belle, Residential Plans Examiner, Ext. 4241 & Joe Agriesti Ext.,
4445 Commercial Plans Examiner can be reached between the hours of 9am and
3 pm. They are all out to lunch between 11:30 am and 12:30pm.
They all can be reached at 941-954-4156.
The inspectors are in the office between 7am and 7:30 am and come back in
at lunch between 12:30 pm and 1pm. To speak to an inspector at those times
please call 941-954-4126.
Also you may call inspections into the office starting at 7:30 am until 5pm
daily at 941-954-4126.
Zoning Analysts
Buster Chapin, Residential Zoning Analyst, and Bob Luedeka, Commercial Zoning
Analyst, are available from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. They can be reached at 954-4127.
Between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m., Bob and Buster are not available for consultation.
Please direct questions to Kim DeNais or the Front Counter staff.
Since the Fall of 2005, the Department of Planning has been reviewing building
permit requests for properties located within the downtown area of the City.
This review is taking place due to the adoption of the City's "Downtown
Code" and the rezoning of relevant properties to one of the four implementing
zone districts - Downtown Bayfront, Downtown Core, Downtown Edge, and Downtown
Neighborhood. A visit to the City's web page at sarasotagov.com and then proceeding
the Planning Department's page will allow you to view the area embraced by
the code and the development requirements of the four zone districts noted
above. You can also call the department at 954-4195 and ask to speak to the "planner-of-the-day" for
additional information. As part of its public outreach program, the Planning
Department is in the process of contacting all sign and awning makers to advise
them of the need for them to become familiar with the sign and awning requirements
of the new code. In this regard, Senior Planner Harvey Hoglund will be transmitting
a letter and selected attachments from the code to the sign and awning makers
within the near future. Harvey can be reached at 954-4195 for additional information.
Inspections
Inspections can be called in between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. The
phone number is 954-4126. Please note that inspections can ONLY be scheduled
at that number. Calls to other Building, Zoning and Code Compliance numbers
for inspections will simply delay your call, since you will need to be transferred
to the correct number.
Inspection by Email
The Building Department recently sent a form out to all contractors doing business
with the City of Sarasota regarding email inspections. The form was sent
on January 12th and it outlines how you may ask for an inspection through
email. We ask that you read the form carefully and check the list of inspections
that can be emailed in. Remember that you must receive a confirmation from
the Inspections Tech (Yvonne Baker) to assure your inspection has been set
up.
Forms
All of the forms that the City Building Department uses may be accessed through
our web site at http://www.sarasotagov.com/Business/Content/Building/BuildMajorDocs.html All
forms are current and easily accessible.
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