In San Diego, the food permit is priced on how many people you employ. That one sentence is most of what separates San Diego from every other city’s guide — and it is the part generic checklists get wrong.
The document is the San Diego County food facility health permit, issued by County of San Diego Department of Environmental Health and Quality (DEHQ), Food and Housing Division.
| Band | Fee |
|---|---|
| Restaurant, 1 – 10 employees | $842.00 |
| Restaurant, 11 – 25 employees | $987.00 |
| Restaurant, 26 – 100 employees | $1,170.00 |
| Restaurant, 101 or more employees | $2,087.00 |
From the DEHQ Food, Water and Housing fee schedule effective 10 July 2026. The permit renews annually.
A San Diego health permit does not lapse quietly when you close — the County states fees continue to accrue until you request inactivation in writing. Closing a restaurant without that letter keeps the meter running.
County of San Diego DEHQ, Food, Water and Housing Division · (858) 505-6666 — official page.
Check whether your opening date is legally possible — free. Put in the business type and the address and you get the target date against the earliest legal open, with every permit, fee and deadline cited to the official source.
The full stack — every permit in filing order, the calendar, and the certificate-of-occupancy packet — is $49, one-time, no subscription. Through 30 September the code DEADLINE takes it to $29 in San Diego. It is a live link your landlord or lender can verify themselves, not a PDF.
Checked at the official sources listed above on 2 September 2026. Fees and procedures change without notice and the agency’s own page is always the authority — this is a heads-up to go and look, not legal advice, and BondPermit does not file anything on anyone’s behalf.