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Your business will ALWAYS be either a General Business or a Home Occupation. You MUST complete the appropriate section for your license.

Note: A "General Business" license, also known as a commercial business license, is a category of business license indicating you have rented, leased, or purchased a commercially zoned location on the island to serve as the nexus of your businesses. For City purposes, rented work-share spaces are considered commercial property.

Note: The City of Bainbridge Island has a Sign Code, meaning any signage permanently affixed to the building or permanently stationed on the property must meet Code specifications as outlined in BIMC 18.15.050. If you are working with a property manager and the property allows permanent signage, the manager is usually versed in the Code and knows the signage allowed. Lettering on doors or windows, or the business name on an interior directory, do not come under this Code requirement.

Note: The number of parking spaces designated for your use is typically outlined in your lease.

Your business will ALWAYS be either a General Business or a Home Occupation. You  MUST complete the appropriate section for your license.

Note: A "Home Occupation" business license, also known as a home business license, is a category of business license indicating that your home, in a limited capacity, serves as the physical presence nexus of your business. 

A physical nexus presence of a business is defined where the everyday, standard business activities take place, activities such as organizing, booking, operating, administrating, bookkeeping, file retention etc. For City purposes:

• Food prepared or widgets constructed in a limited-use rented facility, such as renting a commercial kitchen space to prep food for sale in order to meet Kitsap Public Health Department standards, is not the physical presence nexus of your business. 
• A storage facility rented solely for the purpose of housing inventory for your business is not the physical presence nexus of your business.

Only if the rented space is allowing you to use their physical address as the established physical location of your business is a physical nexus presence established -- and, if that is the case, the license would be a General Business license, not a Home Occupation license.

Note: Per Municipal Code, 'residential gross floor area' is defined as the square footage of your main living structure plus the square footage of any accessory buildings (whether or not the accessory buildings are used for business purposes). 'Accessory buildings' are defined as Accessory Dwelling Units (or ADUs) or detached garages. An ADU may be a living or office space. A detached garage may be a barn or a stand-alone garage, but not a prefabricated shed or well house.

Note: What is being asked is if Zoning or Code Compliance were to walk onto the property -- not go inside any structures, but only walk onto the property -- would they see anything that would indicate business is being conducted. 'Equipment' includes such items as vehicles displaying the business name, vehicles awaiting repair as part of a business, a kiln, trailers used for business purposes, earth-moving equipment, tractors, etc.

Note: Municipal Code as outlined in BIMC 15.08 allows permanent signage for a home business but the sign must meet certain dimensional limitations. Municipal Code allows use of a-frames.

Note: This appears to be a repetition of a question asked through the State. However, Municipal Code clarifies the question in order to exclude any residents of the property.

Note: This Municipal Code stipulation does not relate to billing/invoicing or using any online payment gateway (such as PayPal or Venmo). This question is asking if there will be customers coming to your property and handing you payment in exchange for your product or services.

A Mobile Retail Food Establishment is commonly known as a food truck or beverage truck.  A Mobile Retail Food Establishment may sell food, only sell beverages, or sell a combination of food and beverage.

Note: Cannabis growing, processing, and/or retail establishments are heavily regulated within the City. This means cannabis establishments are only allowed to operate within certain zones. If you have questions about whether a potential site is zoned for cannabis establishments, contact Planning & Community Development at (206)780-375 or pcd@bainbridgewa.gov..

Cannabis establishments MUST meet requirements of WAS Chapter 314-55  AND BIMC 18.09 for marijuana businesses.

The State and Municipal Code allow certain businesses to be exempted from the City's business license fee. 

• For non-residents whose gross annual revenue is under $2,000, this exemption is automatically determined and given via the State application. Non-residents meeting the $2,000 threshold, select 'Not Applicable' above.
• For non-residents grossing over $2,000 annually in revenue and for residents, exemptions must be applied for with the City and approved by the City.

Furthermore, the exemption is not granted in perpetuity: 

• The City administers an annual Business & Occupation Tax Return to be completed by all City business license holders. If gross annual revenue on the island exceeds $2,000, the exemption will be automatically revoked.
• Similarly, if it is found a non-resident business is operating in excess of the provisions for a Temporary Stationary Business, the exemption will be automatically revoked.

A City business license fee is $65. If you apply for and are approved for an exemption via the City, the City will refund your $65 business license fee collected by the State. The City will not refund any State handling or service fees incurred as part of completing the State business license application.