Ontario, CA Filming & Production: Location Permits (2026)

217 folds location filming into the city's business license tax scheme rather than a separate department process. Subsection (a) requires every person who films or videotapes any interior or exterior scene in the city, for a motion picture or videotape intended for public viewing in a theater or on television, to pay a flat $200 business license tax, a rate set by Ordinance 2526 in 1992 and left unchanged through the 1999 and 2022 amendments. Subsection (b), added by Ordinance 2700 in 1999, adds a second, separate requirement: the filmmaker must first procure a City Film Permit and pay the Film Permit Fee listed in the Citywide Fee Schedule in effect at the time the permit application is submitted, before filming starts.

The $200 tax and the permit fee are cumulative, not alternatives; a production pays both. Because the fee is tied to the Citywide Fee Schedule rather than fixed in the code text, the dollar amount changes when the Council updates that schedule (most recently referenced by § 5, Ord. 3211, eff. July 1, 2022), so a production company should confirm the current figure with the License Official before budgeting a shoot. The requirement applies to still or moving footage shot anywhere in the city limits, residential or commercial, and is separate from any location-owner permission a production needs from private property owners or City facilities.