Permit Source Home Page Permit Processing for Contractors Permit Processing for Owners Permit Source History Permit Source Contact Information

Posts tagged: Building Department

Broward County Uniform Permit Application

Broward County Unifrom Building Permit ApplicationThe Broward County Uniform Building Permit Application has been in effect for over a year now, and many of our Clients still think that it is the only document they need to submit with their permit package. That is not the case with the Town of Davie, City of Coconut Creek, City of Dania Beach, the City of Sunrise and a few other Cities. These Cities originally had two page Permit Applications. The second page was used for plan reviews or other acknowledgments that may have required the owner’s signatures. Those Cities have created an “Addendum Page” to supplement the Broward County Uniform Permit Application.

I always advise our Clients to go to the City website and download the Permit Application directly from their site. Be sure to look for any document that could be an “Addendum” to the Permit Application. Most of the time is is not a part of the Permit Application pdf file. I do not recommend storing Permit Application documents on your desktop, or printing them for future jobs.  The Cities are always changing procedures and documents, and the file, or document you have saved for future use could be outdated.

E Permitting & Electronic Plan Review

EPermit_Permit_SourceBuilding Departments, like all local Government agencies, are looking at way to keep costs down. With the internet and the digital era in full swing, some are instituting electronic permitting and electronic plan review as a cost saving, more efficient way to process building permits and construction documents. Miami-Dade County was one of the first to start electronic plan review, several years ago. Boca Raton followed shorty after. Just recently, Pompano Beach, Town of Davie, Village of Wellington and Broward County initiated electronic plan review. As time goes on, more municipal building departments will be taking advantage of this technology.

Policies and procedures on E-Permitting (Electronic Permitting) and electronic plan review differ from municipality to municipality. This creates a new learning curve as apart of the Building Permit process. In most cases it does not eliminate the need for you to actually make a trip to the Building Department. Applications still need to be hand delivered, or in the case of Miami-Dade, electronic documents have to be physically submitted on a disc. They all do still allow manual submissions of paper documents, but they charge to have them scanned into a pdf digital format.

With electronic plan review the review time is less, since the plan can be reviewed by different disciplines simultaneously. There is also the advantage of not having to print, drag around, and microfilm the hard copies for achieving. For large projects this is a huge cost savings for the City, architect, contractor and owner. Large contracting, architectural and engineering firms all ready have the hardware and software for processing digital construction documents.

Electronic plan review has few advantages for the small contractor. The guy who does driveways, fences, windows or anything involving minor renovations that require plans. He may not have the hardware, or software to scan documents into a pdf  file format. He will also need to have the ability to print the full sized plans from a digital file. In addition, he will need someone in his office to have the computer savvy to be able to learn and understand the electronic plan review software and the policies for each municipality on E-Permitting. Another issue that pops-up for the small jobs, is an architect or engineer that does not have the ability to electronically sign and seal construction documents, but that is a discussion for another day.

If you need help, or you want someone to manage your E-Permitting. Give us a call. Permit Source has the experience and knowledge. Big jobs or little jobs!

Hurricane Protection Permitting

Hurricane_Wind_Load_ChartThe hurricane seasons over the past couple of years have been pretty quite here in South Florida and another season is slowly approaching. Will this be the year that we get hit? Nobody knows but it is best to be prepared. If your home doesn’t have any form of hurricane protection, you might want to consider making the investment. Now is a good time. Prices are low and it is a very competitive market. Please visit our Helpful Links page for a list of contractors.

If you are a “do it yourself” type of person, you may need a little help with the permitting, and Permit Source, Inc. offers home owner’s assistant in preparing your permit package to submit to the building department. We make sure that you have all the proper Product Approvals/Notice of Acceptances, and that the forms, tables and charts are completed properly. If your building department requires elevations and detailed floor plans we can perform a site survey and prepare the required drawings. No mater what you are planning to do; hurricane panels, hurricane shutters or impact windows, when can assist you.

Pompano Beach Building Permit Plan Review

Pompano_BeachIn the current times of a very difficult economy, and businesses struggling to survive, you would think that local governments would want to help businesses grow and survive by being business friendly. You would also think that local governments would want to streamline  their process, and regulations, to maximize their revenues and minimize their costs. That does not seem to be the case in Pompano Beach.

Many municipalities are instituting new procedures and process to minimize review time and reduce costs. Not in Pompano Beach! If you click on the picture to the left you will open a link to a pdf file of what Pompano Beach posts on their website as their review schedule. Remember, that as you read the flow chart, days mean business days. Zoning is the first stop and you can see they have 15 days, or three weeks, to review your application. It has been our experience that Zoning takes the full three weeks. Hopefully your application doesn’t have to go to Forestry and Fire. That is another 10 and 5 days respectively. After 6 weeks, if you have no comments from any of the above, you finally get to Building. Then! They have another 30 days. Do the math! That is three months just for the first review.

If you are planning on opening a business in Pompano Beach, beware. If you are a property owner maybe this will help you understand why it is taking your contractor so long to get the permit to do the improvements you hired them to do. Your government’s bureaucracy!

Permit Documents

whiteoutPermit applications, and all associated documents, that are submitted as a part of your application are considered to be legal documents. Depending on the type of documents, they may require original seals, and signatures, by the architects and engineers that prepared them. The actual application requires original notarized signatures. Copies of originals will not be accepted by the building department.

Modifications to the original documents with the use of whiteout or liquid paper is not permitted. Cross out the error or write over it. Do not try to cover it, or re-copy it. Most building departments will not accept permit documents and applications modified in this manner. Signed and sealed plans that are modified in this manner will also not be accepted.

Remember these documents are viewed as legal documents. Do not modify them!