Good day.  

The purpose of this email is to notify you of upcoming changes to the building permit fee calculation and offer the opportunity to meet with you and your staff to review the new process before it goes live on or about July 1, 2026. Recent changes to State Law have moved Florida municipalities away from using “project value” as a method for calculating building permit fees. HB 803, approved by the Governor and effective July 1, 2026, will prohibit the Town from using project value to determine permit fees.  Project value will still be required and tracked, but will be used only for reporting purposes.

 An alternative method the Town reviewed for calculating permit fees involves the International Code Council Building Valuation Data Table.pdf. This is a listing of average U.S. construction costs per square foot, updated quarterly. The list includes all uses of buildings (residential, multi-family, commercial) and all construction types (exposed wood framing to fire-protected concrete).  Applicants will provide the square footage of their project, and the Town can apply the square-foot cost to estimate the project cost, then apply a Town-specific multiplier to determine the building permit fee. This is a tried-and-tested method for determining building permit fees nationwide.

In addition to the new building permit fees, the Town will itemize the other steps needed for most projects and create separate minor fees for these steps, to ensure compliance. These steps include submittals, zoning, landscape, drainage, engineering, design review, fire protection, and floodplain. This approach aligns with the intent of F.S. 553 by limiting the building permit fee to Town expenses directly linked to the administration and enforcement of the Florida Building Code.  These new “compliance fees” would be calculated for each permit before issuance. Some of these compliance fees would not be required for every project type (for example, zoning would not be required for a residential kitchen remodel).

 Other miscellaneous permit fees will be created to cover projects that do not involve square footage. These include generators, A/C units, water heaters, electric panels, windows and doors, gutters, walls, and fences. These permit fees will be either per unit based upon the size of the unit, the number of units, or by the linear foot.

 In all cases, the new total fees will closely match the current permit fees. The goal of this effort and this proposal is to minimize change, follow all State laws, and not exceed current building department revenue. This new process is mandated by changes in the State Law and the need to carve out any non-building-related compliance steps.

An informational meeting will be held at Town Hall in the second-floor Council Chambers on May 28, 2026, at 9:00 am. Staff will explain the new process in detail and answer any questions. Please join us if you can.  In addition, smaller in-person or virtual meetings can be arranged. Please call (561) 838-5431 for more information.