No. CS/CS/CS/HB 927
Filed under Development & Land Use.
Local Land Planning and Development; Requiring each county and municipality, respectively, of a specified size to create and implement a program for the purpose of making development preapplication consultation services available at an applicant's request; limiting such preapplication consultation services to applications for certain permits; authorizing a county or municipality to use a qualified contractor or qualified contractor firm to fulfill specified preapplication services requirements; requiring a local government to establish a registry of a specified number of qualified contractors or qualified contractor firms to conduct certain preapplication services; prohibiting a qualified contractor or qualified contractor firm from having a conflict of interest; prohibiting a local government from creating, establishing, or applying any additional local procedure or condition for the administrative approval of a plat or replat which is inconsistent with specified provisions, etc.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDCounties over 75,000 people and cities over 10,000 must run a development preapplication service by 1 January 2027. An applicant who uses it gets a hard clock: five business days to be told the application is complete, then 45 days for a decision.
Miss either deadline and the applicant wins by default. A late completeness notice makes the application complete by law. A late decision, after ten days' written warning, makes it approved without conditions.
Local governments must keep a registry of at least four licensed contractors to do this review. If they fail to, the applicant hires its own, and the local government cannot condition, deny or delay that choice.
For residential subdivisions, building permits can no longer be held back until infrastructure is actually built. Only fire-access roadway work may be required first; the rest waits for the certificate of occupancy.
AIIf the county does not approve, condition or deny a complete application within 45 days, the applicant sends written notice. Ten days of silence after that and the application is approved by law, with no conditions attached, and the applicant may build as though it had been granted outright.
AIThe county has five business days to confirm receipt, verify completeness and either say the application is complete or specify the deficiencies in writing. Silence makes the application complete by operation of law, without conditions, and starts the 45-day clock.
AIFinal action is due within 45 days of a complete application. The county is also barred from reviewing again the site plans and compliance documents the preapplication service already precertified, so the same plans cannot be re-examined at the decision stage.
AIA local government that has not established or maintained its registry loses control of who reviews. The applicant chooses a qualified contractor at its sole discretion, subject only to conflict of interest, and pays for it.
AIBuilding permits under the expedited subdivision process may not be held back until roads, water or sewer are actually in. The only construction that can be required first is the minimum access and roadway work the Florida Fire Prevention Code demands for emergency vehicles.
AIIf a governing body misses the deadline to adopt or update its expedited permitting program, the applicant gains an immediate right to use its own qualified contractor to support up to 75 percent of the building permits before the final plat is recorded. Conflicting local requirements are preempted.
AICounties of 75,000 or more and municipalities of 10,000 or more must register at least four qualified contractors or two firms -- engineers, surveyors, architects, landscape architects or certified planners. A local government may not put its own employees on its own registry, though it may borrow another government's.
AINo local procedure or condition for administrative plat approval may go beyond what the statute allows. Commonly used financial assurances -- performance bonds, letters of credit, escrow agreements -- must be accepted, and review of them is limited to amount, form and issuer.