City of Longwood

A city address is usually permitted by the city, not the county — but not always, and some authorities keep building and hand electrical to someone else. Getting this wrong costs the whole submittal, because every requirement below belongs to whoever actually holds jurisdiction. Check the overlays in the same pass: an HOA, a historic district, a windstorm certification or a system-size cap can reshape the design, and all of them are cheaper to find now than after the array is laid out.

• Is this authority the AHJ for residential solar at this address? Yes — City of Longwood Building Division is the AHJ for residential building and electrical permitting, including rooftop PV, inside city limits. 90% · department page
• What does this authority permit itself, and what does it delegate? The City permits and inspects Building AND Electrical itself, in-house, and also runs its own Fire Department in-house (not delegated to Seminole County). Zoning/Planning is also in-house. The City is transitioning part of its inspection capacity to a 'hybrid contract-staff inspection model' per its own FY2025-26 budget, though no contracted firm is named. Seminole County's only role is collecting County impact fees through the City's permit process and hosting the Property Appraiser parcel-ID lookup used on permit applications — not delegation of AHJ authority. 85% · city budget document
• Is a permit required for a residential rooftop PV system? Yes. 92% · city PV guideline
• Is there a separate electrical permit, or is it combined? Separate — a building permit and a separate electrical permit are both required. 92% · city PV guideline
• Is a HOA or architectural approval required first? No City-mandated HOA/architectural approval was found as a submittal requirement for a PV permit; the City's material does not raise HOA approval in the PV Guideline at all. 55% · city PV guideline (absence)
• Is there a historic-district review? Yes, but narrowly: LDC §10.1.5 ('Additional standards for the review of permits within the historic district') requires that 'Submittal of a construction permit for addition, alteration, or significant repair of a CONTRIBUTING, SUPPORT, or ANNEX structure shall require a pre-application meeting with staff before submittal' (added by Ord. No. 22-2219, 2022). This is a STAFF-LEVEL procedural gate, not a board vote — Longwood's actual Historic Preservation BOARD was ABOLISHED in 2006 (LDC §8.6.0 is now 'Reserved,' with an editor's note that the 2006 repealing ordinance removed the board originally created in 2004). Nothing in either provision names solar specifically. This is an eighth historic-review shape for this survey, distinct from all seven catalogued in the baseline: a formally-abolished board, replaced by a later-added staff pre-application-meeting requirement that applies to any exterior work (including PV) on a contributing/support/annex structure. 82% · codified ordinance (Land Development Code)
• Is a wind or windstorm certification required? Yes — engineered wind-load design is required for the mounting/attachment system: 139 mph for roof-mounted systems, 129 mph for ground-mounted systems, both signed and sealed by a state-licensed engineer citing FBC Chapter 16 and FBC-Residential §324. 88% · city PV guideline
• Is a Specific Use Permit or Council approval ever required? No Specific Use Permit or Council approval appears to be required for residential rooftop or accessory ground-mount PV. 62% · codified ordinance (full-text enumeration)
• Is there a system-size cap on residential generation? No City-imposed system-size cap on residential generation was found in the Land Development Code. 55% · codified ordinance (full-text enumeration)

Several authorities require the electrical permit to be pulled by a licensed electrician, or require the contractor to be registered with them BEFORE applying. Registration is not same-day. This is second on the list rather than fourth because it is the step most likely to stop the job before the drawings matter.

• Who is allowed to pull the electrical permit? A licensed electrical contractor pulls the electrical permit (the Electrical Permit Application requires Contractor Company, License Number and License Holder's Name fields); a homeowner may self-permit under the owner-builder route (see Q7). 70% · city electrical permit application
• Must the contractor be registered with this authority before applying? Yes — the City requires contractors to register with it before applying ('All contractor registration information is to be sent to: building@longwoodfl.org'), but no Seminole County Certificate of Competency field appears anywhere on the current Building or Electrical Permit Applications — only a state license number field, consistent with post-1 July 2025 state-direct licensing (the same pattern this survey already confirmed at Lake Mary, also Seminole County). 68% · department page + city permit application forms
• Is a homeowner permitted to self-install and self-permit? Yes — the City publishes an 'Owner Builder Disclosure Statement Form' implementing the FS 489.103/489.503 owner-builder exemption. 65% · city owner-builder disclosure form

Almost everywhere wants a site plan, a one-line or three-line electrical diagram, equipment cut sheets with listings, and a structural attachment detail. Build it against the published checklist rather than the last jurisdiction you worked in — the checklist is what the reviewer marks against.

• What documents make up a complete submittal? Per the City's own PV Guideline: completed and notarized permit application (contractor and homeowner signatures); Notice of Commencement (recorded with Seminole County) if valuation exceeds $5,000; documented proof of construction cost/signed contract; signed and sealed structural roof-evaluation and rack/attachment engineering (wind-rated); rack, panel and inverter product information/listings; roof flashing/penetration details; an electrical line diagram with wire types/sizes/ampacity; FSEC system-certification approval form (cited to F.S. 377.705); a signed owner's notification re: roof-warranty impact; and for ground-mount, a scaled, signed/sealed survey/site plan for Planning/Zoning. 88% · city PV guideline
• How many copies, and in what format? Two routes coexist: (1) hard copy — the PV Guideline requires documents on 11x17" paper, minimum 2 hard copies (engineering letters/product info may be 8.5x11"); (2) digital — the City's separate 'Digital Permitting/Plans Submittal' guide (dated April 2024, newer than the PV Guideline) requires one PDF per discipline uploaded to the SmartGov portal, with digitally signed-and-sealed plans left unlocked for 'Allow Mark-Ups' only, per F.S. 471.025/481.221 and FBC §107. 78% · city digital-submittal guide
• Is a site plan required, and what must it show? For roof-mount: a roof layout drawing showing required setbacks (per NFPA 1 §11.12) must be provided at submittal. For ground-mount: a full scaled, signed-and-sealed survey/site plan showing locations, setbacks, measurements, easements and flood information, reviewed by Planning/Zoning. 82% · city PV guideline
• Is a one-line / three-line diagram required? Yes. 92% · city PV guideline
• Are string and conductor calculations required? Implied yes — the required line diagram must show 'wire types, sizes and ampacity requirements,' which is conductor sizing/calculation by another name, though the City does not use the words 'string calculation' anywhere. 62% · city PV guideline
• Is a structural PE stamp required, and at what threshold? Yes, with NO dollar threshold — a structural PE evaluation is required on EVERY residential PV job, roof-mount or ground-mount. 90% · city PV guideline
• Is an electrical PE stamp required, and at what threshold? No City-specific electrical PE-stamp threshold was found; the statewide floor applies: FS 471.003(2)(h) exempts a licensed EC's electrical work valued at $125,000 or less with 600A or less aggregate residential service capacity from a PE stamp. 60% · Florida Statute (state floor)

Most authorities now take the whole application through a portal, and several states cap or constrain what a residential solar permit may cost. Check whether plan check is billed separately before you quote the job.

• Which permit portal does this authority use? SmartGov (by Granicus), at ci-longwood-fl.smartgovcommunity.com/Public/Home. 95% · portal landing page
• Can the whole application be completed online? Yes — the portal supports account sign-up, application submittal, digital plan uploads, fee payment, inspection scheduling and viewing results/comments end to end ('My Portal: View your applications and inspection results'). 85% · portal landing page
• What does a residential solar permit cost? Dedicated line item: 'RESIDENTIAL PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM - NEW' and '... - ADDITION' both $299.31 flat (includes the 2.5% state surcharge). 80% · city fee schedule
• How is the fee calculated? Flat fee, not valuation-based — the Residential Photovoltaic System line sits in the 'Specialty and Activity-Based Permits' section of the fee schedule alongside other flat per-trade fees (contrast with the ICC-BVD valuation formula used for general new construction/additions). 78% · city fee schedule
• Is there a separate plan-check fee? No separate up-front plan-review fee was found for PV; the fee schedule's only review-adjacent charge is 'PLAN REVISIONS / SUPPLEMENTAL SUBMITTALS: $35.00 flat processing fee plus $46.76/hour for digital plan review time exceeding 30 minutes' — which applies to REVISIONS/resubmittals, not the initial review. 65% · city fee schedule

Interconnection is a separate process from the permit and usually the longer pole. Where the utility does not depend on the permit being issued, running both at once is the single biggest saving available on a residential job.

• What is the stated plan-review turnaround? Not published for residential permits. 40% · department page
• How long is an issued permit valid before it expires? An issued permit becomes invalid unless work is commenced within 180 days of issuance, or if inspection activity lapses for 180 days; the Building Official may grant extensions of up to 180 days each, with one demolition-specific exception (60 days). 82% · adopted ordinance (FBC Ch.1 administrative amendments, dated 2021 — flagged stale)
• Which utility handles interconnection here? Duke Energy Florida — and, unusually for this survey, it appears to be the SOLE electric utility citywide (not split by address). The codified Code of Ordinances, Part IV, Appendix A — Franchises contains only ONE electric-franchise article: 'ARTICLE I. ELECTRIC UTILITY FRANCHISE,' granted to Florida Power Corporation dba Progress Energy Florida (now Duke) by Ordinance No. 03-1666 (4 Aug 2003), a 30-year, nonexclusive franchise (6% of base revenues) running to 2033. No FPL or other electric franchise article exists in the same Appendix. This is corroborated by the City's own FY2025-26 Adopted Budget, which shows exactly ONE 'Franchise Fees - Electric' revenue line (account 323-1000, $1,527,000 budgeted) — no second electric-utility line, unlike Lake Mary's two-line Duke/FPL split noted in this survey's baseline for the same county. 88% · codified ordinance (Franchises appendix) + city budget document
• Where does the utility sit in the sequence? The City's own building-code-official inspection and certification of the installation must occur BEFORE Duke will allow parallel operation. The customer (installer/homeowner) must then give Duke at least 10 days' notice before connecting/operating in parallel, and must execute and return Duke's Standard Interconnection Agreement at least 30 calendar days before beginning parallel operation. 88% · utility's own filed FPSC tariff (Duke Energy Florida)

The NEC edition a jurisdiction enforces is often a cycle behind the newest one published, and local amendments sit on top of it. Rapid shutdown, conductor sizing and labelling all change between editions, so the edition in force is the first thing to establish, not the last.

• Which NEC edition is in force? 2020 NEC (NFPA 70), effective as adopted 31 Dec 2023, under the current FBC 8th Edition (2023) cycle. 95% · live portal notice + city PV guideline (two independent current primary sources)
• Which building code edition is in force? Florida Building Code, 8th Edition (2023). 92% · live portal notice
• Which fire code edition is in force? Not stated by the City in any document reached this run. 40% · city PV guideline (silent)
• Are there local amendments to any of the above? Yes, and the local amendment document itself is now stale: the City's own 'FBC Chapter 1 — Scope and Administration' local administrative amendments (Ord. No. 21-2196) are titled on their own cover page '2020, 7th Edition, FBC' and were adopted in 2021 — one full code cycle behind the current 8th Edition (2023) that the SmartGov portal and PV Guideline both now require (Q29/Q30). Separately, the Electrical Permit Application's service-upgrade clause still cites 'section 220.87, 2014 NEC' (see Q34) inside an otherwise current-looking form. 80% · adopted ordinance (dated, stale)
• What is the installation judged against? FBC 8th Edition (2023) for the structural/roof/attachment scope, and the 2020 NEC (Art. 690/705) for the electrical scope — both stated together in the City's current PV Guideline and portal notice. 88% · live portal notice + city PV guideline

Ridge setbacks and roof access pathways are fire-service requirements and they constrain the array layout. They are the most common cause of a redesign after the fire department comments on a plan set.

• What ridge setback and access pathways are required? The City incorporates NFPA 1 §11.12 by reference rather than stating its own numeric setback: 'All roof top mounted system must comply with setback requirements as outlined in NFPA 1, section 11.12. A roof layout with applicable setbacks shown, must be provided at permit submittal.' No City-specific numeric ridge setback or access-pathway dimension is separately stated. 78% · city PV guideline

Which rapid-shutdown rule applies follows directly from the NEC edition in force, and the initiation device has to be at a location the fire service can reach and identify. This is inspected, and it is labelled.

• Is rapid shutdown required, and to which NEC edition? Rapid shutdown is not named by that term anywhere in City material, but is required by incorporation: the PV Guideline mandates 'All electrical installation must be per 2020 NEC 690, 705 and applicable sections' and 'outline of all labels required in the 2020 NEC, 690' — NEC 690.12 (rapid shutdown) is squarely inside Article 690 of the 2020 NEC the City has adopted. 75% · city PV guideline

The NEC sets a baseline for permanent markings at the service equipment and the disconnecting means. On top of that, an authority may specify its own wording, and the utility may specify more again. Where any of them writes its own text, a generic off-the-shelf label set will not pass — this is the detail most often fixed on a return visit.

• Which placards does this authority require at the service equipment? No City-specific placard is named; the City requires compliance with 'all labels required in the 2020 NEC, 690 and NFPA 1, section 11.12' at the service equipment, i.e., it defers to the NEC/NFPA 1 labeling requirements rather than specifying its own placard. 62% · city PV guideline
• Does the authority specify placard wording of its own? No City-specific placard wording was found. 40% · city PV guideline (silent)
• Does it specify letter height, colour or material? No City-specific letter height, colour or material spec was found. 40% · city PV guideline (silent)
• Is a site plan / facility map placard required, and what must it show? No dedicated facility-map PLACARD requirement was found; the City does require a roof-layout DRAWING showing setbacks at permit SUBMITTAL (see Q10/Q36), but that is a submittal document, not a posted facility map at the equipment. 50% · city PV guideline
• Does the UTILITY specify placards beyond the AHJ's? No — Duke Energy Florida's own filed Tier 1 tariff specifies NO placard/plaque/sign of any kind. This was proved by enumeration this run: the OCR'd text of all four pages of Duke's Tier 1 Standard Interconnection Agreement was grepped for 'placard,' 'plaque,' 'sign' and 'label' with zero hits. 82% · utility's own filed FPSC tariff (Duke Energy Florida), OCR'd directly
• Where must the labels be placed? No City or utility label-PLACEMENT rule beyond the AC-disconnect placement itself was found (see Q48 for the disconnect's own location rule). 45% · city PV guideline (silent)

Where the AC disconnect must sit relative to the meter is usually the utility's rule, not the building department's. Battery storage frequently carries its own permit, its own inspection and its own fire conditions.

• Where must the AC disconnect be, relative to the meter? Utility-dependent, and Duke Energy Florida is the sole utility here (Q22). For the residential-typical Tier 1 case (≤10kW), Duke's own filed tariff makes the AC disconnect DISCRETIONARY, installed only if Duke elects to, AT DUKE'S EXPENSE: 'In the event the Company elects to install a manual disconnect switch, it shall be at the Company's expense... visible load break type... mounted separate from, but adjacent to, the Company's meter socket... capable of being locked in the open position with a single Company utility lock.' No distance figure is given (contrast FPL's 10 ft, SECO's 5 ft). For Tier 2/3 systems the disconnect becomes mandatory at the customer's expense, per this survey's baseline finding for Duke (not independently re-verified for Tiers 2/3 this run, but consistent with the Tier 1 sheet's parallel structure). 88% · utility's own filed FPSC tariff (Duke Energy Florida), OCR'd directly
• Must equipment be on a specific approved list? No formal 'approved equipment list' is named; the City instead requires product information/listing documentation to be submitted for the rack system, PV panels, inverter, and (for hybrid systems) the energy storage/charge-control equipment. 60% · city PV guideline
• Are batteries permitted, and under what conditions? Yes — the City's PV Guideline has a dedicated 'PV Hybrid system' category explicitly covering energy storage systems, requiring 'product information and listing for energy storage systems, charge system and control units' and that 'All DC circuitry must be outlined and applicable loads shown.' No prohibition or size cap on batteries was found. 82% · city PV guideline
• Is there a separate ESS permit or inspection? No separate ESS permit or inspection type is named — batteries/energy storage are folded into the same PV Hybrid building-and-electrical permit described at Q4/Q45. 55% · department page (permit-type list, absence)
• Is a ground mount treated as a structure? Effectively yes — a ground-mounted PV system 'must also be approved by planning/zoning' with a full survey/site plan (setbacks, easements, flood information), and the LDC's own broad definition of 'Structure' explicitly includes 'above-ground equipment' and 'poles,' which would sweep in ground-mount racking. No PV-specific ground-mount ordinance exists, so absent a special rule it would default to the LDC's generic accessory-structure setback (7 feet from the property line generally, or 5 feet for 'necessary equipment such as condenser units and pool pumps' — the closest analogous category). 72% · city PV guideline + codified LDC definitions/accessory-structure section
• Is there a local rule on service upgrades or busbar sizing? Yes, but the citation is STALE: the Electrical Permit Application requires that 'Any additional service added to an existing service must be accompanied by an evaluation of the existing service to handle the additional load as declared in section 220.87, 2014 NEC' — a specific NEC edition six years behind the City's own current 2020 NEC adoption (Q29), on an otherwise-current form. 78% · city electrical permit application (stale citation flagged)
• Is a specific mounting system or attachment spacing required? Yes — an engineered rack/attachment system is required, designed for 139 mph wind (roof-mount) or 129 mph (ground-mount), with the engineer's drawings required to 'specific [sic] type, location and number of fasteners.' No generic attachment-spacing table beyond the engineering requirement was found. 85% · city PV guideline

Booking is a portal, a phone call or an email depending on the authority, and the notice required is rarely zero. Book before the work is finished rather than after — the lead time, not the work, is usually what sets the date.

• How is an inspection booked? By phone (Inspection Request Line, 407-260-3471) or through the SmartGov portal's inspection-scheduling feature. 85% · department page
• How much notice is required? Inspections must be requested by 3:30 P.M. on the business day prior to the desired inspection date — roughly one business day's notice. 85% · department page
• Are same-day or AM/PM windows offered? Not stated. 40% · department page (silent)

Some authorities inspect their own solar work; some delegate it, and a few do not inspect the PV equipment itself at all. Who is coming determines what they will look at.

• Does this AHJ perform its own final solar inspection? Largely yes, in-house — but with a disclosed, unresolved caveat: the FY2025-26 Adopted Budget states the Building & Inspection Fund's objective to be 'transitioning to a hybrid contract-staff inspection model,' meaning some inspections may now involve contracted inspectors alongside the 1 Building Inspector / 1 Plans Examiner-Inspector on staff. 72% · city budget document
• If delegated, to whom? Partially unresolved — the City's own budget document discloses a transition toward contracted inspection capacity but does not name the contracted firm or which inspection types it covers. 50% · city budget document (partial)

A rough-in or mid-roof inspection, where one is required, has to happen before the work it covers is closed up. Missing a stage means opening something back up, and it is the most expensive kind of correction.

• Which inspections are required, and in what order? Not published for PV specifically. The City's own live permit portal (SmartGov) does not support a keyword or permit-type search — its only public lookup is 'Parcel Search' by parcel number, address, or owner name (live-tested this run) — so this run could NOT pull a real, finaled Longwood solar permit record to observe an actual inspection sequence, unlike the Tyler EnerGov successes elsewhere in this survey (e.g., Marco Island's named 'Photo Voltaic Solar' inspection, New Port Richey). This is recorded as a GENUINE PORTAL LIMITATION (SmartGov joins BS&A and the Lake Wales ADG platform as a third portal type that defeats the keyword-search technique), not an absence of PV permits in Longwood. 55% · live portal test (limitation) + inference from Q4/Q8
• Is a rough-in or mid-roof inspection required? Not stated. 40% · city PV guideline (silent)

The approved plan set, the permit, and the equipment listings should be on site and reachable. Inspectors routinely verify that installed equipment matches what was approved, and that the labels are the ones the plan set promised.

• Is there a published inspection checklist? No published PV-specific inspection checklist was found. 40% · department page (document list, absence)
• What must be on site at inspection? Not stated specifically for PV. 40% · city PV guideline (silent)
• Does the inspector verify labels and listings? Not stated explicitly. 40% · city PV guideline (silent)

Passing gives you a final or an equivalent sign-off. That is not the same as permission to operate: PTO comes from the utility, and who tells the utility the inspection passed varies. A system left switched off for weeks is usually waiting on this handover.

• What is issued on pass? Not stated by name (no document specifies whether a Certificate of Completion, a green tag, or a portal status change is issued on a passed PV/electrical final). 40% · department page (silent)
• Who notifies the utility for PTO? The customer/installer notifies the utility, not the City — Duke Energy Florida's own Standard Interconnection Agreement places the notice obligation on the Customer: at least 10 days' notice before parallel operation, and the executed agreement itself returned to Duke at least 30 calendar days before operation begins. No Longwood document describes the City notifying Duke on the customer's behalf. 82% · utility's own filed FPSC tariff (Duke Energy Florida), OCR'd directly
• Is there a re-inspection fee? $55.00 flat re-inspection fee. 88% · city fee schedule
• How are corrections issued and cleared? Corrections/comments are handled through the SmartGov portal ('View Inspection Results,' 'Submit Comment Responses'); for plan revisions specifically, a completed 'Additional Information/Revision form' plus a narrative of changes and clouded/marked-up plan sheets must be submitted, per the City's own Digital Permitting/Plans Submittal guide. 62% · city digital-submittal guide + portal capabilities