City of Mary Esther

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. The City of Mary Esther is the AHJ for residential rooftop PV inside its ~1.46 sq mi corporate limits, and it has been so only since 24 AUGUST 2026 — three weeks before this run. Before that date building plan review and inspection for City addresses was done by OKALOOSA COUNTY. The City's own page: 'Permits issued before August 24, 2026 will be completed with Okaloosa County under the process in place when you applied, through final inspection and close-out. Permits applied for on or after August 24 come through the City's online system.' The FY2027 budget says the same from the spending side: 'FY 2027 reflects the transition to in-house permitting with a new third-party building official and inspectors beginning August 24, 2026' and 'As of August 24, 2026, every permit runs through City Hall, over the counter and online.' 96% · department page + budget
• What does this authority permit itself, and what does it delegate? BOTH, in-house, with the building-official function contracted out. The City issues building, electrical, plumbing, mechanical/HVAC, gas and roof permits and holds zoning and floodplain administration. Plan review and inspection for anything needing a Florida Building Code review are performed by E.P. CONSULTANTS, INC. (EPCI) as the City's contracted third-party building official and inspectors, effective 24 Aug 2026. Fire code review goes to the OCEAN CITY-WRIGHT FIRE CONTROL DISTRICT but ONLY for commercial — Code Sec. 8-10(a) exempts one- and two-family residential from fire plan review and inspection entirely. Code Ch. 5 Art. III creates the City's own office of electrical inspector (Sec. 5-45). Floodplain administrator = 'the code enforcement division and planning and zoning director' (Sec. 9-3(a)). 94% · city news release + budget
• Is a permit required for a residential rooftop PV system? Yes. Code Sec. 5-1 requires a permit for all construction and 'for electrical, gas, mechanical and plumbing installation'; LDC Sec. 18.00.00 repeats it in development-order language. The permits page: 'Most construction and improvement projects in Mary Esther need a City permit.' There is no solar-specific exemption anywhere — 'solar' appears exactly ONCE in 1.81 MB of combined Code + Land Development Code and that hit is a 1990 contractor-licence class list ('Specialty, includes ... marine, masonry, cement finishing, solar and steel erection', Ord. 90-15). 'Photovoltaic' is 0 hits. 95% · ordinance
• Is there a separate electrical permit, or is it combined? SEPARATE. 'Electrical' is its own permit type (prefix ELC) in the City's GovWell portal at $75.00 flat, and it is a SUB-permit: its first required field is 'Is this permit associated with a master permit/project with an applicable NOC already on file?' followed by a required 'Master Permit' record link. A rooftop PV job therefore takes a master building permit (in practice 'Residential - Addition/Alteration', prefix R-ADD, valuation-based) PLUS an ELC trade permit. Code Sec. 5-47(a) independently requires an electrical permit for consumer's wiring. *** TEMPLATE DEFECT, PROVED: the ELC template's 'Project Type' dropdown is a verbatim copy of the PLUMBING template's list — New construction / Addition / Alteration-Repair / Repipe (water and/or DWV) / Water heater replacement / Backflow device install-repair / Gas piping / Lawn Irrigation / Grease interceptor / Fixture replacement / Sewer-water service line / Other. There is no electrical project type at all, so a PV electrical permit must be filed under 'Other'. Mechanical/HVAC carries the identical plumbing list, and Electrical, Mechanical/HVAC, Plumbing AND Roof all carry the same owner-builder affirmation reading 'I ... will perform the PLUMBING work myself'. Four cloned templates, one un-edited master. *** 92% · permit portal template + fee resolution
• Is a HOA or architectural approval required first? No. The City imposes no HOA or architectural approval as a condition of permit. I ran the briefed search — 'association' + 'approv' across the zoning chapter and the whole Land Development Code — and the 53 'association' hits are: definitional boilerplate ('individuals, corporations, partnerships, associations'), the American Water Works Association in the cross-connection standards, soil associations in the Comprehensive Plan, and ONE development-side clause, LDC 9.01: 'No development order shall be issued for a development for which an owner's association is required until the documents establishing such association have been reviewed' — that is about CREATING an HOA for a new subdivision, not approving a homeowner's array. 'Certificate of appropriateness' 0 hits; 'architectural review' 0 hits. There is no accessory-use chain of the kind found at Indian River Shores: LDC 9.06.01 says plainly 'ANY NUMBER of different accessory structures may be located on a parcel', so adding solar to a lot that already has a shed does not convert anything into a conditional use. LDC 1.05.00 ABROGATION preserves private covenants — 'This ordinance is not intended to repeal, abrogate or interfere with any existing easements, covenants or deed restrictions duly recorded' — but that leaves a private covenant private, and FS 163.04(1)-(2) limits what it can do. *** AND THE THING THAT IS NOT HERE: FS 163.04(2)'s south-plus-or-minus-45-degree language has NOT been re-enacted as a municipal restriction. FS 163.04 appears twice in the Code and both are a BROKEN CITATION — Code Sec. 2-79(a)(2) defines 'repeat violation as defined in F.S. 163.04(5)' and the Statutory Reference Table propagates it. FS 163.04 is the solar-rights statute, has only four subsections and no (5); the repeat-violation definition is FS 162.04(5). A one-digit typo points the code-enforcement penalty clause at the solar statute. *** 85% · land development code + statute check
• Is there a historic-district review? No. There is no historic district, no historic-preservation board, no architectural review board and no certificate of appropriateness in Mary Esther. 'Historic district' is ONE hit in 1.81 MB and it is a question on the LDC Article 17 developer checklist — 'Is the site a historic landmark or within a designated historic district?' — with no designated district behind it. 'Certificate of appropriateness' 0 hits, 'architectural review' 0 hits. The only other 'historic' usage is Code Sec. 9-10's flood definition of 'historic structure', which exists solely to support the FBC Existing Building Chapter 12 variance, and LDC 7.06.00 'Protection and Preservation of Archeological and Historic Resources', which is a comprehensive-plan policy heading rather than a permit gate. 88% · proved absence in land development code
• Is a wind or windstorm certification required? No local wind or windstorm certification. 'Product approval' 0 hits, 'windborne' 0, 'wind-borne' 0, 'design wind' 0 across 1.81 MB; the single 'wind load' and the only mph figure in the whole code are in the 1980s cable-television franchise ('Any tower shall be constructed so as to be able to withstand sustained one hundred fifty (150) MPH winds'). Okaloosa County is NOT in the High Velocity Hurricane Zone — HVHZ is Miami-Dade and Broward only — so standard Florida Product Approval under the FBC governs, administered by EPCI. Coastal Okaloosa does sit in the ASCE 7 wind-borne debris region, which is not the same thing and is a Building Code matter, not a local one. 70% · proved absence + statewide default
• Is a Specific Use Permit or Council approval ever required? No. A residential rooftop array needs no Specific Use Permit, conditional use or Council action. 'Conditional use' is 48 hits and all are LDC 7.16.00's district-by-district conditional-use lists (churches, schools, day care, multi-family, marinas and the like) — solar appears in none of them because the word appears once in the entire code and that once is a contractor-licence class. The only Council-level gates that could ever touch a dwelling are a rezoning, a variance ($50 plus advertising) or a comprehensive plan amendment, none of which a permitted accessory installation triggers. *** ONE REAL GATE EXISTS AND IT IS MILITARY, NOT SOLAR: Comprehensive Plan Policy 7.A.10.2 provides that 'Applications for any structure potentially inconsistent with this policy must be accompanied by a statement from the Commander of Eglin AFB, or his representative, that the proposed structure would not interfere with the Air Force mission' — see q28 and q47 for why it does not bite on a house. *** *** THE HURLBURT QUESTION, TESTED RATHER THAN ASSUMED — AND MARY ESTHER IS THE FOURTH DIFFERENT SHAPE IN ONE COUNTY. The City adjoins Hurlburt Field and it DOES carry a military overlay, unlike its neighbour ten miles away which carries nothing. Comprehensive Plan (codified as Code Appendix B) Objective 7.A.10, Policies 7.A.10.1-.4, as amended by Ord. 2013-03: (a) 'Within established MILITARY INFLUENCE PLANNING AREAS (MIPA), all artificial lighting equipment (fixtures) shall be shielded with positive optical control so that all light emitted is projected below a horizontal plane extending from the bottom of the fixture. NO BUILDING PERMIT WILL BE ISSUED WITHIN THE ESTABLISHED MIPAs UNLESS THIS REQUIREMENT IS MET.' (b) 'Buildings and towers shall not penetrate the approach, transition, horizontal or conical surfaces associated with EGLIN AFB in a manner which would obstruct aircraft operations, navigation, or line-of-sight communications. Applications for any structure potentially inconsistent with this policy must be accompanied by a statement from the Commander of Eglin AFB, or his representative.' Note the noun: the policy is scoped to EGLIN's surfaces even though HURLBURT is the installation the City adjoins. (c) Policy 7.A.10.3 refuses building permits for 'communications equipment operating within the 5.4- to 5.9-GHz bandwidth' without prior military approval — worth knowing on a PV job whose monitoring gateway uses 5 GHz Wi-Fi, though the clause is plainly aimed at fixed antennas. (d) Policy 7.A.10.4 routes plan amendments, rezonings and LDC changes to the military representative on the Local Planning Agency; Comp Plan Sec. 2.01 seats an Eglin or Hurlburt representative on the LPA as an ex-officio member at the military's discretion. THE HEIGHT LIMB IS IMPLEMENTED IN THE LDC AND IT IS UNUSUAL: 'no building or structure INCLUSIVE OF ALL ROOF TOP APPURTENANCES shall exceed the building height limits as set forth in exhibit A', with three zones measured ABOVE MEAN SEA LEVEL — Zone A, west of a north-south extension of Doolittle Boulevard, 80 ft MSL; Zone B, Doolittle to Jonquil Avenue, 90 ft MSL; Zone C, Jonquil east to the city limits, 100 ft MSL — and 'The City shall provide any applicant for a proposed building or structure seventy-five (75) feet or taller above mean sea level, the height limits in graphic form.' A rooftop array counts toward that limit as a roof-top appurtenance, but on a 35 ft residential height cap near sea level the MSL ceiling is not reachable. The source study is on the City's own site: the 2009 Eglin AFB Joint Land Use Study, whose Section 9 is Mary Esther and whose recommendations MES 1 and MES 6 are the lighting and height policies above. *** SEARCH RECORD FOR THE MILITARY TERMS, so a later run does not redo it: across 1.81 MB of Code plus Land Development Code — AICUZ 0, 'accident potential' 0, 'clear zone' 0, '7460' 0, 'tall structure' 1 (a cable-TV tower clause), MIPA 2, 'military' 13, 'Hurlburt' 9, 'Eglin' 6, FS 333.03 x2. Across 112 City pages — Hurlburt 21, AICUZ 0. 80% · proved absence + comprehensive plan
• Is there a system-size cap on residential generation? No municipal cap on residential generation — there is no solar ordinance to contain one. The binding caps are the utility's, from FPL's filed Tier 1 agreement (Electric Tariff Section 9, effective 1 Jan 2026): gross power rating must (a) not exceed 90% of the customer's utility distribution service rating, (b) be 10 kW AC or less, and (c) have an AC generating capacity less than 115% of the customer's previous 12 months kWh usage. Tariff Sec. 1.1 defines the conversion: 'For inverter-based systems, the AC nameplate generating capacity shall be calculated by multiplying the total installed DC nameplate generating capacity by 0.85' — so the Tier 1 ceiling is about 11.76 kW DC. Above that the job is Tier 2, which carries a $400 application fee and a mandatory FPL-approved visually-open DER disconnect switch. *** THE CITY'S OWN CAPS ARE DIMENSIONAL, NOT ELECTRICAL: LDC 9.06.01 requires accessory structures to stay out of required buffers, landscape areas and minimum building setbacks and to be 'included in all calculations of impervious surface and storm water runoff', and the LDC caps building height inclusive of ALL ROOF TOP APPURTENANCES at 80/90/100 ft above mean sea level in three zones drawn off Doolittle Boulevard and Jonquil Avenue. *** 88% · utility tariff + proved municipal absence

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? Either a state-licensed electrical contractor holding a current City CONTRACTOR TRACKING CERTIFICATE, or the property owner on his own premises. Code Sec. 5-44(a) requires registration with the building inspector before doing any 'installation, extension, alteration, of consumer's electrical wiring'; Sec. 5-44(b) requires a current state, county or municipal trade examination certificate. Sec. 5-44(c) is the owner exception: 'Nothing herein contained shall be construed as prohibiting an individual from installing or repairing his own appliances or installing, extending, replacing, altering, or repairing consumer's wiring on his own premises, or as requiring a license from an individual doing such work on his own premises' — subject to permits, inspection and fees. The GovWell ELC application requires 'License and Insurance' and 'Workman's Compensation' uploads unless the owner-builder path is taken. 90% · ordinance
• Must the contractor be registered with this authority before applying? Yes. Every contractor doing permitted work in the City must hold a current CONTRACTOR TRACKING CERTIFICATE before a permit is issued — City Code Sec. 13-26(a) with FS 489.127(1)(i). 'Building permits are not issued to contractors without a current registration on file.' Renewed annually by 30 September. Uploads required: driver's licence or government ID, current state trade licence, workers' compensation certificate or exemption, certificate of liability insurance naming the City of Mary Esther as certificate holder, Okaloosa County Competency License if state-registered or locally competency-licensed, and proof of current SUNBIZ registration. *** FEE CONFLICT, BOTH FIRST-PARTY AND BOTH LIVE TODAY: the rebuilt Business Licenses page says 'No fee'; the City's own FAQ page still says 'The registration fee is $20 each year and must be renewed by September 30th. Please make checks payable to City of Mary Esther.' The FAQ also still directs applicants to return a PDF to the Business Tax Receipt Administrator, while the page says register online. Treat the FAQ as the stale one. *** 95% · department page + FAQ
• Is a homeowner permitted to self-install and self-permit? Yes, twice over. Code Sec. 5-17 (building): 'Nothing herein contained shall be construed as prohibiting an individual from constructing, altering, removing or demolishing buildings and/or structures on his own premises, or as requiring a license from an individual doing such work on his own premises.' Code Sec. 5-44(c) (electrical): the same exception for consumer's wiring. The GovWell application carries a required Owner-Builder Disclosure radio citing FS 489.103(7), and the City publishes the Owner/Builder Disclosure Statement whose header reads 'THE OWNER MUST PERSONALLY APPEAR AND SIGN FOR THE BUILDING PERMIT' — so despite a fully online portal, the owner-builder route still requires a trip to City Hall. Note this is the OPPOSITE of the last barrier-island authority surveyed, where homeowner PV electrical was closed off twice. 88% · ordinance + published 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? From the LIVE GovWell 'Residential - Addition/Alteration' (R-ADD) application, read field-by-field on 13 Sep 2026. REQUIRED: Project Address; Project Description; Project Valuation; Desired Start Date; Estimated Completion Date; applicant signature; and an Owner-Builder Disclosure answer. UPLOAD SLOTS OFFERED: Owner-Builder Disclosure Form; Affidavit of Understanding; Contractor State Certification; 'Construction Phase Lines Cross sections and specs. of all proposed pavements'; 'Signed Boundary Surveys/Site Plan'; Notice of Commencement. Contact blocks for Applicant, Owner and Contractor. The companion ELC trade permit additionally REQUIRES: Owner Authorization Form, License and Insurance, Workman's Compensation, a master-permit link, and a Fixture Information block (outlets/receptacles, lighting fixtures, switches, PANELS, sub-meters, total). NOTICE OF COMMENCEMENT: 'If your direct contract amount is greater than $5,000, a Notice of Commencement must be recorded with the Clerk of Court and posted at the project site before the first inspection ... If work does not commence within 90 days after the NOC is recorded, the NOC becomes void.' *** NOTHING PV-SPECIFIC IS ASKED FOR: no one-line diagram, no module/inverter datasheets, no structural attachment detail, no NEC compliance statement, no interconnection document. *** 88% · permit portal application template
• How many copies, and in what format? Electronic upload only, through the applicant's free GovWell account — no paper copy count is published and none is required. 'Apply online. Create a free account, pick your permit type, and upload your documents.' In-person help is available at City Hall Mon-Fri 8 a.m.-1 p.m. and 2-5 p.m. or by phone on 850-243-3566, where 'staff will complete the online application with you'. The one paper exception is the owner-builder route, whose disclosure form requires the owner to appear personally. 85% · department page
• Is a site plan required, and what must it show? A site plan slot exists but no PV-specific content standard does. The R-ADD application offers an upload field 'Signed Boundary Surveys/Site Plan'; the ELC application offers the same. LDC Art. 7 requires a plot plan 'for all single-family homes proposed to be constructed, reconstructed or replaced' showing building footprint, setbacks, utility locations, accessory buildings, parking, pools and other improvements with lot dimensions — but that is scoped to whole houses, not alterations. If the parcel is in a special flood hazard area, Code Sec. 9-5(a) prescribes real content: delineation of flood hazard areas, floodway boundaries, flood zone(s), base flood elevations, ground elevations, and the location of proposed structures, with the floodplain administrator authorised to waive submissions not needed to ascertain compliance. 75% · land development code + application template
• Is a structural PE stamp required, and at what threshold? No local structural PE threshold exists. 'Product approval' is 0 hits, 'wind load' 1 (a cable-TV tower clause), 'design wind' 0, 'windborne' 0 across 1.81 MB of Code plus Land Development Code; 'registered design professional' appears twice and both are in the flood chapter (Sec. 9-17(f)(3), deck/patio diversion analysis in coastal high hazard areas). The only engineer-seal trigger in the book is LDC 9.06.02(A)(1)(f) for SATELLITE DISH antennas, which requires blueprints/drawings of the installation and foundation 'certified by the manufacturer or a professional engineer' — the closest published analogue to a mounted accessory on a dwelling, and it accepts a manufacturer certification in place of a PE. So the operative threshold is the Florida Building Code's, applied by EPCI as building official. 65% · land development code (absence, with near-analogue)
• Is an electrical PE stamp required, and at what threshold? No local rule. The statewide floor is FS 471.003(2)(h), which exempts electrical work below $125,000 and 600 amps from the PE requirement; some Florida local documents still cite an older $50,000 trigger and Mary Esther cites neither. Nothing in Code Ch. 5 Art. III (Electrical Standards) or on the GovWell ELC application asks for an engineer's seal — the ELC upload list is Owner Authorization, License and Insurance, Workman's Compensation, contractor certification, survey/site plan and NOC. 60% · state statute + proved local absence

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? GOVWELL, at app.govwell.com/mary-esther, live since 24 August 2026. The GovWell organisation record (id 186, slug 'mary-esther', display name 'City of Mary Esther, FL') was created 19 Nov 2025 and opened to the public nine months later. Five modules are configured: Building Permits, Business Licenses, Citizen Requests, Code Enforcement and Contractor Registrations. Online payments are enabled. There is a public records dashboard per module — anyone can read the building-permit ledger without an account. *** BEFORE 24 AUG 2026 THE CITY HAD NO PORTAL OF ITS OWN AND PERMITS WENT THROUGH OKALOOSA COUNTY; permits issued before that date are still being closed out under the County process. *** 96% · permit portal
• Can the whole application be completed online? Yes, end to end, for a contractor-pulled permit: 'apply, upload plans, pay fees, schedule inspections, and even receive your Certificate of Occupancy electronically ... You apply once, and City staff route your plans to every required reviewer.' Inspection results come back to the account the same day. TWO CAVEATS. (1) The OWNER-BUILDER route is not fully online: the City's Owner/Builder Disclosure Statement is headed 'THE OWNER MUST PERSONALLY APPEAR AND SIGN FOR THE BUILDING PERMIT'. (2) The Notice of Commencement for contracts over $5,000 must be recorded with the Okaloosa County Clerk of Court and physically posted at the site before the first inspection — an off-portal step. 90% · department page + published form
• What does a residential solar permit cost? VALUATION-BASED, with no solar line anywhere. Resolution 26-09, adopted 19 May 2026, effective on the Mayor's signature, amending the Comprehensive Fee, Fine and Revenue Schedule. RESIDENTIAL (one- and two-family): permit fee $95.00 minimum up to $10,000 valuation; $95.00 + $5.25 per $1,000 over $10,000 from $10,001-$75,000; $436.25 + $4.50 per $1,000 over $75,000 from $75,001-$150,000. PLAN REVIEW: $45.00 for $10,000 and less; $0.45 per $1,000 of total valuation with a $45.00 minimum for $10,001 and greater. TRADE PERMIT: 'Electrical - New, Additions, Alterations $75.00'. STATE SURCHARGES: BCAIF (FS 468.631) 1.5% of the permit fee or $2.00 whichever is greater, plus DBPR (FS 553.721) 1.0% or $2.00 whichever is greater, collected and remitted by the City. WORKED EXAMPLE, a $25,000 residential rooftop PV job: permit $95 + ($5.25 x 15) = $173.75; plan review $45.00 minimum; electrical trade permit $75.00; surcharges $2.61 + $2.00 = $4.61. TOTAL ABOUT $298. *** NOTE WHAT IS NOT THERE: unlike the last Florida authority surveyed, Mary Esther charges NO per-inspection fee — inspections are inside the permit fee and only RE-inspections are billed. *** 92% · fee resolution
• How is the fee calculated? Valuation, tiered, with a flat trade-permit overlay. Residential and commercial permit fees both step down in five valuation bands; plan review is a flat $45 below $10,000 and $0.45 per $1,000 above it; trade permits (plumbing, HVAC, electrical, gas) are flat $75 each. LDC Sec. 18.00.01(A) adds teeth: 'If, in the opinion of the Planning and Zoning Department, the construction value as submitted on the permit application appears to be underestimated, the permit may be denied or recalculated, unless the applicant provides a fully executed signed contract' — including 'all labor, materials and the retail value of the construction work'. Budget accordingly for a PV contract price being demanded. 95% · fee resolution + land development code
• Is there a separate plan-check fee? Yes, separate and always charged. Residential plan review is $45.00 for valuations of $10,000 and under and $0.45 per $1,000 of total valuation with a $45.00 minimum above that — so on any plausible residential PV valuation the $45.00 minimum governs (the per-$1,000 rate only overtakes it above $100,000). Commercial plan review is 50% of the permit fee, $95.00 minimum. Resolution 26-09 also states: 'Permit and inspection fees shall be adjusted as required by Florida law when authorized private providers perform plan review or inspection services.' 95% · fee resolution

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? Published: 'Simple projects are typically reviewed in 1 to 3 days' and city-only reviews (fences and walls without footers, driveways, sheds 200 sq ft or less) 'some in 1 day or less'. Anything needing a Florida Building Code review — which includes a rooftop PV alteration — is routed by City staff to EPCI and no turnaround is published for that path. *** RECONCILED AGAINST THE REAL LEDGER, which is public: of 24 building permits in the City's own GovWell public dashboard between 25 Aug and 11 Sep 2026, the seven that reached 'Issued' took 5 to 14 CALENDAR days from submittal — R-ADD-26-0002 submitted 25 Aug issued 8 Sep (14 days); R-ADD-26-0003 25 Aug to 4 Sep (10); R-ADD-26-0004 and -0005 26 Aug to 4 Sep (9); DEM-26-0001 25 Aug to 4 Sep (10); R-ADD-26-0007 1 Sep to 8 Sep (7); CS-26-0001 3 Sep to 8 Sep (5). Fourteen of the 24 are R-ADD, the category a rooftop PV job falls in. *** So the honest planning number is one to two weeks, not one to three days. 78% · department page + live permit ledger
• How long is an issued permit valid before it expires? No local expiry is codified for a building or electrical permit. The Code's only permit-duration rules are for other things: LDC 16.14.02(a) voids a SIGN permit not completed within six months; LDC 8.06 limits right-of-way closure permits to 14 days; tree-removal permits expire in 90 days (Code Sec. 18-x / LDC); marine permits are valid six months; fire permits are valid one year (Code Sec. 8-9(f)). Resolution 26-09 sets no expiry. So the operative rule is the Florida Building Code's administrative default, applied by EPCI as building official. The one adjacent local number that does bite: a recorded Notice of Commencement 'becomes void' if work does not commence within 90 days, and evidence of the recorded NOC must reach the City before the first inspection. 55% · proved absence + application template
• Which utility handles interconnection here? FLORIDA POWER & LIGHT (FPL), city-wide, as successor to GULF POWER COMPANY. No co-op, no municipal electric. FOUR RUNGS, and the paper ones came first as instructed. (1) THE FRANCHISE APPENDIX EXISTS HERE, unlike its neighbour ten miles away: Code APPENDIX A - FRANCHISES, ARTICLE I - ELECTRIC is Ord. No. 2011-08, adopted 9 January 2012, granting to 'Gulf Power Company, a corporation under the laws of the State of Maine, ITS SUCCESSORS AND ASSIGNS' the franchise to generate, transmit and distribute electric energy. Sec. 15 'Successors and assigns' makes the grant bind and benefit successors expressly. Sec. 3: 3% of gross revenue. (2) NON-COMPETING COVENANT, READING BOTH WAYS — Sec. 2 grants 'the EXCLUSIVE right ... to construct ... a system of poles, towers, conduits, cables, conductors, transforming stations' and then: 'Grantor retains the right to purchase or generate electric power for its own use BUT NOT FOR SALE.' The City is contractually barred from selling power. (3) NEGATIVE INDEX plus STREET-LIGHT LINE: Code Ch. 20 UTILITIES has articles for Sewers, Water, Rates and Charges and Street Lights and NO ELECTRIC ARTICLE; Sec. 20-141 requires street-light designs to be approved by 'the building inspector and THE FRANCHISED ELECTRIC UTILITY' on 'GULF POWER-approved electrical poles'; Ch. 19 Art. II levies 10% public service tax on electricity 'of the payments received by THE SELLER' — there is a seller and it is not the City. (4) GIS, and it is clean: FEMA GDAC Florida retail service territories POSTed against the Census place polygon (TIGERweb Places layer 4, GEOID 1243375) returns INVESTOR-OWNED = GULF POWER CO, HOLDING_CO NEXTERA ENERGY, 464,882 customers, YEAR 2019; CO-OP layer ZERO features; MUNICIPAL layer ZERO features. Layer ids confirmed from FeatureServer?f=json: COOP 4, InvestorOwned 5, MUNICIPAL 3. *** AND THE SUCCESSION IS VISIBLE ON THE CITY'S OWN PAGE, HALF-UPDATED: the body of /247/Streetlights reads 'Streetlights within the City are maintained by Florida Power & Light (FPL)' while the CONTACT BLOCK ON THE SAME PAGE still reads 'Gulf Power / Email Gulf Power / Phone: 800-GU-POWER (800-487-6937) / Gulf Power Website', and other City pages still say 'provided and maintained by Gulf Power'. The Public Works page names FPL outright, with fpl.com and 800-487-6937. *** *** TERM, NAME AND SUCCESSOR CLAUSE, AS ASKED — AND THE TERM IS THE STORY. Sec. 10 'Term of franchise-right to purchase': 'The franchise granted by this ordinance shall exist and continue for a period of FIFTEEN (15) YEARS ONLY', with a City option to purchase the plant at a valuation under FS 180.16, exercisable on 60 days' written notice before the fifteen years expire. Sec. 19 made the ordinance effective immediately on adoption, and the Code Comparative Table dates adoption 1-9-12. *** SO THE MARY ESTHER ELECTRIC FRANCHISE EXPIRES ON OR ABOUT 9 JANUARY 2027 — LESS THAN FOUR MONTHS AFTER THIS RUN — AND NOTHING RENEWING IT EXISTS YET. *** The Code Comparative Table, current through Ord. No. 2025-03 (7 Apr 2025, Supp. 18), lists exactly one electric franchise entry, Ord. 2011-08 at App. A Art. I; the Municode NewOrds queue for this product is empty; and the three 2026 ordinances the City has published are a C-1 to C-2 rezoning (2026-04), a charter election amendment (2026-03) and an e-bike/micromobility article (2026-02). The predecessor was a THIRTY-year grant to 'Gulf Power Corporation', Ord. 81-4 of 2 Mar 1981 — so the City halved the term when it re-granted in 2012. Meanwhile the FY2027 budget still projects 'Franchise Fees - Electric $191,900' for a year that begins after the expiry date. A run after January 2027 should expect either a renewal ordinance or an expired-and-unreplaced franchise, which is the shape one panhandle neighbour already has. BOTH BUDGET LINES EXIST AND NAME NOBODY, for the fifth authority in this survey: FY2027 proposed 'Utility Taxes - Electric $235,000' and 'Franchise Fees - Electric $191,900'. The agenda-packet/audit-letter account-number fallback was not needed because the franchise ordinance and the GIS had already settled it. 93% · franchise ordinance + GIS + city pages
• Where does the utility sit in the sequence? PARALLEL, but the utility's release of power is gated on the City's inspection. FPL Tier 1 interconnection can be applied for at any time and there is no application fee; FPL executes the agreement within 30 calendar days of a complete application (tariff Sec. 3.6) and the customer must notify FPL at least 10 calendar days before placing equipment in service (Sec. 3.5). What FPL will not do without the City is energise: tariff Sec. 3.4 — 'The Customer agrees to provide Local Building Code Official inspection and certification of installation. The certification shall reflect that the local code official has inspected and certified that the installation was PERMITTED, HAS BEEN APPROVED, and has met all electrical and mechanical qualifications.' Mary Esther's matching document is the CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL the electrical inspector issues under Code Sec. 5-49, now delivered electronically to the applicant's GovWell account. 88% · utility tariff + ordinance

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? NEC 2020, in force through the Florida Building Code, 8th Edition (2023), effective 31 December 2023. *** THE CODIFIED TEXT IS A THIRTY-FIVE-YEAR FOSSIL WRAPPED IN A WORKING FLOAT. Code Sec. 5-42 adopts 'the National Electrical Code, 1990 Edition AND ALL ITS FUTURE REVISIONS herein adopted' (Ord. 78-4 1977, amended Ord. 91-7 1991). The float is what saves it, exactly as Sec. 5-16's Florida Building Code adoption does on the building side. *** Mary Esther does NOT carry the copied drafting template found at two other Florida towns that adopt codes by pointing at a non-existent 'F.S. 553.19' — I grepped for it specifically: the only FS 553 citations in 1.81 MB are 553.70 (x2) and 553.73 (x4), both of which exist. A 2023 NEC update is in process in Florida with no effective date established. 90% · adopting ordinance (floating)
• Which building code edition is in force? Florida Building Code, 8th Edition (2023). Code Sec. 5-16, as amended by Ord. No. 2019-04 (1 Apr 2019), adopts 'the Florida Building Code Edition AND ALL ITS FUTURE REVISIONS ADOPTED BY THE FLORIDA BUILDING COMMISSION ... in their entirety ... WITH THE EXCEPTION OF INSPECTION FEES to be established separately'. A clean floating adoption with a fee carve-out. Note the older fossil that survives beside it: Sec. 5-2(b) and Sec. 5-18 still peg permit fees to 'the STANDARD BUILDING CODE Recommended Schedule of Permit Fees' — a model code withdrawn a quarter of a century ago — and Sec. 5-19 still codifies a 1990 inspection fee schedule (Demucking $15.00, Footing $10.00, Framing or Dry-in $10.00, Reinspection $5.00). Resolution 26-09 supersedes both in practice. 92% · adopting ordinance (floating)
• Which fire code edition is in force? Florida Fire Prevention Code, 8th Edition (2023), reached by float. Code Sec. 8-1(a), as amended by Ord. No. 2019-12 (3 Jun 2019), adopts 'the Florida Fire Prevention Code Sixth E edition, AND ANY REVISIONS THERETO' — a 6th-edition fossil with a working float clause, the same drafting shape as the building and electrical adoptions. *** AND A DEPARTMENT THAT NO LONGER EXISTS: Chapter 8 is written around a Mary Esther fire department, a fire chief and a codified 'bureau of fire prevention' with a captain inspector. The FY2027 budget and the City's own pages say fire and rescue are contracted to the OCEAN CITY-WRIGHT FIRE CONTROL DISTRICT at $1,220,000 a year. The chapter's administrative machinery is a fossil; its code adoption is not. *** 85% · adopting ordinance (floating) + budget
• Are there local amendments to any of the above? YES — and they are all FLOOD amendments, and they are the most aggressive of the survey. Ord. No. 2019-04 (1 Apr 2019) added three technical-amendment sections to Code Ch. 5: Sec. 5-26 (FBC Building), Sec. 5-27 (FBC Existing Building) and Sec. 5-28 (FBC Residential). *** Sec. 5-28 IS THE ONE THAT MATTERS: 'R322.2 Flood hazard areas (including A Zones). All buildings and structures within flood hazard areas in the City of Mary Esther shall be designed and constructed IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION R322.3.' R322.3 is the COASTAL HIGH HAZARD (V-zone) section. The City has deleted the A-zone construction path outright and sends every flood-hazard parcel to V-zone standards. Sec. 5-26 does the same on the commercial side: 'Section 1612: Add a new section ... 1612.4.2 Minimum requirements. All buildings and structures within flood hazard areas in the City of Mary Esther shall be designed and constructed in accordance with the requirements of ASCE 24 APPLICABLE TO COASTAL HIGH HAZARD AREAS.' And Code Sec. 9-10 closes the loop by DEFINITION: 'In the City of Mary Esther, ALL SPECIAL FLOOD HAZARD AREAS, INCLUDING ZONE A/AE, ARE DESIGNATED COASTAL HIGH HAZARD AREAS.' *** Sec. 5-26 and 5-27 also modify the FBC definition of substantial improvement to a FIVE-YEAR CUMULATIVE test (see q45/q47 context). Outside flood there are no local technical amendments to the building, residential or electrical codes at all. *** WHAT THE AMENDMENTS ACTUALLY BITE ON, FROM THE FEMA NFHL CLIPPED TO THE CENSUS PLACE POLYGON (TIGERweb Places layer 4, GEOID 1243375, 2 rings, 937 vertices): 30 features, DFIRM 12091C. AE at BFE 9 ft (x8), 10 ft (x2) and 11 ft; VE at BFE 11, 12 and 13 ft; ONE Zone A polygon with NO BFE (STATIC_BFE -9999); X shaded 0.2% annual chance (x14) and X minimal (x1). AND I SAMPLED POINTS RATHER THAN COUNTING POLYGONS, as the method file now requires: 41 interior points on a 60x60 grid returned 41 Zone X (40 minimal, 1 shaded) and ZERO SFHA; a separate 20-point sample of the southernmost interior band returned 6 AE (BFE 9-11) and 1 VE (BFE 12) against 13 X. So MARY ESTHER IS NOT MOSTLY SFHA — the AE/VE strip is a narrow Santa Rosa Sound waterfront fringe at the southern edge and the body of the City is Zone X, which is the opposite of what a coastal city and a code that calls every SFHA a coastal high hazard area would lead you to assume. The single unmapped Zone A polygon means the HAG+2 default CAN fire: Code Sec. 9-5(b)(3)b — 'Specify that the base flood elevation is TWO FEET ABOVE THE HIGHEST ADJACENT GRADE at the location of the development, provided there is no evidence indicating flood depths have been or may be greater than two feet.' *** FREEBOARD: the word is ZERO hits in 1.81 MB and the concept is thin — the only codified elevation add-on is BFE+1 at Sec. 9-11(b)(3)-(4) for accessory structures (flood damage-resistant materials below BFE+1; mechanical, plumbing and electrical elevated to or above BFE+1). There is no BFE+X lowest-floor freeboard; the hardening here took the form of sending every flood parcel to R322.3/ASCE 24 coastal instead. SI/SD TRIGGER, ASKED SEPARATELY AS BRIEFED: 50 percent of market value with NO DOLLAR FLOOR AT ALL — the only two dollar figures in the whole of Chapter 9 are $25 and $100 and neither is a threshold. The ninth authority in this survey with no floor beneath it. And the look-back is a FIVE-YEAR CUMULATIVE window running from 1 April 2019 ('taking place during a five (5) year period, the cumulative cost of which equals or exceeds fifty (50) percent ... the five (5) year period begins on the date of the first improvement or repair of that building or structure subsequent to April 1, 2019'), which is harder than the one-year window found elsewhere. THE 'MORE RESTRICTIVE SHALL GOVERN' DOOR IS OPEN BUT LEADS NOWHERE HERE: Sec. 9-2(e) carries the state model clause ('In the event of a conflict between this chapter and any other ordinance, the more restrictive shall govern'), and I followed it into Land Development Code Article 11 Coastal Management and Conservation — which is water-quality, mitigation, seawalls and illicit discharge, with no elevation standard to conflict. No unrepealed older flood article exists in this code. FIS/FIRM of record: Okaloosa County, Florida and Incorporated Areas, dated 9 March 2021. Floodplain administrator: 'the code enforcement division and planning and zoning director' (Sec. 9-3(a)). 95% · technical amendments (ordinance)
• What is the installation judged against? Florida Building Code 8th Edition (2023) and NEC 2020, reviewed and inspected by E.P. Consultants, Inc. as the City's contracted building official; plus Code Ch. 5 Art. III (Electrical Standards, own inspector, own rough and final wiring inspections, own certificate of approval); plus Code Ch. 9 Flood Prevention and Protection with the Ch. 5 technical amendments that push every flood-hazard parcel to V-zone/ASCE 24 coastal standards; plus the Land Development Code for siting, height above mean sea level, accessory-structure placement and impervious surface. Fire: FFPC 8th Ed. by float, but one- and two-family residential is EXEMPT from fire plan review and inspection under Code Sec. 8-10(a), so no fire authority sees a house PV job. BOUNDED LIMIT, SAID PLAINLY: I could not enumerate EPCI's own review checklist or standards — the firm is named by the City but publishes nothing through the City, and the City publishes permit guides only for Fence, Marine Applications and Parking Lot. 90% · ordinance set

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? No local ridge setback or access pathway rule, and no fire authority looks at a house here. Code Sec. 8-10(a): 'The fire department shall perform a building plan review and inspection, for fire and life safety code compliance of all new buildings and renovations to buildings, EXCEPT FOR ONE- AND TWO-FAMILY RESIDENTIAL USE BUILDINGS.' Sec. 8-9(h) exempts one- and two-family residences from the section's permits entirely except fumigation and thermal fogging. The City's permits page confirms that only COMMERCIAL plans are routed to the Ocean City-Wright Fire Control District. So the operative pathway rule is whatever the Florida Fire Prevention Code 8th Ed. carries, applied — if at all — by EPCI during the FBC review. The Fire Control District's own site publishes nothing on solar: 'solar' 0 hits and 'photovoltaic' 0 hits across its Inspections, Fire Prevention & Inspections and Plan Review pages. 68% · ordinance exemption + district site

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 required by NEC 2020 Art. 690.12, which is in force through the FBC 8th Edition; there is NO local restatement, amendment or exemption. 'Rapid shutdown' as a phrase returns 0 hits in 1.81 MB of Code plus Land Development Code, 0 across all 112 crawled City web pages, and 'No results' from the City's own site search when quoted as a phrase (the 7 unquoted hits are OR-matches on 'rapid' and 'shutdown' separately — Hurricane Preparedness, an RFP, a definitions article). The labelling that Art. 690.12 requires therefore comes from the NEC, not from Mary Esther. 85% · proved absence + NEC edition in force

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? The AHJ requires NO placards of its own. The utility does. FPL's Electric Service Standards Section XIII.A.6 'Labeling': 'All labels must be permanent and weatherproof/UV resistant placard with engraved letters. The customer is responsible for all labeling requirements. THE FOLLOWING LABELS MUST BE INSTALLED AT THE INTERCONNECTING METER CAN AND THE DER DISCONNECT SWITCH.' *** THE TIER-SCOPING ARGUMENT, SETTLED AND CARRIED FORWARD RATHER THAN RE-DERIVED: A.4 'Disconnect Switch' is EXPRESSLY tier-scoped ('All tier 2 and tier 3 systems require an FPL approved visually open DER disconnect switch'), and A.6 two items later carries NO tier limit at all. The drafter demonstrably knew how to scope by tier and did not do it in A.6. Every job has an interconnecting meter can, so THE METER-CAN PLACARD REACHES A TIER 1 JOB THAT HAS NO DISCONNECT — only the second limb of the sentence goes vacuous. *** A second placard arises from the tariff: Tier 1 agreement Sec. 5.3 requires, where a disconnect cannot practically sit adjacent to the meter socket, 'a permanent weather-proof plaque adjacent to FPL's meter socket indicating the location of the manual disconnect switch or switches'. Battery storage placard at Sec. XIII.C. Nothing in the Mary Esther Code, the Land Development Code, Resolution 26-09 or the GovWell templates specifies any placard. 82% · utility engineering standard + tariff
• Does the authority specify placard wording of its own? No. The City specifies no placard wording of its own. There is no solar, PV or interconnection labelling provision in the Code, the Land Development Code, the Comprehensive Plan (codified as Appendix B), Resolution 26-09, or any of the 22 GovWell building-permit application templates. Controls on the code corpus: electrical 58, permit 860, building 1,002, fabricated 'zzqqxpv' 0. Controls on 112 crawled City pages: permit 226, building 73, electrical 11, solar 0, photovoltaic 0, fabricated 'zzqqxvbn' 0. 88% · proved absence
• Does it specify letter height, colour or material? Nothing from the AHJ. From the utility: material only, no dimensions and no colour. FPL Electric Service Standards XIII.A.6 specifies 'permanent and weatherproof/UV resistant placard with ENGRAVED LETTERS' and stops there — there is no letter height and no colour requirement anywhere in Section XIII, checked across all three of its labelling paragraphs in the prior first-hand extraction. The must/should split is three-way (A.6 'must', B.6 SGIA and D.g V2X 'should') but all three say the labels 'must be installed'. Mary Esther adds nothing. 85% · utility engineering standard
• Is a site plan / facility map placard required, and what must it show? No local restatement of NEC 705.10. The token was anchored as briefed: '705.10' returns 0 hits in 1.81 MB of Code plus Land Development Code — and note that at the last authority surveyed the same search returned four hits that were ALL Florida Statutes 705.101/705.102 on abandoned-vehicle impound, so the anchoring matters. Mary Esther has no Chapter 705 statutory cross-references at all. NEC 705.10 therefore applies unmodified through the FBC/NEC 2020, and the plan/facility-map placard obligation is the NEC's alone. This is the TENTH consecutive Florida authority with no local restatement; the pattern can fairly be closed. 75% · proved absence + NEC
• Does the UTILITY specify placards beyond the AHJ's? Yes — and here the utility is the ONLY source of placard requirements, because the AHJ has none. FPL Electric Service Standards Sec. XIII.A.6 requires permanent, weatherproof/UV-resistant, engraved-letter labels at the interconnecting meter can and at the DER disconnect switch, with the customer responsible for all labelling. FPL Electric Tariff Section 9, Tier 1 agreement Sec. 5.3 adds a permanent weather-proof plaque adjacent to FPL's meter socket indicating the disconnect's location where the disconnect cannot sit adjacent to the meter. Battery storage labelling sits at Sec. XIII.C. Put the meter-can placard on every Mary Esther plan set. 85% · utility engineering standard + tariff
• Where must the labels be placed? At the interconnecting meter can and at the DER disconnect switch (FPL Electric Service Standards XIII.A.6, verbatim: 'The following labels must be installed at the interconnecting meter can and the DER disconnect switch'). On a Tier 1 inverter-based job with no disconnect, the meter-can location is the one that operates. Where a disconnect exists but cannot be adjacent to the meter socket, tariff Sec. 5.3 puts a locating plaque adjacent to the FPL meter socket. The AHJ specifies no placement of its own. Mary Esther's own electrical article does prescribe one physical tag location for a different purpose: Code Sec. 5-46(b) requires the inspector's disconnection notice to be attached to the wiring, fixture or appliance disconnected, and equipment stays out of service 'until the inspector has attached his certificate of approval in lieu of his prior disconnection notice'. 85% · utility engineering standard + ordinance

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? PER-UTILITY, and FPL's answer for a normal residential job is: NO customer-installed disconnect at all. FPL Electric Tariff Section 9, Tier 1 agreement Sec. 5.1 — 'U.L.1741 Listed, inverter-based Tier 1 customer-owned renewable generation systems do not require a customer-installed manual disconnect switch.' PSC Rule 25-6.065(6)(a), verified verbatim from the adopted text today, makes that exemption MANDATORY: 'Inverter-based Tier 1 customer-owned renewable generation systems shall be exempt from this requirement, unless the manual disconnect switch is installed at the investor-owned utility's expense.' Where one IS required (Tier 1 not UL 1741 inverter-based, or any Tier 2/3), tariff Sec. 5.2 puts it 'mounted separate from, but ADJACENT TO, the FPL meter socket', readily accessible to FPL and 'capable of being locked in the open position with a single FPL utility padlock'. Sec. 5.3 allows relocation where adjacency is impractical, on condition of a permanent weather-proof plaque adjacent to the meter socket giving the switch's location. The AHJ specifies nothing. 90% · utility tariff + PSC rule as adopted
• Must equipment be on a specific approved list? No local approved-equipment list. What operates is the utility's listing condition: FPL Electric Tariff Section 9, Tier 1 agreement Sec. 5.1 — 'U.L.1741 Listed, inverter-based Tier 1 customer-owned renewable generation systems do not require a customer-installed manual disconnect switch' — so UL 1741 listing is what buys the disconnect exemption, and Sec. 5.2 imposes the disconnect on anything Tier 1 that is not UL 1741 inverter-based. PSC Rule 25-6.065(6)(a) makes that exemption mandatory on the investor-owned utility, not discretionary. Mary Esther's Code says only that work shall conform to the NEC (Sec. 5-42) and the FBC (Sec. 5-16); 'listed and labeled' is 0 hits in 1.81 MB. 78% · utility tariff + PSC rule
• Are batteries permitted, and under what conditions? Permitted, with no local conditions whatsoever — Mary Esther has no battery or energy-storage provision of any kind. 'Energy storage' 0 hits and 'battery' 1 hit in 1.81 MB, and that one hit is 'Chapter 794, Florida Statutes (Sexual Battery)' in the adult-use licensing article — the contaminated-term trap, read and discarded. There is no ESS handout, no R328 restatement, no UL 9540 reference, no clearance or barrier rule. What governs is FBC-Residential R328 through the Sec. 5-16 floating adoption, plus the Florida Fire Prevention Code 8th Ed. through Sec. 8-1 — and note that Sec. 8-10(a) exempts one- and two-family residential from fire plan review, so no fire officer will look at a house battery here. Utility side: FPL Electric Service Standards Sec. XIII.C carries the battery storage placard requirement at the meter enclosure. FLOOD OVERLAY, AND IT IS THE REAL CONSTRAINT ON A WALL- OR PAD-MOUNTED BATTERY: see q47. 70% · proved absence + state code
• Is there a separate ESS permit or inspection? No. There is no ESS permit type and no ESS inspection. The City's GovWell Building Permits module carries exactly 22 application templates — Commercial Addition/Alteration, Commercial Change of Use, Commercial New Construction, Commercial Signage, Construction Trailer, Demolition, Final Plat Upload, Fuel Tank Installation, Marine Structure, Residential Accessory Structure, Residential Addition/Alteration, Residential Fence, Residential New Construction, Residential Signage, Survey Upload, Swimming Pool, Telecommunications Equipment, Electrical, Gas Permit, Mechanical/HVAC, Plumbing, Roof — and NONE of them is solar, PV, battery or energy storage. A residential battery would be permitted as an Electrical trade permit under a master building permit, filed under project type 'Other'. Resolution 26-09 has no ESS fee line. 80% · permit portal record-type catalogue
• Is a ground mount treated as a structure? YES, and by three separate routes, none of them a solar rule. (1) ACCESSORY STRUCTURE: LDC 9.06.01 — 'Any number of different accessory structures may be located on a parcel' provided there is a permitted principal development, they 'comply with standards pertaining to the principal use', they are 'NOT ... located in a required buffer, landscape area or minimum building setback area', and they are 'INCLUDED IN ALL CALCULATIONS OF IMPERVIOUS SURFACE AND STORM WATER RUNOFF'. That impervious limb is the commercially relevant one on a 7,500 sq ft minimum lot. (2) FRONT-YARD BAN, REACHED GENERICALLY: LDC Art. 7 district regulations — 'No other accessory structure including fences shall extend forward of the front of the dwelling or encroach into the required front yard.' Low-density residential setbacks are 25 ft front, 7.5 ft side, 20 ft rear, 15 ft to a side street line, and 100 ft from the mean high water line for houses south of U.S. 98. A detached structure of 200 sq ft or more may come to 7.5 ft of side and rear lot lines but must sit at least 70 FT BACK FROM THE FRONT PROPERTY LINE; under 200 sq ft the side/rear distance drops to 3.5 ft. Useful adjacent carve-out: 'Eaves, steps, fire places and COMPRESSORS SLABS shall not be considered as a part of the building' for setback purposes — the nearest published analogue to an inverter or battery pad. (3) FLOOD, AND IT IS THE HARD ONE: the whole of Code Ch. 9 treats every special flood hazard area in the City as a coastal high hazard area, and Sec. 9-17(a) 'Other development' — found by phrase as briefed — requires all development for which no specific provision exists to be anchored against flotation, built of flood damage-resistant materials, and at (a)(5) to 'Have mechanical, plumbing, and electrical systems ABOVE THE DESIGN FLOOD ELEVATION, except that minimum electric service required to address life safety and electric code requirements is permitted below the design flood elevation provided it conforms to the provisions of the electrical part of building code for wet locations.' Note it says DFE and OMITS the FDEM model's 'or meet the requirements of ASCE 24' limb — a small hardening. Sec. 9-11(b)(4) adds BFE+1 for accessory structures' mechanical, plumbing and electrical systems. Sec. 9-5(a)(4) requires new buildings in coastal high hazard areas — i.e. anywhere in the SFHA here — to sit 100 ft landward of the reach of mean high tide. *** NO DAYTIME-GLARE OR REFLECTIVITY INSTRUMENT REACHES A PANEL HERE, AND THE NEAR-MISS IS A NEW SHAPE WORTH RECORDING: THE CONCEPT IS IN THE SOURCE STUDY AND WAS DROPPED FROM THE ADOPTED TEXT. The 2009 Eglin Joint Land Use Study, which the City publishes, recommends at MES 1 'Implement Lighting Ordinance to Avoid Glare AND REFLECTION Within One Mile of the Eglin Boundary', and its own operative sentence reads 'Ground lighting, glare, and/or reflection should not interfere with an aviator's vision or with night vision instrumentation or equipment' — a night-vision framing even in the recommendation. What the City actually ADOPTED, at Comprehensive Plan Policy 7.A.10.1, drops 'reflection' entirely and reaches only 'all ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING EQUIPMENT (FIXTURES)' which must be shielded 'so that all LIGHT EMITTED is projected below a horizontal plane extending from the bottom of the fixture'. FOLLOW THE OPERATIVE NOUN, as the method file requires: the noun is 'lighting equipment (fixtures)' and the verb is 'emitted'. A photovoltaic module reflects; it does not emit and it is not a fixture. The policy cannot reach it. The other nine 'glare' hits in 1.81 MB are all nuisance clauses about an activity's emissions — home-occupation ('noise, vibration, glare, fumes, odors or electrical interference'), industrial performance standards ('noise, vibrations, glare'), and district-purpose recitals — none of which attaches to a reflecting surface. The one place the word 'non-reflective' appears in the whole code is LDC 9.06.02(A)(1)(d): 'The satellite dish antenna shall be of a NON-REFLECTIVE SURFACE MATERIAL and shall be made, to the maximum extent possible, to conform and blend into the surrounding area' — the genitive is the limiter again; it is a rule about dishes. Still no genuine daytime-glare instrument anywhere in this survey. *** 82% · land development code + flood ordinance
• Is there a local rule on service upgrades or busbar sizing? No local rule on service upgrades or busbar sizing — NEC 705.12 governs unmodified. Code Ch. 5 Art. III is eleven short sections and contains no conductor, ampacity or panel provision of any kind; there is no copper-only or minimum-AWG amendment of the sort found at two other Florida authorities. *** AND THE PROOF IS A FORM, NOT A SILENCE: the City's live GovWell ELECTRICAL permit application has a required 'Fixture Information' block asking for Outlets/Receptacles Quantity, Lighting Fixtures Quantity, Switches Quantity, PANELS QUANTITY, Sub-meter Quantity and Total Fixture Quantity — and NO row for PV, inverters, backfeed, interconnection or generation. There is no local instrument capable of expressing a 705.12 calculation, so nobody is going to ask for one at the counter. *** 70% · proved absence + live application template

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? PORTAL. Inspections are requested from the applicant's GovWell account: 'Schedule inspections. Request inspections from your account and get results the same day.' The City's GovWell organisation record has inspectionSchedulingType = 'DateAndTime', so the applicant picks a date AND a time slot rather than a day. Phone and counter remain available for people who need help — 850-243-3566, Customer Service, or City Hall Mon-Fri 8 a.m.-1 p.m. and 2-5 p.m. Code Sec. 5-48 is the codified authority for the inspections themselves but prescribes no booking method. 90% · department page + portal configuration
• Are same-day or AM/PM windows offered? THIRTY-MINUTE APPOINTMENT SLOTS, Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 17:00 — not AM/PM blocks. The City's GovWell inspection availability configuration holds exactly 90 windows: eighteen half-hour slots per day (08:00-08:30 through 16:30-17:00) on each of dayOfWeek 2 through 6, i.e. Monday to Friday. No weekend or out-of-hours windows are configured. The organisation is set to inspectionSchedulingType 'DateAndTime'. One caveat worth carrying: shouldExposeInspectionAvailabilityInformationToPublic is FALSE, so an applicant may not see which slots are free until they are inside the request flow — the windows exist, the visibility of their availability does not. 80% · permit portal configuration

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? DELEGATED, to the City's contracted third-party building official. The permit is the City's, the record is the City's, and the inspection is performed by E.P. CONSULTANTS, INC. (EPCI) staff acting as the City's building official and inspectors — 'Projects requiring a Florida Building Code review are routed by City staff to the City's building official, EPCI', effective 24 August 2026. The City retains 0.80 FTE of its own in Building Services (FY2027 personnel $77,000) against $52,000 of Professional Services, which is the contract. The City's own codified office of electrical inspector (Code Sec. 5-45, appointed by the city manager) is the seat EPCI now fills in practice. Before 24 Aug 2026 inspections were Okaloosa County's. 88% · city news release + budget
• If delegated, to whom? E.P. Consultants, Inc. (EPCI) — building plan review and inspection, residential and commercial, under contract to the City since 24 August 2026. Commercial FIRE plan review only goes to the Ocean City-Wright Fire Control District, 233 Racetrack Rd NE, Fort Walton Beach, inspections@ocwfcd.org, 850-862-1185 option 2; one- and two-family residential is exempt from fire review under Code Sec. 8-10(a). Law enforcement is contracted to the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office. The City retains zoning, floodplain administration and code enforcement in-house. 88% · city news release + department page

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? Codified sequence, electrical side, Code Sec. 5-48: (a) ROUGH WIRING INSPECTION 'after all new wiring authorized by the permit has been installed, and before any such wiring has been covered or concealed or any fixtures or appliances have been attached thereto'; then (b) FINAL WIRING INSPECTION 'after all wiring authorized by the permit has been installed and after all portions thereof which are to be concealed ... have been so concealed and after any fixtures or appliances have been attached thereto'. Building side, Code Sec. 5-19's codified list (1977/1990, superseded on price but not on sequence) runs demucking, footing, slab, framing/dry-in, insulation, final construction. *** THE RESULT SET IS BINARY: the City's GovWell Building Permits module has exactly two inspection results configured, 'Pass' and 'Fail' — no partial, no conditional, no cancelled. *** No PV-specific sequence is published; on a typical roof-mount job with surface conduit the rough-wiring stage has little to bite on, and whether EPCI calls for one is a counter decision. 72% · ordinance + portal configuration
• Is a rough-in or mid-roof inspection required? Yes, on the electrical permit, by ordinance. Code Sec. 5-48(a) makes a rough wiring inspection mandatory 'after all new wiring authorized by the permit has been installed, and BEFORE any such wiring has been covered or concealed or any fixtures or appliances have been attached thereto'. No mid-roof inspection is required or mentioned anywhere. Practical caveat worth flagging to an installer: on a rooftop array with surface-run conduit there may be nothing concealed, so the rough stage can collapse into the final in practice — but the ordinance does not say so and the City publishes no PV inspection sequence. 70% · ordinance

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 inspection checklist. Searched: the Code and Land Development Code (1.81 MB, controls passing); all 112 City web pages reachable from /sitemap.xml (controls: permit 226, inspection 64, fabricated 'zzqqxvbn' 0); the City's Applications, Forms & Fees index, which lists 45 documents and whose only permit guides are Fence Detail, Marine Applications and Parking Lot; and the City's own site search, which indexes DocumentCenter PDFs and returns 'checklist' hits that are a Disaster Supply Kit Checklist, the LDC Article 17 developer checklists (minor/major development, landscape) and pre-application guides. Nothing addresses building or electrical inspection. The nearest published thing is Code Sec. 5-48's two-stage rough/final description. 80% · proved absence
• What must be on site at inspection? The recorded and posted NOTICE OF COMMENCEMENT is the one hard on-site document, and it is required before the FIRST inspection, not at permit issue. From the live application: 'If your direct contract amount is greater than $5,000, a Notice of Commencement must be recorded with the Clerk of Court and POSTED AT THE PROJECT SITE BEFORE THE FIRST INSPECTION. The NOC is not required to be submitted before your permit can be issued, but evidence of the recorded NOC must be provided to the City before the first inspection. If work does not commence within 90 days after the NOC is recorded, the NOC becomes void.' (Chapter 713, Florida Statutes.) A typical residential PV contract clears $5,000, so this applies on most jobs. Beyond that the City publishes no on-site document list; the permit itself is issued electronically to the GovWell account. Where the parcel is in a flood hazard area, Code Sec. 9-6 requires elevation certification at lowest-floor and final stages for FBC-exempt structures. 78% · live application template + Ch. 713 FS

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? For the electrical work: a CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL. Code Sec. 5-49 — 'The inspector shall issue a certificate of approval at the completion of the work for which a permit for consumer wiring has been issued, if after inspection it is found that such work complies with the provisions of this article.' Sec. 5-41 defines it as 'a document or tag issued and/or attached by the inspector to the inspected material, wiring, or appliance installation, filled out together with the date, address of the premises, and signed by the inspector.' *** THAT IS PRECISELY THE DOCUMENT FPL'S TIER 1 AGREEMENT SEC. 3.4 DEMANDS FOR PTO — 'Local Building Code Official inspection and certification ... that the installation was permitted, has been approved, and has met all electrical and mechanical qualifications.' *** For work that needs one, a Certificate of Occupancy is issued electronically to the GovWell account at $40 ('When your project passes final inspection, your Certificate of Occupancy is issued electronically to your account'); a PV alteration on an existing dwelling would not normally generate a CO. A gas certificate exists in parallel at Sec. 5-99. 78% · ordinance + utility tariff
• Who notifies the utility for PTO? THE INSTALLER/CUSTOMER, not the City. FPL's Tier 1 agreement puts the duty on the customer twice over: Sec. 3.4 'The Customer agrees to provide Local Building Code Official inspection and certification of installation', and Sec. 3.5 'The Customer shall notify FPL at least ten (10) calendar days prior to initially placing Customer's equipment and protective apparatus in service and FPL shall have the right to have personnel present on the in-service date.' Nothing in the Mary Esther Code, the Land Development Code, the permits page, the FAQ or any GovWell template says the City notifies the utility — I looked specifically, including at the electrical inspector's duties in Code Sec. 5-46, which go only as far as 'to confer from time to time with representatives of the local health department, the local fire department, and THE ELECTRIC COMPANY'. That is a consultation duty, not a release-of-power notification. Contrast the barrier-island town one coast over whose own PDF says 'FPL will be notified by the Building Department after the inspection passes' — Mary Esther has no such document. 82% · utility tariff + proved municipal absence
• Is there a re-inspection fee? Yes, and it escalates in three steps — but there is NO per-inspection fee on top of the permit. Resolution 26-09, Miscellaneous, Enforcement & Other Fees: Re-Inspection First $75.00; Re-Inspection Second $150.00; Re-Inspection Third and Each Subsequent $250.00 per occurrence. Alongside: 'Failure to Call for Required Inspection $100.00'; 'Special Inspections / Non-Permit Services $100.00 per hour, one (1) hour minimum'; 'Emergency / After-Hours Response $150 Per Hour'; 'Stop Work Order / Enforcement Visit $100 Per Hour'; 'Work Commenced Prior to Permit Issuance: Double the normal permit fee'; Certificate of Occupancy $40, Temporary CO $275, TCO Renewal $150. The codified 1990 schedule at Code Sec. 5-19 and Sec. 5-50 still prints 'Reinspection $5.00' and is dead letter. 95% · fee resolution
• How are corrections issued and cleared? Results are returned to the applicant's GovWell account the same day and the result set is binary — the module has exactly two configured inspection results, 'Pass' and 'Fail'. A failed inspection is cleared by requesting a re-inspection from the same account, at $75 for the first, $150 for the second and $250 for each subsequent one. Enforcement-side correction machinery is codified rather than procedural: Code Sec. 5-46(b) lets the electrical inspector physically disconnect defective wiring, attach a notice stating the reason, and forbids anyone reconnecting 'without authorization by the inspector', with the equipment staying out of service 'until the inspector has attached his certificate of approval in lieu of his prior disconnection notice'. Code Sec. 8-10(i) and LDC 18.05.00 carry stop-work powers. No correction-notice format, re-submittal window or resolution timeframe is published. 70% · department page + portal configuration + ordinance