Franklin County

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, for unincorporated Franklin County only (see jurisdiction block) — the County Building Department is the AHJ for residential rooftop PV there; it is NOT the AHJ inside Apalachicola or Carrabelle city limits, each of which permits independently. 80% · county permit application
• What does this authority permit itself, and what does it delegate? The County permits and inspects Building, Electrical, Plumbing, Mechanical and Roofing itself for unincorporated territory; it delegates nothing to the state or to a private provider by default (a private provider may be hired by the applicant for a 30% fee discount under FS 553.791, which is an applicant option, not a County delegation). It has no jurisdiction at all — not a delegation, a carve-out — inside Apalachicola or Carrabelle. 75% · county ordinance
• Is a permit required for a residential rooftop PV system? Yes. 80% · county permit application
• Is there a separate electrical permit, or is it combined? Separate — a distinct Electrical Permit is required in addition to the Building Permit. 88% · county ordinance
• Is there a historic-district review? No historic-district review under the County's OWN code for unincorporated Franklin County — I found no historic-preservation chapter among the County Code of Ordinances chapters I was able to browse (Ch. 1 through Ch. 15, plus Ch. 6.5 Flood and Ch. 5.5 Buildings). Apalachicola's HEADLINE historic district (one of Florida's largest and oldest, a 19th-century cotton port) is governed entirely by the CITY of Apalachicola's own Land Development Code, not the County's — see the separate note below on Apalachicola's historic review, since that city is where almost all of Franklin's historic building stock sits. 55% · county code table of contents
• Is a wind or windstorm certification required? No single codified county-wide wind-speed minimum was found (unlike neighbouring Gulf County's 140 mph or Calhoun County's 130 mph flat figures). Instead, Code of Ordinances Sec. 5.5-27(d) ties major-structure wind design to 'Ord. No. 2012-03, adopting the 2010 Florida Building Code and Wind Speed Maps' — i.e., the geographically-varying ASCE 7 wind-speed maps incorporated by the Florida Building Code, not a flat number. The County's own New Residential Building Permit Application does require a 'Wind Load Analysis — Engineered' as a submittal item for new construction (general, not solar-specific). 65% · county ordinance

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 holding a State license number (or a licensed contractor operating within their license classification). 70% · county permit application
• Must the contractor be registered with this authority before applying? Yes — the contractor must be registered with the Franklin County Construction Industry Licensing Board. 80% · county ordinance
• Is a homeowner permitted to self-install and self-permit? Likely yes for the building-permit side under the statewide owner-builder exemption (FS 489.103/489.503), implemented via the County's own 'Owner/Builder Affidavit' and 'Owner Builder Packet' forms — but the electrical sub-permit would still need a licensed electrical contractor per Q5/Q6 unless the owner separately qualifies. 55% · county 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 County's own dedicated Solar Panel Permit Application: (1) the completed Application itself, (2) a Schematic/Electrical diagram, (3) a Recorded Notice of Commencement, and (4) a Site Plan — required ONLY 'FOR GROUND SYSTEMS' (i.e., not required for a straightforward rooftop retrofit). 88% · county permit application (solar-specific)
• How many copies, and in what format? No stated copy count; electronic filing is the County's preferred route via its CitizenServe portal, with a paper option available but explicitly slower. 55% · county permit application
• Is a site plan required, and what must it show? A site plan is required only for ground-mounted systems ('SITE PLAN FOR GOURND [sic] SYSTEMS'); the form does not specify what the site plan must show, and no site plan appears to be required for a rooftop-only system. 70% · county permit application (solar-specific)
• Is a one-line / three-line diagram required? Yes — a schematic/electrical diagram is a required attachment. 82% · county permit application (solar-specific)
• Are string and conductor calculations required? Not stated as a discrete requirement; presumably folded into the required 'Schematic/Electrical' submittal, but the County publishes no explicit call-out for string or conductor sizing calculations. 40% · county permit application (solar-specific)

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? CitizenServe — the County's Solar Panel and Electrical Permit Applications point to https://www4.citizenserve.com/Portal/PortalController, while the main county website's 'Public permits search portal' link points to https://www7.citizenserve.com/Portal/PortalController?...installationID=389 — two different CitizenServe subdomains for what appears to be the same underlying system (an inconsistency worth a follow-up check, not resolved this run). 75% · county department page + permit application footers
• Can the whole application be completed online? Likely yes — the County directs applicants to CitizenServe as the faster, preferred route over paper, implying full online application capability, though this was not live-tested to completion. 55% · county permit application
• What does a residential solar permit cost? No dedicated solar fee line exists. A residential PV job most likely falls under either the flat 'ELECTRICAL UPGRADE PERMITS — $100.00' line, or, if not explicitly listed, the catch-all clause 'PERMIT FEES NOT EXPLICITLY LISTED ABOVE SHALL BE BASED ON CONTRACT COST.' 55% · county fee schedule (Board of County Commissioners resolution)
• How is the fee calculated? Contract cost, for anything not explicitly listed on the fee schedule (which includes PV) — or the flat $100 'Electrical Upgrade' fee if the reviewing clerk treats a PV interconnection as a service/electrical upgrade rather than a new, uncategorized item. 50% · county 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? No solar-specific figure is published. The County's New Residential Building Permit Application states a GENERAL turnaround: 'the standard permit processing time is 7-10 business days.' 55% · county permit application (general, not solar-specific)
• How long is an issued permit valid before it expires? One year from date of issuance; construction/work must commence within six months of the issue date. 85% · county permit application
• Which utility handles interconnection here? Most likely Duke Energy Florida, LLC, but NOT established with high confidence. 50% · county site search result (land-exchange agreement, weak corroboration)
• Where does the utility sit in the sequence? State floor (assuming Duke Energy Florida, an investor-owned utility under PSC jurisdiction): the utility will not allow parallel operation until the local AHJ has inspected and approved the system. 50% · Florida Administrative Code rule text (state floor)

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 (effective 31 Dec 2023), notwithstanding that the County's own codified text at Sec. 5.5-11(a) still literally reads 'National Electrical Code of 1987' — because Sec. 5.5-11(c) is a FLOATING-ADOPTION clause: 'Any later edition or amendments of the ... National Electrical Code shall be the Franklin County ... Electrical Code[], including all schedules, references, appendices, etc.' This is a 'fossil base floating forward' pattern, not a genuinely stale 1987 rule. 78% · county ordinance (floating-adoption clause)
• Which building code edition is in force? Florida Building Code, 8th Edition (2023) — again via the Sec. 5.5-11(c) floating-adoption clause, even though the same section's literal codified text at 5.5-11(a) still names 'The 2010 Florida Building Code.' 75% · county ordinance (floating-adoption clause)
• Are there local amendments to any of the above? Yes — Sec. 5.5-13 ('Amendments to the building code') locally amends the Florida Building Code's definition of 'SUBSTANTIAL IMPROVEMENT' (both the general FBC and the FBC-Existing Building volume) to add an explicit historic-structure carve-out from the 50%-cost substantial-improvement trigger. 85% · county ordinance
• What is the installation judged against? The Florida Building Code (floating to the current, 8th Ed./2023) for structural/building work, and the National Electrical Code (floating to the current, 2020) for electrical work, per the Sec. 5.5-11 adoption mechanism described at Q29/Q30. 72% · county ordinance

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.

Nothing recorded for Franklin County on this step yet — 1 question checked and found unpublished. The guidance above is general.

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.

Nothing recorded for Franklin County on this step yet — 1 question checked and found unpublished. The guidance above is general.

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.

Nothing recorded for Franklin County on this step yet — 6 questions checked and found unpublished. The guidance above is general.

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? State floor (assuming Duke Energy Florida, not independently reconfirmed this run): where the utility elects to require a manual AC disconnect switch, it must be mounted separate from, but adjacent to, the meter socket, visible/load-break type and lockable by the utility. Duke's own filed Tier-1 (<=10kW, the typical residential case) tariff sheet — per a prior GovBot utility-only run, carried forward at reduced confidence — makes the Tier-1 disconnect DISCRETIONARY and installed AT DUKE'S OWN EXPENSE if the utility elects to require it, rather than a flat exemption; Tier 2/3 are mandatory at the customer's expense. No County document addresses AC-disconnect placement at all. 48% · Florida Administrative Code rule text (state floor) + carried-forward utility tariff detail
• Must equipment be on a specific approved list? Not stated as a solar-specific requirement anywhere in the County's material. 40% · county permit application (solar-specific)
• Is a ground mount treated as a structure? Possibly — the County's Solar Panel Permit Application requires a site plan specifically 'FOR GROUND SYSTEMS' (not for roof systems), implying the County treats a ground-mounted array as something closer to a sited structure than a simple roof retrofit, but the underlying Franklin County Zoning Code definition of 'structure' (cited elsewhere in the Code of Ordinances at the independent '§220.xx' numbering scheme, e.g. Sec. 5.5-2(c)(2) references 'section 220.23 of the Franklin County Zoning Code') could not be reached — it does not appear inside the Code of Ordinances' own Municode chapters and is very likely a separate, uncodified zoning document. 45% · county permit application (solar-specific), cross-referenced against county ordinance

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, email, or through the applicant's CitizenServe account. 80% · county inspection checklist (general, not solar-specific)

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? Yes — the County Building Department performs its own inspections; no delegation to a third party is stated anywhere. 70% · county ordinance
• If delegated, to whom? N/A — not delegated; see Q52. 65% · county ordinance

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? For new construction generally (NOT solar-specific), the County's own checklist lists, in order: Temporary Power Pole -> Footer -> Slab -> Sheathing -> Framing -> Electrical/Mechanical/Plumbing (Rough) -> Roofing -> Insulation -> Drywall -> Temporary/Permanent Power -> Electrical/Mechanical/Plumbing (Final) -> Final Inspection. A straightforward rooftop-PV retrofit on an existing house would not go through this full new-construction sequence; the County publishes no separate, shorter sequence naming which of these stages a retrofit solar permit actually uses. 55% · county inspection checklist (general, not solar-specific)

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? Yes — a general 'New Construction Requirements' inspection checklist is published (Word document), though it is not solar-specific. 80% · county inspection checklist (general, not solar-specific)

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 new construction, a Certificate of Occupancy — the County publishes a 'Final Inspection and CO Request Form' with its own checklist of required attachments. For a stand-alone electrical/solar permit not tied to new construction, no document states what is issued on a passed final inspection (likely just a passed/closed permit record in CitizenServe, but this is not confirmed). 50% · county form (general, not solar-specific)
• Who notifies the utility for PTO? The customer/installer, per the state floor — not the AHJ. 50% · Florida Administrative Code rule text (state floor)
• Is there a re-inspection fee? A per-job 'inspection fine' (functionally a re-inspection fee) applies if the site is called in but not ready: $50 first offense, $100 second offense, $200 third offense plus the inspection is delayed two weeks. 85% · county fee/fine resolution (OCR'd, canvas-only PDF)